Harvest brose

I’ve been looking back to what I was writing about last year on this very day… a recipe it seems, from Scotland:

Living in a country area we see a lot of agricultural traffic on our roads. Al sorts of different crops, and creatures are farmed her and the big boom recently is apples. Thanks to the popularity of cider, our local cider farms need more fruit so many fields which were formally for other crops have become orchards. It’s wonderful in spring to drive through the countryside and see fields of pink and white blossom, and then once the apples have formed and ripened to see the same fields full of trees bearing brilliant scarlet and crimson fruit!

I came across a recipe for harvest brose – it’s Scottish but I am sure there are Somerset equivalents:

try this for a cooling drink after gardening or harvesting. The oatmeal should give strength. Two teaspoons of whiskey in each glass will make this drink more stimulating.

Harvest brose

• 2 oz fine oatmeal
• 3 oz sugar
• juice of ½ lemon
• pinch of ground ginger
• 2 pints boiling water
• 2 tsp whiskey per person (or to taste!!)

1. put oatmeal, sugar, lemon, ginger into pan, add boiling water and boil for 3 mins
2. strain and cool
3. add whiskey
4. drink hot or cool, chill and drink