Showing posts with label Foraging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foraging. Show all posts

16 Aug 2023

Back in the kitchen with foraged Elderberries

 


Can it be that time of year again already? I'm just finishing off my summer batch of elderflower cordial and yesterday, as I walked home, I saw that my favourite spot for collecting the elder tree's bounty was positively dripping with ripe elder berries.  

I'm sure a lot of people would either not notice this beautiful spectacle or might think "lovely" and pass on by.  But not me.  I paused to 'see something of the beauty of nature' (to quote John Mortimer) then dashed home to fetch a bucket and secateurs.  

Of course I left plenty for birds and other wildlife and, believe me, they'll have those berries stripped to the stalk in days. 

So my berries are now washed clean of bugs and dirt and frozen ready for pies, jam and syrup.  Why freeze? The berries don't last long in the fridge so freezing is an excellent way of preserving them until needed.  Also, the berries pop off the stalks more easily when frozen, which is a better option than squishing them and getting purple fingers (and clothes!).  

I simply laid them out flat on several baking sheets and popped them in the freezer overnight. De-stemmed them in the morning then bagged them up, and returned the berries to the freezer. It can be a time consuming (or shall we say, meditative) process so quite a few went into the freezer still on the stem. That's okay as I'll discard the stems when I have more time.

It's worth noting that while the flowers are edible, the raw berries are toxic, as is the rest of the plant.  But the good news is that cooking the berries destroys the toxins making them a useful addition to all sorts of recipes.  

Me, I'm starting with Elderberry Syrup.  I've found a recipe on The Spruce Eats, an American site, which sounds rather like the warming winter tincture I usually buy to boost my immune system during the colder months.  In that recipe the berries are cooked, mashed, strained and then lightly spiced with honey, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and lemon. Sounds delicious.  (Find that recipe here if interested.)




17 May 2015

In search of elders



It's that time of year again when the race is on to see who can get to the elderflowers first. I spotted promising looking buds three days ago so, waking up ridiculously early yesterday, I instantly put foraging at the top of the day's agenda. I suspected there would only be a few flower heads but I was on the Heath by 7.00 a.m., just me and a few lone runners jogging past.

I knew where I needed to go but couldn't resist the opportunity to dawdle in magical green glades, creep under branches in secret copses to get close to banks of bluebells, be thankful for logs laid to pinpoint the muddy ditch beyond and listen to the early morning birdsong of a little coal tit, no doubt alerting his pals to the approaching human! I saw lichen on ancient trees, wild forget-me-nots and red campion, buttercups and ferns. I even found a good thick stick shaped like a slingshot. That went into my bag and got passed to a friend's young son on the way home. He was thrilled. So was I. He's such a boy.



Wandering back in the direction of home, my sylvan idyll was gradually dispelled by the massed puffing of running clubs, ladies chatting while jogging together (men seem to be lone huffers and puffers) and lots of people out with their dogs. I'd gathered over 20 large elderflower heads and was now hungry for breakfast. Thoughts of freshly baked bread and the Heath Farmer's Market crept into my head. And - as luck would have it! - the Harrington Scheme (a local project providing gardening training for disabled youth) were selling lovely organic plants on the neighbouring stall to the bread. All in a good cause, 6 sweetcorn, some purple sage and some lime Nicotiana came home with me. All in all, a bit of a top-hole morning.

So, how to identify elderflowers?  Here are some pics.

Spot the difference! Bottom right is NOT elderflower - look at the leaves!


Paired mid-green leaves with serrated edges. Umbels of green buds open to tiny white flowers. Distinct scent from open flowers.

Back at home I quickly got on with making my first batch of elderflower cordial. I've had a tiny delicious taste this morning but I'll leave it until tomorrow evening as I have garden planting to do today and Chelsea Flower Show tomorrow.  Life is sweet.



The recipe I use is an adaption from Sarah Raven's recipe (link under name) in that I use less sugar and then substitute slightly healthier alternatives. I really like the addition of oranges and lime rather than using just lemons. I don't use citric acid because, in my neck of the woods, no-one sells it. There's a story that it's used to cut cocaine but that's not something this innocent lass is ever likely to prove.

Here's my version:

1.5 litres water
1 kg sugar (I used 500g organic granulated, 250g coconut palm sugar, 250g Xylitol)
2 lemons
1 large orange (or 2 smaller ones)
1 lime

Put water and sugar in a saucepan.  Heat very gently until sugar completely dissolved, stirring occasionally to check. Once dissolved, bring to the boil and take off the heat.

