Foraging - Natures Food

Flibsey

floyd wrote: »

Flibsey, can you give me a rough idea of which part of the UK you are in? I've seen a few ripe blackberries but want to gauge whether its worth a picking trip just yet as the place I go isn't somewhere I pass regularly so I can't keep an eye on them

south essex. Basildon. most of the wild brambles wern't ripe, but the ones which had overgrown from gardens and originally come from cultivated stock were.

floyd

Thats fab thanks, looks like a I have a little while to wait yet

floss2

annie-c wrote: »

...I'd love to make sloe gin later in the year. Would anyone be prepared to share reasonably explicit location details of where I might find sloes anywhere in the Cardiff/Caerphilly/Pontypridd areas, pretty please?

I know from experience that if you go to Penarth Pier, turn right, walk up the promenade with the sea on your left, carry on up the hill ... along the coastal path there are lots of blackthorn bushes / trees along there. We are just finishing our Welsh sloe gin from 2009, and I only have 1 small jar of Penarth sloe jelly left (we use it like redcurrant jelly ).

wen3

annie-c wrote: »

This is a brilliant thread - just read it through.

I've just made some bottles of redcurrant gin and vodka, using produce form my garden.

I'd love to make sloe gin later in the year. Would anyone be prepared to share reasonably explicit location details of where I might find sloes anywhere in the Cardiff/Caerphilly/Pontypridd areas, pretty please?

Any chance of getting your redcurrent vodka recipe please?

annie-c

wen3 wrote: »

Any chance of getting your redcurrent vodka recipe please?

I used up a half empty bottle of vodka so just adapted a recipe I found online to match the quantity I had.

1 empty 70cl vodka bottle, sterilised in oven and filled while still slightly warm.

37.5 cl Vodka
10 oz ripe redcurrants (weighed after washing and sorting)
5 oz sugar

Weights were approximate as I used a vintage weighing scale with the little weights that balance the weighing bowl.

I washed the fruit well and picked over it to remove any stems, bits of leaves, damaged berries, etc. Then I weighed out 10oz, added 5 oz sugar and mashed it lightly to squash the berries a bit.

Then I pushed the berry sugar mix into the sterilised bottle using a sterilised plastic funnel and teaspoon.

I poured over the vodka, screwed on the lid, and agitated it gently to help the sugar dissolve.

The bottle needs to be kept in a cool dark place, and since my bottle is clear glass, I cut the end off one leg of an old, but clean, pair of opaque black tights to make a (free) cover for the bottle.

It needs to be shaken gently every day for a month, then about once a week for at least another month, preferably 2-3. After that it can be strained through a muslin bag (or nylon equivalent) and bottled.

You can taste it at various points along the way and add more sugar if required.

Best drunk after 6 months but most people cave sooner, mine will be drank at Christmas.

The boozy redcurrants are delicious served over ice-cream, too, so it's a no-waste recipe! :T

NB: I did exactly the same with a half bottle of gin.

annie-c

floss2 wrote: »

I know from experience that if you go to Penarth Pier, turn right, walk up the promenade with the sea on your left, carry on up the hill ... along the coastal path there are lots of blackthorn bushes / trees along there. We are just finishing our Welsh sloe gin from 2009, and I only have 1 small jar of Penarth sloe jelly left (we use it like redcurrant jelly ).

Thanks so much, is that the cliff/coastal path where people walk dogs (it leads off from the park/cafe area, at the top of the hill?)

mwa

Hello, my name is MWA and I'm a blackberry-a-holic

My arms and hands are covered in scratches, I have lots of tiny splinters, I have taken to carrying around some kind of tupperware/plastic bags everywhere just in case I see a patch, my husband thinks I am mad as he keeps catching me in my dressing gown standing on top of a kitchen chair with a mop trying to reach the highest blackberries in the garden, I have given serious consideration to buying a stepladder to reach the highest ones in hedges and at the park, it actually makes me furious that all the best ones are too high to reach, I am starting to have dreams about finding a huge, heaving bush of blackberries and being so happy, I drive really slowly past hedgerows and will stop along the way to pick any I see, one year when I was pregnant I reversed into a farmers' field as I had seen some and got my car stuck and had to get towed out by the AA oh and of course I have a freezer full which I don't entirely know what to do with......

I swear I get more obsessed every passing year, I can't be the only one?!?!:)

Gigervamp

Haha, no!

I have a walking stick for hooking out of reach branches.

sharloid

I can't find any!

lizzyb1812

Walking stick for me too! And I get quite a few funny looks as I walk the dog and pick at the same time - when you have a dog and a large plastic bag bulging with "something" - well, let's just say they must be wondering what I'm feeding her :rotfl::rotfl: