A rhubarb kind of day

Yesterday my man and I took the in-laws and the twins to our latest favourite Berlin spot. I REALLY don't want to tell you about it as it is like a slice of heaven on a summer's day: dappled sunlight, large leafy trees to lounge under, a quaint little laden nearby selling artisan bread, pickles and, strangely enough, home knitted hats that look like giant strawberries. As nobody apart from the odd busload full of botanical enthusiasts seems to have discovered the place yet, we are treating it as our private back garden and go there, babies in tow, oh... about twice a week.

Anyway. It became a rhubarb kind of day. When we arrived, there were babies to be fed, so to the café we went, to grab the last shady table and a slice of rhubarb streusel pie. Not many do streusel like the Germans but this one was particularly nice. Crumbly, quite hard bits of, well, crumble, and a rhubarb slush that wasn't too sweet nor too tart.

My son, with all his six months, had a little flirt with the lady from the laden. I didn't want him to miss this opportunity to practise his winning crooked gummy smile, and really, you can't have too many people drooling over you even at that age, right? So into the laden we went, to have a mosey round. We came out clutching a bit of straw from one of the decorations (son) and a wee bottle of rhubarb cordial (me). I envisioned myself having a few drops in my prosecco one evening very soon.

Then we did the dappled sunlight under the trees bit, while eating a mountain of packed sandwiches. Once back home and out and about in the kiez, we came across a woman who grows vegetables on a farm just outside of Berlin and sells her vegetables in a weekly box type scheme. To advertise her wares she gave us, of all things, two stalks of rhubarb. It wasn't much to work with, but after the streusel experience I was keen to make a crumble. This is the result — the culmination of a very rhubarby day indeed.

Rhubarb, apple and ginger crumble

2 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed and chopped

50 g demerara sugar

2 apples, peeled and chopped

2 pieces of stem ginger, chopped

100 g brown sugar (I used a mix of demerara and palm sugar)

100 g flour

100 g cold butter, diced

50 g oats

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Place the rhubarb and demerara sugar into a saucepan and add a splash of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until softened. Put the butter, brown sugar, flour and oats into a bowl and quickly rub together until you have a crumbly topping. Put into the fridge until you need it.

Spread the apples in an even layer into an oven dish. Mix the ginger with the rhubarb and spoon it sort of evenly over the apples. Top with the crumble mixture. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until browned and bubbling. Serve in bowls with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some (unwhipped) cream.

Späth-Arboretum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Späthstraße 80/81, 12437 Berlin, website