Zest and thinly slice the citrus fruit. Put into a large bowl. Add the elderflowers. I usually check the flowers by turning them upside down, giving a gentle shake, check for insects, then cut most of the stems off leaving a half inch behind the flowers. Don't wash the flowers, the fragrance will disappear.

Pour the hot syrup over the fruit and flowers. Give it a stir round, lightly cover (a tea towel or pot lid will do) and leave to infuse for 24 to 48 hours.  When time's up, strain through muslin or a jelly strainer into a jug and pour through a funnel into clean sterilised bottles.  Store it in the fridge or decant into plastic bottles and put in the freezer where it will keep for several months.









31 Aug 2014

Edible urban: Foraging / preserving the taste of summer



City fruit. There's a surprising amount of it about on trees and shrubs in the street, parks, gardens and abandoned areas, just waiting to be turned into jams, jellies, sauces, chutneys and wine. Living near Hampstead Heath, I can also add woodlands and hedgerows to that list.  Autumn abundance seems to have arrived early this year; masses of rowan berries, rose hips and haws are ripening in the streets. Large juicy blackberries lurked (past tense, the children have surprisingly long arms!) just out of reach on the nearby railway line and I was almost caught on the hop with elderberries.

I love the slightly exotic look of elderberries: red stems and glossy black fruits, they are the Morticia Adams of the hedgerow. Toxic (as in severe tummy upset) when raw but delicious and edible when cooked into cordials, jams and wine. I was after a few to make some elderberry cordial. I swear the berries weren't ripe a couple of weeks ago but suddenly I was seeing stems stripped bare. Time to start picking if I wanted some!

Last Sunday's weather was good but forecast to change within the next 24 hours so, tucking a couple of carrier bags into my pockets and my camera over my shoulder, I headed off towards the heath hedgerows.  There weren't that many elderberries to be had (I had about 300g of berries after de-stemming and picking out the green ones) but I found a long row of blackthorn bushes covered with sloes, loads of bramble berries and the motherlode of rose hips. Perfect for a Hedgerow Jelly.


The rule for hedgerow jelly is to gather only-just-ripe fruit on a dry day. Make the jam straightaway or freeze the fruit until needed. Use any mix of the fruit you find (sloes, hips, haws, bullaces, damsons, berries) and match it 50:50 with sharp apples (cooking or crab apples).  Soft fruit usually have low levels of pectin and acid, apples have high levels so the apples are needed to ensure a good set.

Back at home my gathered fruit was lightly rinsed (drop of vinegar added) and dried - I like to know that there are no critters lurking. (And there were. We're dealing with nature here. There will be life, lots of it, in the hedgerows. Some people may not like that.) Blackberries were picked over for any insects and grubs, elderberries were taken off the stalks and green berries discarded, rose hips were topped, tailed and then blitzed whole in a food processor. This gave me around a kilo of fruit which I matched with another kilo of cooking apples. Crab apples would have been my first choice but I was unable to find any … for now. Apparently crab apples add a lovely rosy glow to a jelly, something I'd like to see.

After adding water and stewing the fruit to draw out the pectin and juices, I popped the fruit into my new jelly bag to strain overnight. Previously I've faffed about with muslin cloths and ingenious methods of suspending the fruit over a bowl; a tiny accident put a stop to that - it involved some rosehips, a cloth suspended on high, a bowl filled with juice and a plank of wood over the bath followed by a bit of redecorating.  This jelly bag, for me, is progress.

I had about 1.5 litres of juice the following morning. I thought it was delicious at this stage, if ever so slightly tart. But, onwards. Into the pan it went, brought to the boil, sugar added (not quite as much as the recipe suggested) and brought to a rolling boil until setting point (104 C) was reached. I don't trust the cold saucer test so have a cook's thermometer.  About 15 minutes later (using that time to sterilise the jars and lids), I had jelly, of sorts. It still looked very liquid when I poured it into the jars despite the required temperature being reached. Oh well, I thought, it can be reboiled to thicken if needed. And, actually, as it cooled, it set. A bit on the soft side, but I quite like that. We live and learn.



A bit more:
1, I wish I'd put even less sugar in the jam but then, would it have set? Would there be less flavour? I need to better understand the science behind jam making.
2, I was able to blitz my rosehips, seeds and all, because the fruit was being strained so the pips and their surrounding hairs were filtered out. The hairs are an extreme irritant, used in making itching powder!
3, Try to use fruit growing away from the road for less of those kerbside fumes.
4, I'm convinced that jam making, like baking bread and cakes, fulfils some deeply subliminal primeval urge. Despite there being absolutely no need whatsoever to make my own preserves, there is something so satisfying in the process.
5, I haven't gone Polaroid-mad, I've been amusing myself with an app that makes photos look like polaroids. Useful for cards, labels, recipes, etc. Find Pola (for Mac) here.

Finally (hurrah!), passing on some useful information. I've found a brilliant website for preserving, Rosie Makes Jam.  Rosemary Jameson founder of the Guild of Jam Makers, has a plethora of inspiring recipes on her site (Beetroot and Elderberry chutney, anyone?) and links to her shop where she sells jars, etc. My favourite is the ingredient calculator that converts the recipe to the amounts available. Invaluable.




8 Nov 2012

Sloe and Hippy: Take a walk on the wild side

Rose hips

Putting aside my liking for the songs of Lou Reed (amazing how these things resurface when needed!), I promised the results of my trial of Rosehip Jelly and will throw in my Rosehip Syrup for good measure.  I'm finding both invaluable at the moment for warding off colds and winter ailments as rosehips are believed to contain considerably more vitamin C than just about any other food you can think of.

I've made rosehip cordial before but not jam/jelly.  I found it quite confusing sorting out the ratios of hips to apples and sugar; it seemed that every recipe I found called for something different. The recipe that first got my attention was in the October issue of 'Grow Your Own' mag. They call it Rosehip Jam and use twice the weight of rosehips to apples plus lemon juice.  Apples are needed for their pectin to get a good set.

I also had a day out at RHS Wisley (wonderful, wonderful); a quick look in a foragers' recipe book there contrarily recommended using twice the amount of apples to rosehips!  Across a range of recipes, sugar quantities varied, as did method. I discovered that the Wisley recipe was the same as one used by the Women's Institute and so plumped for that one.

Rosehip Jelly and Cordial
- Rosehip Jelly and Cordial -
Reading the method might put a few folk off but it's really not too tricky. It was hard trying to discover how much of the hip to chop off before pulping.  I settled on making the effort to wash, top and tail every hip, taking off just the very tips and being careful when removing the thorny stalks. Seeds are left in and the hips are ready for whichever recipe is being used.  By cutting the hips, vitamin C starts to be lost so it's important to process the hips quite soon after picking.

A large saucepan will do just as well as a preserving pan - I use a 4 litre stockpot - but it must not be  iron or aluminium as this will destroy the vitamin C and turn the hips black! I also don't have a jelly straining bag; instead I use muslin squares but a tea towel would do as well, as long as they're washed and ironed well to sterilise the cloth.  Jars can be sterilised by washing and put straight into a warm oven (150C) to dry for about 20 minutes, the lids should be boiled for about 5 minutes.

I strain the boiled pulp by placing a muslin cloth in a large sieve, pouring the pulp in, then gathering up the corners and tying them firmly through the handle of one of my wall kitchen cupboards in order to raise it above the bowl underneath. This is then left to drip for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Various recipes advise not to squeeze the pulp bag to extract the last bit of juice as this makes the jelly cloudy.  Well, I couldn't help myself as I don't like waste and my juice cleared when I added the sugar at the jam making stage so I wouldn't worry about that!

It might seem a faff but it's easily done in an evening and you have a delicious jelly that can't be bought in the shops!  Rosehips have a very subtle flavour and the finished jelly is delicious on toast.

Here's the WI recipe I used:

500grams of prepared rosehips
1kg unpeeled cooking apples
1lb of granulated sugar for every 1 pint of juice (or 450g to every 560ml)

Chop the apples and put in the pan, seeds and skin included. Add the topped and tailed rosehips. Cover with water so that the apples are just floating, bring to the boil and simmer until the rosehips are soft. (This can take anything up to an hour and quarter.) Stir occasionally and squish down with a potato masher to help break up the hips.

Strain the pulp through a muslin cloth into a bowl, leaving to drip for at least a couple of hours. Gently squeezing the bag at the end will probably release quite a bit more juice!

Carefully untie the bag and throw the pulp into the compost.  Pour the juice into a jug to measure it.  Work out how much sugar should be added (see ingredients). Put sugar and juice into a pan and heat gently to let the sugar dissolve completely. Bring to the boil and leave on a rolling boil (like jam) until a set is reached.  This is likely to be around 15 to 25 minutes.

Test on a cold saucer (put a couple in the freezer before boiling up the juice) by putting a teaspoonful onto the cold saucer, leave for 2 minutes and run your finger or a spoon through the jam. If it wrinkles slightly, the jelly is at setting point; if not, continue boiling for another 5 minutes and test again.

