Foraging from Surrey...

Am staying with the parents down in sunny (hah!) Surrey at the moment and couldn't resist the urge to take a bag or two along on the dog walk this afternoon. Well what do you know? Despitethe more temperate nature of the Thames Valley, there were still rosehips *and* blackberries to be had. Even weirder a number of the rosehips were this strange purple-black colour. According to this Danish website these colour hips are just as edible as the scarlet sort and belong to the Burnet or Scotch rose. Well knock me down with a feather - I was having some of those, so I collected all that were still good and made a mental note to try again next year. I wonder what I should amke from my black rose hips?

In other news - one of the other regular dog walkers saw me foraging and pointed out some sloes I'd missed and a hazel/cob nut tree that I was too late for, but might consider checking out next year. She had a good point, perhaps the later season of the Midlands might produce some cob nuts or chestnuts when I go back? She also offered me a glut of crab apples she has at the moment - excellent! My jelly is so delicious I'd love to make some more - what a success. Apparently she has some Medlars in her garden, too. Not quite ripe, yet, but mine when they are - marvellous. I've ehard of these but am not quite sure what to do with them. I have a suspicious they're a quince like fruit, so maybe a jelly or cheese from them?

Finally, as I was leaving the rec, I spotted a few small, orange coloured fruit that looked edible and Medlar-Lady helped me identify them as small, but tasty plums. If I pop back tomorrow when I have a bit more time then I could gather up a few of those and make a delicious plum jam - nothing could be nicer!

Hurrah!

Note to Self

Going away this weekend, then will be away for a few more days visiting my parents, so I boiled up the rosehips and am freezing the juice to make syrup from when I get back. 1 1/2 pints of rosehip juice.

The second straining of crab apple juice got me 3/4 pint.

Will do stuff with them next week!

Crab Apple Jelly, Phase Two

OK, So today is Phase Two of the crab apple jelly making. The pulp has been straining through the bag all night and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in the amount of juice I've managed to collect, plus it seems to be a bit cloudy, which I don't understand, because I didn't touch it once, let alone squeeze the bag as all the recipes instructed me not to.

Still, I've done the work, I've got some juice, I'm going to make jelly from what I've got and try and figure out what's gone wrong, because there is no way that 1 1/2 pints of juice will make the promised 5lbs of jelly.

Perhaps I didn;t cook the fruit enough. It said soft and pulpy, but perhaps it needed to be actual mush. Also, even though the juice has made the whole house smell deliciously sweet and appley it tastes as sour and bitter as aloes - I really hope that adding the sugar makes the difference...
Would it be worth adding more water and boiling up the pulp again to see if more juice can be made?

Exciting Day!

So I made my first foray into jelly making today - very exciting, especially as I've only ever made jams with my mum and we never ventured into the wonderful world of jellies, so doing this on my own was... well, scary, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Right now the pulp is in a jelly bag straining through into a large bowl and tomorrow - the jellifying!

I used the recipe from this amazing cook book that my mum always used for *everything* - The Times Cookery Book by Katie Stewart. When I first moved in with my (now) husband I was determined: I needed that book. It wasn't in print any more, so I went to a second hand book shop and asked them about it. Apparently it was very in demand and they didn;t have any copies available, so they took my number and said they'd call me back. A year later they finally did and for only £30 (THIRTY WHOLE POUNDS) a copy was mine! Hurrah! It tells you everything, from roasts to pies, jams to tarts, puddings to bread - essential.

In other news - hubby and I had our usual strange effect on the natural world and got chosen as rescuers for an animal in trouble. A wee hedgehog was sitting right in the middle of our front lawn today. Every time there was a loud noise it curled in a ball, so we had to do something. Hubby gave it some cat food and put it in a box while I called four different people (whose names I found on a website) to see if there was someone in our area who could take him in. Eventually I contacted Sonya, five minutes away, who was happy to have the little chap. This isn't the first time some lost or broken animal in distress has landed on our doorstep (no mean feat considering that up until 2 months ago we lived up three flights of stairs!). I wonder why the universe keeps choosing us,m it can;t just be coincidence...

Photos below are of my ingenious jelly-straining apparatus (on a table so the cats are less likely to stick their noses in) and a close-up of the apple pulp. The photo on the right is of Sonic the hedgehog (yes, hubby chose the name).

Derive

The derive was first mooted by the loopy bunch of eejits know as the Situationists. In situationist texts, a Dérive is an attempt at analysis of the totality of everyday life, through the passive movement through space. It is translated as drift.[according to wikipedia]. Basically you go for a wander wherever the will takes you, with no set path or direction.

Well, I went for one of these today. Originally I just intended to take a walk around the block. We've only been living here about a month and I wanted to explore a little and see if a green space we drove past the other day really was a park. Anyhow, I walked that way and it turned out to be a churchyard, but at the end of the church yard was a recreation ground (or rec) with a fenced off border. Ho hum, thought I, wonder if there are any of nature's fruits closer to hand than I originally thought. So saying I set off around the perimeter to find, within moments, a clump of ripe and juicy blackberries, not yet grown old and withered. These were shortly followed by a cluster of branches adorned with rosehips, then a tree burdened with what looked like a sort of crab apple. I picked up a windfall and went on a little further only to be confronted with what may be elderberries and a number of knarly old trees absolutely laden with Victoria plums. Oh my. I'm going back tomorrow with boxes and a rucksack!

On my way round the rec I spied an alley way leading out of it**. Thinking it might be a shortcut back to my original location I set off down it, only to find myself in an area I didn;t recognise at all. Nothing daunted, considering it was bright, balmy daylight and a harmless looking bit of suburbia, I decided to follow it through and headed in the rough direction I needed to go. I took a half hour detour, but eventually ended up in a bit I recognised, then found myself walking past the local community centre.

Now, I had seen this advertised in the supermarket as being a charity in need of support, so I stuck my head in to see what was what. Well, they have a knitting club, keep fit classes, dance classes and apparently they offer adult education courses run through the local library. I got directions to the library and walked home with a smile on my face and a skip in my step. This is a route to integrating into the community (something I'm eager to do) and I've found a library (one of my favourite places in the world) plus I could further my CV and employability through a course or two - all is right with the world!



** This alley went past the back garden of someone who had at least three trees absolutely lifting in damsons. If there was any way I could pick them from the alleyway then I would, but I wouldn;t be able to reach. It's such a waste knowing there's all that fruit and that it's unlikely anyone will pick it :-(