Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

Haha, I keep finding other places the blackcurrant purple landed. By the cat's bowl there is a trickle down the wall (fully 1.5 metres away). I managed to retrieve most and am back to lots of liquid and one straining bag of mush to deal with. Next step is adding sugar. I think I will add 2/3rds by volume to liquid and then use some citric acid and a couple of campden tablets to stop it fermenting. Off to tackle it then!

themadvix

It's always amazing how far liquid can fly through the air!

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi SL - i have been keeping up but not posted as much. I am excited your van is nearly finished and is being taking for a holiday :0) It sounds wonderful! I know it has taken a lot of hard work but you both sound very capable and it makes me think if you were travelling and something needed a bit of work you would easily cope and manage.
Do you have the recipe for the blackcurrant cordial please?

Suffolk_lass

StripeyTightsSpottySocks said:

Hi SL - i have been keeping up but not posted as much. I am excited your van is nearly finished and is being taking for a holiday :0) It sounds wonderful! I know it has taken a lot of hard work but you both sound very capable and it makes me think if you were travelling and something needed a bit of work you would easily cope and manage.
Do you have the recipe for the blackcurrant cordial please?

I have slightly adapted my sister's Blackcurrant Cordial recipe that contained only blackcurrants, water and sugar. She says it lasts until you open the bottle and then needs to be kept in the fridge, whereas my elderflower cordial has two campden tablets (for brewing beer at home, and sold in Wilkos) to stop it fermenting.

I made it by stewing blackcurrants in some water. I also pre-mashed them in the preserving pan with a potato masher. It takes more water than you think. I added just over a litre of water to a kilo of blackcurrants - for a consistency not as thick as blended soup. Stir regularly but not constantly - they will catch on the pan otherwise. Once they have all mushed, I (2nd attempt!) put them through a nylon sieve and stirred them until all the liquid was through. Some of the pips are small enough to go through the sieve though so I still used my jelly bag to strain them out (and then squeezed the bag at the end - it was very glutinous and I was covered, and it took all of yesterday and overnight to drip most through. I covered everything with cling film overnight. Then I measured the strained liquid and had three litres (for cordial, more for jelly) - I brought this to the boil and added 2 thirds the amount of (ordinary granulated) sugar and brought it to a rolling boil for 5 minutes - stirring all the time. This was not long enough to reach a set. Let it stand for 20 minutes of so and add 50g of citric acid and 2 crushed campden tablets (for the 3 litres of juice, 2 kilos of sugar quantity. I strained it through a nylon sieve again into a big jug and decanted into 3 1 litre bottles (third is not quite full). I sterilised the plastic bottles with a quarter milton tablet and cold water. It's a bit of a fag - I hope it is worth it!

Suffolk_lass

It is that all packed up moment. We got almost everything done on the to-do list yesterday in terms of getting the house and van ready for our weekend away (it had better be good after all this!). We were going to sleep in it last night but to be honest, we were both so knackered when we stopped at just before 9pm last night that we had a quick cheese omelette, eat the home picked fruit with the rest of a pot of yogurt and fell into bed in the house. 

Last few things then away - make up the bed, arrange the moisture trap mats we use instead of carpet, and pack my clothes, toiletries and things like boots and binoculars - oh and books.

Karmacat

Have a wonderful time, SL, its so brilliant that you're doing this - the universe is opening up, just a little bit.  Enjoy!

Busy_Mee

Have a great time SL

rtandon27

Have a fun weekend SL!

themadvix

Have a lovely time!

greent

Hoping you have an enjoyable weekend!