Skim the mixture and pot up into the jars as soon as ready. Carefully (so's not to burn fingers) put the lids on and they will seal tight while the jelly is setting. Leave to cool before labelling. The jelly will last unopened for several months or for a few weeks once opened.  I had 2 small jars and one jam jar from this recipe.

The 'Grow Your Own' recipe calls for the following ingredients, using the same method:
900g Rosehips, 450g apples (or 600ml apple juice), Juice of 2 lemons, water, sugar.
The lemon juice is added to the strained juice; 350g sugar is added for every 600ml of juice.

If you'd rather make Rosehip Cordial for adding to drinks (1part cordial to 5 parts water) or ice-cream, it's practically the same method, without the apples.  Here's how:

Take 1 kg of rosehips, remove stalks and toss into a food processor. Chop briefly. Add hips to a pan containing 2½ pints water. Bring to the boil and boil, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Strain through muslin (as before) for at least 2 hours. Reserve the juice and add the pulp to the remaining 2 pints of water. Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes. Strain through muslin. Put all the juice into a clean pan, add 1lb of sugar and heat gently until sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes before decanting to warm, sterilised bottles.

Sloes
- Sloes, growing in the Heath hedgerows in September; now all gone -
And the "Sloe" in the post title?  Well, I've just read of a quick method of producing Sloe Gin in time for the winter festivities, providing your hedgerows still have any sloes (mine don't).  Follow this link to Vergette Gardens who has discovered a vintage handwritten recipe in an old gardening book which, in my opinion, gives it an excellent provenance!

My own sloes were picked and washed at the beginning of September, put into the freezer to emulate several frosty, skin softening nights, then pricked and put in a Kilner jar. Sugar was added until it came half way up the fruit then vodka poured in until the jar was full. Sealed and put into a dark cupboard, I give it a little shake about once a week.  It should be ready by December but will improve on keeping. Nigel Slate recommends adding a splash to your cooking; for example, apple and plum crumble or even gravy it perked up with this.  On the other hand, you can always just drink it!

Rosehip cordial and Sloe vodka
Rosehip Cordial and Sloe Vodka made mid-September 2012

11 Oct 2010

A-Foraging we will go…

::Book cover image from Amazon::

What bliss, I've actually won a giveaway!  I can't begin to tell how thrilled I was yesterday morning to learn that my name was plucked from the wellie boot as the lucky recipient of this book: Collins Gem - Food For Free  (The last prize I won was a Cliff Richard single from a packet of Smiths Crisps when I was 8. This one's been a long time coming.) The book was given away by Damien who writes over on Two Chances Veg Plot and is a very active member of the UK Veg Gardeners network as well as introducing his young family to the delights of foraging earlier this autumn.

I love the idea of wild food from nature.  Wonderful word, foraging. When applied to people, rather than - in its original usage - animals, what a fine concept this is for 21st century self-sufficient(ish) living and becoming reconnected to the earth around us. It's old Middle English used from the 14th century to refer to cattle wandering the land, grazing for fodder or food – forage being both (verb) the act of searching and (noun) the food itself.  Obviously I've been in touch with my Inner Cow for some time as I love to munch as I walk.

It would be somewhat impractical to totally embrace hedgerow eating but I feel such a townie by having no idea what I'm looking at when out on the Heath or further afield in the countryside or coast. I'm in awe of people who return from a walk with armfuls of elderberries, sloes, rose hips and wild mushrooms. This book, I'm hoping, will help me to swell their ranks.  In my Cornish childhood, my father would take all four of us out walking the airfields in the early morning mists to gather large field mushrooms for breakfast - an awesome experience, akin to treasure hunting, and such fun.  Expeditions like this and other nature walks full of shared knowledge were, I'm sure, partly responsible for a lifelong love of being outdoors and fostered a healthy sense of curiosity and adventure.

Children on our estate go mad for the bramble berries that grow over from the railway lines and rush to pick up nuts and berries outdoors ("Can I eat this?").  Now, at last, I'll be able to say with more certainty, Ye-ess or, more probably, No!

Expect more posts about my foraged finds - I did see some very promising red berries on the Heath just the other day! (Although those might end up wired into christmas decorations.)


 (photo © Cico Books/Heini Schneebeli)
P.S. If you haven't already entered the DRAW I started in this post, to win a free copy of 'Decorating Pumpkins and Gourds', there's still time (one week to go!) - and, in case you're wondering, yes I'll post anywhere in the world! 
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...