Goldener Herbst

We have such a mild autumn, glorious sunny days. I love how the German words implied how wonderful autumn can be. Goldener Herbst literally means Golden Autumn. Which sunny and dry autumn really is. Trees are colourful, golden leaves on the ground, so many autumn products to be enjoyed. We spent a lot of time outdoor nowadays, Fitzie walks now so we brought her along to pick wild chestnuts

and wild mushroom in the Wood. 

All wonderful autumn's activities that I've missed last year.

We've picked chanterelles, porcini and Bovist and cooked them in various ways.

Our favourite is definitely porcinis. Bovist is a tasteless Styropor, chanterelles have such a earthy smells and taste spicy. Whereas porcini is smooth, has a firm bite and so fleshy. If only the sell Porcinis in supermarket then we won't need to wake super early on sunday morning.

Have a great autumn you guys

love
Mel and Fitzie

Cherries at Obsthof Schröder

Hubby and me love cherries. Every year we waited patiently for summer and once the cherries hit the market, we drive to Altes Land - a suburb area of Hamburg, where the orchards are located. Usually we bought our cherries in a small shop called Im Apfelgarten. Last year we drive a bit farther away and found another orchard which offer cherries for picking. We were so excited and brought 6 months old Fitzie there. Fitzie just sat in her buggy and probably suffered from the heat. While we, the parents, ate and enjoyed cherries. 

This year we visit them again and Fitzie can walk around and even picked the cherries herself. She ate so much cherries that we were afraid her tummy will burst. Okay that's a joke but really her tummy was so firm and all my friends were astonish that she can eat continuously like that. 

Right the cherries, here they are; Ripe and plump, ready to be picked. 

Here's the yield of the day. We picked 12 kg of Cherries. There were five of us and we divided them equally at the end of the day. If you are curios how my foot looks like. the foot on top in a black canvas shoe is actually mine. 

The white bucket with the black cherries is the species called valeska. Very dark, very sweet and intense. 

Underneath them are Knupper Cherries which are lighter in colour, sweet with a hint of sourness, very fresh and have firm flesh. Needless to say our favourite type. Therefore four buckets full of these Cherries. 

The owner of this orchard. Herr Schröder and his family are very kind and friendly. If you visit with children, he kindly saw branches for the children so that the kiddies do not need to climb the ladder. You see, cherry trees can be quite high. And he always kindly invite his guests to snack on the cherries. He says don't just pick the cherries, you need to taste them too. And in the end, when we went out to weigh the cherries, they always give some extras, we actually picked 11,8kg but they just ignore the 800gr and ask us to pay 11kg. 

Their rustic and small shop is also so cute. They sell the freshest and most delicious apple juice ever and they also bake cakes and German sour dough bread directly in the shop in an old wood oven. You can imagine how heavenly their shop smells. They also sell jams, wines and various organic veggies from their garden. I bought a giant cucumber for 1 euro and a bucket of fresh summer potatoes for 3 euro. They are exactly my perfect family out of my childhood Enid Blyton's books. So if you are in Hamburg Area and want to find an idyllic getaway. This is the ideal place. 

Obsthof Schröder
Hinterbrack 6
21635 Jork

Organic veggie box from Bio Hoflieferant

My daughter, Fitzie, started her solid last summer. Since then I ordered an organic veggie box to cook her solid food. I'm very satisfied with the boxes, the veggies are fresh sometimes the carrots are delivered with some dirts too. Once I even had romaine lettuce plus a worm. Hubby told me surely sign of no pesticides and we even got some extra protein :)

Here are some of the examples of the boxes that Bio Hoflieferant sent. They are mostly regional vegetables so I got a lot of carrots, various type of cabbage. But there're some exotic stuffs that I've never seen in the supermarket too like colorful swiss chard, may turnip, purple carrots. Stuffs that you only get when you go to farmer's market. But these are delivered directly to your doorstep. One small box costs €10 and I cook Fitzie's 2 weeks food ration with it and there're always leftover for hubby and me. 

See the colorful swiss chard down there. It's surprisingly sweet and pleasant to the eye. And of course Fitzie loved it.

Here're box with some fresh fruits too.

Some extra herb for summer day too.

In case you want to order organic box and you have no idea where you can get it. I can recommend the boxes from Bio Hoflieferant. This is not a sponsored post and I'm not even paid for this. But I just want to highlight how wonderful fresh vegetables can be. And I can't stop myself taking pictures of colorful veggies.

www.bio-hoflieferant.de

Fresh Cherries from tree

At last it's a hot and humid summer in Hamburg. The temperature has been hitting 30°C the whole week. There are days when I felt that it is indeed too much. On the other hand it's time for all the juicy summer products, salads and picking cherries, strawberries, raspberries or all other berries available for picking. 

My husband and me picked Valeska and Knupper cherries from an farm at Altes Land. the farm or orchard is called Obsthof Schröder. Their cherries are ripe and ready for picking. Moreover it's so cheap too. 1 kg of class A cherry cost 3 Euro, In supermarket you need to pay 6 - 7 euro for cherries from Turkey. So if you are wondering, what are you going to do this or next weekend, go to Altes Land and pick your own cherries. If you see an Asian family busy picking and stuffing our mouth with cherries don't forget to say hi to me. You see, my husband is so excited about cherries that he decided we need more. 

Without much ado, here are the pictures of the cherries still hanging on the tree

Valeska Cherries 

Cherries

yield of the day