Summer finally arrived in Germany

by Boschek

We didn’t have much of a summer here in central Germany this year. June, July and the beginning of August were cool and rainy. Now in the last week of August it suddenly turned very warm with temperatures into the mid 30s °C. The warm weather is enjoyable, but the humidity also goes up and we find ourselves becoming rather lethargic. Nonetheless, we have been cooking and baking and having fun in the kitchen. Karin made her favourite couscous with vegetables on Saturday. Recipe in the Archive.

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It’s “Zwetchgen” season in Germany. The beautiful, blue damson plums lend themselves perfectly to baking so I made a plum pie. I made up the recipe as I went and put a streusel topping on it and mixed some ground walnuts into the streusel. It was delicious with vanilla ice cream and an iced coffee, or Affogado on a hot Sunday afternoon.

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We made jam out of the rest of the damson plums and it turned out beautifully. We do not use gelling or jam sugar or add pectin, but cook until the thermometer reads 215 °F (108 °C) or “thread stage.” The flavour is far superiour in our experience, to jams made with additional pectin.

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As autumn approaches we will have many new cooking adventures with winter squash, them many winter Brassicas and of course, Thanksgiving dinner.

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