Take three blackcurrant bushes, a toddler and a woman with that slightly maniacal ‘I’m going to do something FUN with the kids today’ enthusiasm that is best acted on in the morning before it wilts to ‘Let’s see who’s playing at Wimbledon’ apathy by midday.
I’ve never considered myself the sort of person who would make my own ice lollies. God forbid. But then I had children. It’s weird how little projects like this become feasible when you’re trying to entertain a two and a half year old who will otherwise launch himself off a large garden beanbag onto a willow obelisk.
My three extremely scrubby blackcurrant bushes, planted in a dry, shady and overcrowded part of the garden, have always been a bit of a disaster. Their annual crop would fit in a shoe. But luckily, that’s all you need to make five ice lollies. Lakeland provided the moulds, and this recipe seemed adequately idiot-proof.
So we picked them…
Then simmered them for a bit with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice…
Poured them into the moulds…
And then realised they didn’t fit in the freezer…
But they did fit in my neighbour’s freezer.
Four hours later and small child is transported to blackcurrant lolly heaven.
Obviously I ate the other four.