Foraging - Natures Food

rachbc

do they look like this?
http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/images/articles/Guelder%20Rose.jpg

No idea how to cook them, all my foraged food to date has been boiled with sugar.

HariboJunkie

This is the result of typing guelder rose berries into google images. I'd say if they look like those then they are indeed guelder rose berries.

They will need sugar adding so I hope you are still able to use then rather than waste them.

ceridwen

rachbc wrote: »

do they look like this?
http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/images/articles/Guelder%20Rose.jpg

No idea how to cook them, all my foraged food to date has been boiled with sugar.

Yes - they do....so I'm hoping.....

re preserving without sugar. I've just had a catch-up with the blogs I follow and a post has just come up on one of them re pressurecanning:

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=3818

and it would appear that pressurecanners can be bought in Britain - for about £100. I'm still wondering about vegetables - as I gather one can "can" fruit the British way - ie never mind things like pressurecanners - but I am wondering about vegetables. I wouldnt want to can fish and meat anyway - I'm just wondering about my greengrocery.

The thing is that many of us are now working on growing whatever food we can - but want to be able to deal with the "ebbs and flows" of what Nature produces and store food without using freezers and without using sugar. I cant see a lot of us dropping our concerns about our diet being healthy overnight - and deciding that its okay to throw loads of sugar into everything in lieu of preserving food in freezers. We want it both ways - no freezers and no sugar either....

Oh ...welll...back to the work in progress....

HariboJunkie

ceridwen wrote: »

We want it both ways - no freezers and no sugar either....

.

Why do we want no freezers?

rachbc

i'm happy with both freezers and sugar. jellies and jam are eaten in moderation only so I don't feel they are unhealthy as part of a balanced diet, I do 'can' apple sauce with no sugar by boiling the jars.

Drying might be a way to go for you though.

ceridwen

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Why do we want no freezers?

For a variety of reasons:

- my own personal freezer is crammed totally full right now and its very easy to use up every last bit of freezer space and still have the need to store things

- and, if you're in the vicinity of a Transition Town group (or even read "yer everyday newspaper" these days...) then you're well aware that we are now only a few years away from a noticeable proportion of British powerstations being decommissioned...and not much of a sign of anything replacing them currently:eek:...so worries that Britain too might become subject to blackouts at intervals

- and the pure economic argument of freezers cost extra money on the electric bill.....

So I - for one - certainly want freezers - and would be glad of an extra one (or two) - but bearing all these factors in mind....and the VERY limited space in my tiny house....it aint gonna be that way...

tandraig

sorry - I seem to have got wrong end of post - I was assuming ceridwen was verifying that she actually HAD edible berries. if ceridwen knows they are edible - then - turn them into wine!!!! use a rose hip or if more like elderberry, use those wine recipes!!! could be just me being a right wino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ceridwen

rachbc wrote: »

i'm happy with both freezers and sugar. jellies and jam are eaten in moderation only so I don't feel they are unhealthy as part of a balanced diet, I do 'can' apple sauce with no sugar by boiling the jars.

Drying might be a way to go for you though.

A step-by-step guide to how you "can" apple sauce with no sugar would be very much appreciated purlease. Certainly - thats the biggest item I can see me personally wanting to preserve - so that would be very much appreciated please.

I'm also looking to "can" plums/cherry plums/elderberries/rhubarb/blackberries too - so am hoping the same method would work for them as well....

rachbc

i have no idea how long this will last as only did it 2 weeks ago but, I cooked bramelys down to a pulp, packed into jars sterilised in the oven, leaving about 2cm empty, lids on. I then put an old teatowel in my biggest pot, put the jars on top and filled to 2 inches above the jars with cold water, brought to the boil and boiled for 10 min. Left to completely cool then removed the jars. One jar had water in so the seal was obviously not right but the rest were fine. can do the same with homemade passata/ tomato sauce aswell, and sure you can do for other fruits too

missychrissy

I've just realised that the gallon of red currant wine I made last year was in fact ceridwen's guelder rose berries. I just found them in a hedgerow when I was picking rose hips and elderberries and presumed they were red currants. As it happens, I bottled it about 2 months ago but have not drunk any of it yet. They seem to have disappeared from that particular hedgerow this year.