Tipple | Apple Cider Spritz Cocktails

Photography by Rebecca Lewis

Individual cocktail bottles to quench your thirst during a painting picnic!

Makes 6

750ml bottle apple cider
75cl bottle prosecco
1 small lemon, juiced
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 apple, sliced
6 cinnamon sticks

You will need: 6 glass bottles with lids

1 Fill a large jug with one third cider and two thirds prosecco along with the juice of half a lemon and the vanilla extract.

2 Divide between the bottles, adding a cinnamon stick and a slice of apple for extra flavour and garnish.

Bartender’s note: If this cocktail is too strong, try swapping the prosecco for lemonade or the cider for apple juice – or switch both for a refreshing non-alcoholic version, with one third apple juice and two thirds lemonade.

This recipe is from our feature ‘Drawn to Nature’ from our September issue, which is a menu for a gathering with friends to picnic and paint en plein air. Photography is by Rebecca Lewis and recipes and styling by Kay Prestney.

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Day Out | Visit an Invisible Orchard

Illustration by Christina Carpenter

Not all orchards look like a clutch of apple trees. Here’s how to find the secret ones…

All over our villages, towns, and cities, heritage fruits hide in plain sight, revealing clues to human history. Victorians planted damsons near textile towns because their skins yielded a brilliant purple dye. Once chemical dyes took over, these trees were abandoned to the wild hedgerows. Meanwhile, 19th-century navvies tossed fruit pips along canal banks, leaving towpaths lined with wild crab apples and feral pear trees. Rather than filling your tubs with blackberries, spend an afternoon tracking down these lost orchards. Seek out ancient town edges, towpaths, and old estate walls for heirloom fruits hanging heavy over footpaths. Find your local bounty with the urban foraging map Falling Fruit (fallingfruit.org). This global database combines municipal street tree inventories with insights from local foragers. Each pin notes whether a tree is on public land, overhanging a footpath, or requires permission – encouraging conversations, and ensuring ethical foraging.

This blog by Jo Tinsley was taken from our Almanac pages which feature seasonal things to note and notice, plan and do each month.

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Recipe | Blackberry Clafoutis

Traditionally made with cherries, instead this French classic is filled with juicy blackberries and is tasty with a coffee or as a dessert.

Serves 8

400g blackberries, washed
75g flour
100g sugar
3 eggs, beaten
250ml milk
Icing sugar (to serve)

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/ Fan 180C/Gas 6. Grease a baking dish about 25cm diameter (or ovenproof cast-iron frying pan) with butter.

2 Mix the flour and sugar, then make a well in the centre and add the eggs.

3 Gradually incorporate the flour into the eggs from the sides. Slowly add the milk, a little at a time, until you have a smooth, lump-free batter.

4 Pour one-third of the batter into the baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for 5-7 mins. Remove from the oven, add the blackberries on top of the partially-baked batter, and pour over the remaining batter.

5 Return to the oven and bake for a further 35-40 mins, or until the clafoutis is golden brown and puffed up. Serve warm, lukewarm, or cold, dusted with a little icing sugar.

Why berries are good for you

They may be little, but blackberries pack a punch when it comes to nutrition, offering an abundance of fibre, vitamin C, manganese and potassium. They are also great at aiding digestion and helping your gut health, their antioxidants may improve memory and cognitive function, they can help lower cholesterol and stabilise blood sugars as well as boosting immunity and bone health.  

Meanwhile, elderberries, long known for their use relieving cold and flu symptoms, are also rich in antioxidants, are an excellent source of vitamin C and can help reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels. They must be cooked before eating as raw elderberries contain toxic compounds that can cause stomach upsets. 

This clafoutis is just one of the recipes from our September issue feature ‘Berry Nice’ which also includes recipes for Roasted Beetroot, Apple & Blackberry Salad, Chicken with Blackberries & Elderberries, Blackberry Brownies with Elderberry Yogurt and a couple of jams for good measure. The recipes are by Anna Rubingh.

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Playlist | Golden

DJ: Frances Ambler, Illustration: Elizabeth Chung

We make a playlist for each issue of The Simple Things magazine, and this playlist is made to soundtrack our September GOLDEN issue.

You can take a listen here and have a browse of all our playlists here.

Our GOLDEN issue is on sale from 28 August – you can order a copy via picsandink.com