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Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
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Location
Kingsbridge, South Devon
Hive Type
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Number of Hives
0 - Now in beeless retirement!
Our kitchen is almost permanently full of steam at the moment. We have made so far:

Crab apple jelly (foraged from a crab apple on a footpath). Lovely red coloured jelly.
Home made tomato ketchup (Jamie Oliver recipe) from the surplus from the greenhouse.
The first picking of Quince from our tree in the garden is currently on the boil and there is another picking at least to go if it stop raining long enough for me to get the ladder out. These will go for jelly and my wife also wants to make quince "cheese" which is cloudy jelly really with perhaps a few lumps in.

The cooking pear (Black Pear of Worcester) has a huge crop some of which I might turn into chutney. The rest will be bottled.

We also have the inevitable giant courgette or two. Hugh Fernly-Wernley has a chutney recipe for these which I'll try or perhaps mix them with the pears as his recipe can use either.

The hedgerows are stuffed with big blackberries so we'll go picking this weekend hopefully.

Not all has been fruitful. A favorite sight of mine for the Parasol Mushroom, one of the best tasting funghi, has now been overrun by bracken. In previous years the farmer has had cattle on this site but now seems to have replaced them by sheep and this may be the cause. I also went to be best mushrooom field and found only one - well eaten by slug. It may be too early for them so I'll go back in a week.

Is anyone else out there foraging? Favourite preserve recipes?
 
Last edited:
ours too!

'er indoors' Green Tomato and Date Chutney
whack the following into big pan -
500g quartered tomatoes,
500g chopped red onions
250g dates (could use raisins)
500ml vinegar (malt)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
Spices, as she says, put a bit of each in first, and go by taste
1 red chili,
1 teaspoon good curry powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
About 8 freshly ground green cardamoms
Salt to taste
Bring to boil, add 250g sugar, and stir till dissolves, then leave the whole lot to simmer really gently for a couple of hours, stirring, and having surreptitious taste once in a while!
- apparently, the way to tell if it's done is to drag a spoon across the top to make a "furrow" - if it fills with liquid quickly, it probably needs doing a bit longer
It's a rough starter recipe, you can add all sorts - apple, pear etc! :D
 
The hedgerows do seem stuffed this year and the garden has done well too.

So far this year we've got; apple & marrow chutney, uncooked apple chutney, elderberry jelly, apple and elderberry jelly, apple jelly, bramble jelly, mincemeat and pickled cucumber, gherkin, onion and beetroot

The freezer is full of roasted tomato sauce, apples, plums & courgettes.

Sloe gin is working away.

If you are looking for a different way to use your courgettes, this year my mum has been making spicy courgette fritters a really nice way to use the excess.

It is a shame the mushrooms are poor around here this year.

Si.
 
Our kitchen is almost permanently full of steam at the moment. We have made so far:

Crab apple jelly (foraged from a crab apple on a footpath). Lovely red coloured jelly.
Home made tomato ketchup (Jamie Oliver recipe) from the surplus from the greenhouse.
The first picking of Quince from our tree in the garden is currently on the boil and there is another picking at least to go if it stop raining long enough for me to get the ladder out. These will go for jelly and my wife also wants to make quince "cheese" which is cloudy jelly really with perhaps a few lumps in.

The cooking pear (Black Pear of Worcester) has a huge crop some of which I might turn into chutney. The rest will be bottled.

We also have the inevitable giant courgette or two. Hugh Fernly-Wernley has a chutney recipe for these which I'll try or perhaps mix them with the pears as his recipe can use either.

The hedgerows are stuffed with big blackberries so we'll go picking this weekend hopefully.


Not all has been fruitful. A favorite sight of mine for the Parasol Mushroom, one of the best tasting funghi, has now been overrun by bracken. In previous years the farmer has had cattle on this site but now seems to have replaced them by sheep and this may be the cause. I also went to be best mushrooom field and found only one - well eaten by slug. It may be too early for them so I'll go back in a week.

Is anyone else out there foraging? Favourite preserve recipes?

Umm, blackberries should be left for the wildlife after Oct 1st or in ths area after Summercourt Fayre, generally 25th Sept. Picked loads before then, scrummy:.)
 
The hedgerows do seem stuffed this year and the garden has done well too.

So far this year we've got; apple & marrow chutney, uncooked apple chutney, elderberry jelly, apple and elderberry jelly, apple jelly, bramble jelly, mincemeat and pickled cucumber, gherkin, onion and beetroot

The freezer is full of roasted tomato sauce, apples, plums & courgettes.

Sloe gin is working away.

If you are looking for a different way to use your courgettes, this year my mum has been making spicy courgette fritters a really nice way to use the excess.

It is a shame the mushrooms are poor around here this year.
Si.

Do you have the recipe fo the fritters? Please:.)

I've been picking mushrooms, though not that many for over a month.
 

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