Hedgerow Jelly

HEDGEROW JELLY

 

1kg crabapples

1kg mixed hedgerow berries (sloes, rosehips, hawthorn berries, blackberries, elderberries, wild raspberries, rowan berries)

Around 1kg sugar

Jelly bag or muslin cloth

 

Remove stalks from berries and rinse. Roughly chop apples without removing peel or core. Place all fruit in a pan with 1200 ml water. Heat gently to simmering point and keep at a simmer until fruit is soft and pulpy. Remove from heat.

Pour the contents through a scalded (to sterilise) jelly bag or muslin and leave to drip overnight. Do not squeeze or the jelly will turn cloudy.

Next day measure the juice. For every 600ml allow 450g sugar. Bring the juice slowly to the boil then add sugar just as it starts to boil, stirring until it has dissolved. Then boil rapidly without stirring for 9-10 minutes until setting point is reached (drop a little jelly onto a cold saucer – one that’s been in the fridge – and allow to cool for a minute. It should crinkle when gently pushed with a finger. Alternatively use a preserving thermometer:104.5^oC is setting point)

Skim the jelly then pot & seal as quickly as possible. Use within a year

Rosehip Syrup

ROSEHIP SYRUP

Rosehips

 Ingredients:

 500g  (20 ounces) Rosehips

 650g  (26 ounces)  granulated or raw cane sugar

 Pick over the rosehips, removing the stalks, then rinse in cold water. Place 800mls (1 and a half pints) of water in a pan and bring to the boil. Mince or chop the rosehips and add them to the pan of boiling water, cover, then bring back to the boil. Take pan off the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Pour through a scalded jelly bag or muslin and leave to drip for an hour or so. Set aside the strained juice. Bring another 800mls of water to the boil, add the rosehip pulp again, and repeat the boiling process. Tip the mixture back into the jelly bag but this time allow to drain overnight. Discard the pulp then combine both lots of strained juice in a pan. Add the sugar and heat, stirring until dissolved. Boil for 2-3 minutes, then immediately pour into warmed, sterilised bottles and seal.

Conkers, Berries, James Wong and Archaeology!

Elderberry cordial

It’s been a while since I wrote anything – sorry. It’s a busy time of year. I’ve been harvesting hedgerow berries (haws, sloes, elderberries, rosehips, crabapples) and making jams, jellies, syrups and cordials. Will try to post a few recipes for you soon. I’ve also been collecting conkers. Many Horsechestnut trees in the UK and elsewhere are being attacked by the bacterial ‘bleeding canker’ disease, so I’ve decided to plant as many conkers as I can in an enclosed environment for now. The RHS has more information about this disease.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days taking part in an archaeological excavation at Boltby Scar on the North York Moors. If you want to know more about this, click here. Luckily the weather was perfect – rarely the case at this time of the year in Yorkshire.

I met James Wong yesterday. What a thoroughly nice chap. He’s just finished filming a second series of ‘Grow Your Own Drugs’, and there’s a Christmas Special in the pipeline too. He was performing the Grand Opening ceremony at Proline Botanicals, a manufacturer of herbal medicines in Lincolnshire.

Come and say Hello!

On Saturday 20th June I’ll be in Malton Relish delicatessen in the market place in Malton North Yorkshire. Do drop in for a chat – I’ll be there from 11am until 2pm. This shop sells all sortts of wonderful edible goodies – get some inspiration for Father’s Day!

A new family has moved in next door!

I spent yesterday morning in my dispensary updating my client notes and gazing out of the window onto the farmyard. A little striped feral cat kept going in and out of one of the sheds, so I went to investigate. Up the stairs into the hayloft, and in one of the grain hoppers was an old sack with four tiny kittens cuddling each other. Mum looks very skinny, but she seems to like canned tuna. Her babies look around four weeks old – too young to be rehomed at the moment – but they’re as feisty as Mum, hissing and spitting at me with gay abandon. Mum was probably born in the wild too as she is obviously completely unused to people. The right thing to do would be to gather them all up when the kittens are weaned and take them off to the vet for neutering, but that’s going to be pricey for five of them. All the local cat shelters are full to bursting, and I already have a former feral cat (Smokey)  who decided to adopt me after giving birth to her daughter (Button). So if there’s anyone out there in East Yorkshire who would like to adopt a kitten next month, give me a call. Don’t know their sex yet as they refuse to be handled, but there are two with beautiful mackerel stripes, a shy black one, and a little white one with tortoiseshell splodges.  I’ll try to take a photo in a couple of days, once they get more used to me.

Sunshine!

Can’t believe it’s been sunny and warm for a whole week. I woke up very early this morning and went for a walk around the back of the farm. There is a huge pharmacy out there – hawthorn blossom, dandelions, nettles, ground ivy, cleavers, avens, medick, to name but a few! My comfrey patch is turning into a jungle and the marshmallow and elecampane are getting taller and taller. The marigolds are ready to be made into a beautiful golden infused oil, but my new echinacea plants seem to be struggling a little.

I’ve just had a delivery of oils and waxes so that I can stock up on my creams, so I’d better start unpacking them and stashing them away as they’re blocking up the hall at the moment. That’s after I dispose of the remains of the rabbit that the lovely Smokey just stashed behind the sofa in the hope that I wouldn’t take it away from her. Don’t you just love cats!