Spring has well and truly sprung in London. We have two almond trees outside our house and the blossom is amazing at the moment – just look at the picture. Flocks of sparrows have been waking us up for the past week, very early in the morning, whilst they are busy feeding on the feasts the trees provide.
I’m taking the abundant blossom as an indicator of another bumper crop. Last August/ September the almond trees were so full of almonds the crop was amazing. We gathered two buckets of almonds from each tree – which my niece and nephew had an absolute blast collecting. The trees look pretty puny so the crop to tree size ratio is pretty impressive.
We are very lucky to have two almond trees on our doorstep. The almonds collected from the trees have gone in to so many dishes over the past six or seven months: home made almond milk, lemon polenta muffins (upcoming recipes!), pear Pear Frangipane Tart and almonds make a great snack.
The real treat was having fresh almonds: a rare treat. Almonds are just amazing fresh – they are so soft and moist and lighter and more floral in taste. When you compare fresh almonds to the dry, woody, dusty and brittle almonds you have the pleasure of buying you realise how amazing fresh almonds are. I’m pinning my hopes on bountiful blossom being an indicator of a great crop again in late summer!
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