Celebrating the seasons with a delicious stone-fruit crumble

The Great British Autumn is upon us. I am embracing this new season but first I wanted to pause and reflect on what has been and squeeze the last little bit out of summer.

Looking out over the setting sun on the ferry from Portland, Maine to Nova Scotia ... to the tune of "everything ends in praise, shining in your embrace"

I am by nature a maximiser and I was determined to make another batch of stone fruit crumble courtesy of Jamie Oliver before having to wait until next year's harvest. I made it for the first time recently while in Nova Scotia and have been on the hunt for the last of the local nectarines, plums and peaches on my return home. It's been a bit of a juggling act; my nectarines were ripening in the fruit bowl while there were no plums to be found and the peaches were then too hard and flowery, a sign that the season is at its end if not over.

My hopes of getting a variety of peaches, nectarines and plums together had gone up in flames, not even giving cherries a look in at this point. I thought I had struck gold when I spotted some giant white peaches at the local grocers, not quite as giant as the Roald Dahl variety mind you but they were promising. Then suddenly they were 'vrot' - rotten and mouldy. My ballet teacher aptly called for no 'vrot' attitude poses this morning so I duly made some adjustments to my posture and leg angle. I am the only Afrikaans speaker in the class and it's the only Afrikaans word he appears to know- his encouragement was directed at moi, in kindness and jest but yes at moi. Sadly though there was nothing to be done for the 'vrotness' of the beautiful white peaches that had turned.

last of the summer season's saved and captured peaches and plumbs

The first batch of roasted stone-fruit was nectarine-heavy care of Borough market and was devoured before I got to take any photos of the roasted beauties. Over the weekend just gone I managed to save a couple of the recently found white peaches. Thankfully the plums in my fruit-bowl were now ripe enough alongside the oranges that were waiting for me. I spotted some pricey, but fresh and sweet strawberries so I didn't waste another moment and put my apron on.

I didn't need to make the crumble again as I have a few small jars left over from the first batch. It's a fabulous idea for breakfast which completely fits with my philosophy that breakfast and dessert can almost be one and the same.

Any extra crumble makes for marvellous granola; made with oats, dates and coconut- healthy, crunchy and tasty

It's a really easy recipe to follow, it's healthy with no refined or any kind of sugar apart from what the fruit naturally bring to the table.

roasting dish with the roasted fruit

You squeeze the oranges' juice in to a roasting dish, grate the strawberries, add a teaspoon of vanilla paste; a wonderful ingredient that I've been waiting to use. My last vanilla bean pod went in to the first batch and lastly pour in a glug of balsamic vinegar. Pop that in the oven while you halve and slice the fruit as you like, add and roast. Voilà!

Here is the original recipe, courtesy of Jamie Oliver stone fruit crumble

a jar full of flavour for a friend's birthday

This batch ended up being more of a plumb compote- a bit like the one my friend and other namesake James had ready in the fridge on my recent visit and journey home via New York. I'm putting my overnight oats on hold for a few days while I have dessert for breakfast and breakfast for dessert- why not?

#tasteandsee #nutritiousanddelicious #fullofflavour #eatseasonally #shoplocal #stonefruitcrumble #healthyliving #healthylivingiseasy #healthylivingisachoice and it's yummy #tasteseelive #celebratetheseasons