Hot cross buns in the time of lockdown

Posted on April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 by carlotta

Hot cross buns in the time of lockdown

Having endless and unstructured time during our coronavirus lockdown is a challenge for me. One of the things that helps me get through the day is taking on the demands and rhythms of making sourdough bread. With lots of time, no yeast, and four people to feed, it seemed an obvious step, although success with sourdough had always eluded me in the past. Checking on my rising dough is now what gets me out of bed in the morning, as I tweak and change my methods daily in the quest for the perfect loaf.

With Easter weekend approaching, the obvious next step was to rise to the challenge of sourdough hot cross buns (no pun intended). Patience is needed for this, as the slow proving time means they take about 24 hours to make. But hey, time is the one thing that we currently have in abundance. So here are our hot cross buns, still warm from the oven, in the soft April evening light, accompanied by a jar of forget-me-nots from the garden. Wishing you all a safe and healthy Easter bank holiday weekend. (In case you were wondering, and I know I am probably biased, but they were delicious!)

More of my residential and interiors photos can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2017June 1, 2018 by photograph

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. For those of you who are not familiar with the holiday, it has a very simple premise: to spend the day and share a meal with people you love. To this, you can choose to add special food (traditionally roast turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie…), and some time to appreciate what you have and those you love. And that’s about it. So eat up and enjoy the day.

Last year I spent Thanksgiving on Cape Cod, close to where the Pilgrims first landed (the holiday commemorates their first harvest), and home to abundant wild cranberry bogs. Photos of this beautiful landscape in autumn can be found here.

Photographs of local food producers in Sussex can be found here.

2017 harvest at Breaky Bottom

Posted on October 19, 2017June 1, 2018 by photograph

2017 harvest at Breaky Bottom

Several years ago I worked on a project photographing local food producers around the South Downs area. I really enjoyed the subject matter and was pleased to return to it last weekend when I went to Breaky Bottom Winery to help with the final harvest of the season.

You couldn’t find a more idyllic setting for a vineyard, nestled into a small valley (or

‘bottom’) in the middle of the South Downs, just a few miles from Lewes. In contrast to the pastoral rolling hills, and sheep wandering amongst the grape vines, the ancient barn is fitted out with large metal containers. I always love the chance to photograph people working with shiny industrial equipment. This is Peter Hall, the owner, cleaning the inside of the pressing machine before the last grapes of the 2017 harvest are placed inside. More photographs from this shoot can be found here.

Thanksgiving turkey

Posted on November 23, 2016September 25, 2018 by photograph

Thanksgiving turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to us all. If you have never celebrated Thanksgiving, or are not really sure what it means, here it is in a nutshell: a day to spend time and share a meal with people you love. As simple as that. It also helps the proceedings to have some specific food such as turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberries in some form or other. With all that is going on in the world right now, I am feeling very appreciative of this holiday.

This colourful, and sort of strange-looking, turkey comes from a nearby farm called Townings that I photographed as part of a project on local food producers.

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Category: food