Free food (fruit etc)
Discussion
I'm starting to get into basic foraging for free fruit, given the cost in shops, and I make my own home brew wine.
Over the past 2 weeks I have made;
Rowanberry and apple jelly,
apple and rosemary jelly,
blackberry and apple jam,
rose hip syrup,
black rose hip syrup,
blackcurrant wine,
lavender wine.
and have only paid for sugar, and fuel to get me to some locations.
more to do this week.
Yes I'm in smug mode, but I'd like to find some more unusual things to find and eat.
Over the past 2 weeks I have made;
Rowanberry and apple jelly,
apple and rosemary jelly,
blackberry and apple jam,
rose hip syrup,
black rose hip syrup,
blackcurrant wine,
lavender wine.
and have only paid for sugar, and fuel to get me to some locations.
more to do this week.
Yes I'm in smug mode, but I'd like to find some more unusual things to find and eat.
If you happen to be near any cleanish canal/lake/river edges where water mint is growing then you can make some lovely herbal tea from it. Just break off a good few inches of stem (leaves/flowers included) chuck one or two in a mug and pour over boiling water, only takes a couple of minutes to infuse well
It's simply putting the clean, top and tailed hawthorn berries in a dark coloured bottle ( ie green screwcap wine bottle) fill with vodka and leave for 6 weeks in a dark place. Then remove the berries , keeping the liquid aside...think plastic sieve over a ceramic bowl. Gently squash the berries with a potato masher to get excess liquid out and then use a coffee filter to rid the vodka flavoured spirit of any small bits - transfer liquid to dark coloured bottle. I used the 20cl wine bottles with a screw cap, as at that time I had plenty of them. Keep in a dark place and drink within 3 months. I gave them to friends as a small Christmas present.
With the left over berries put in a saucepan with vinegar (barely cover the berries, i used white wine vinegar as I had it to hand) and slowly bring to the boil - mashing the berries, from recollection was for about 10 mins, adding sugar to taste.
Sieve the berries again and the small amount of liquid (c. 10ml) left is your haw sauce - there should be enough to fill 2 empty miniature bottles with screw caps. I used an empty herb jar which had a screw top. Keep in the fridge and use it with game dishes.
With the left over berries put in a saucepan with vinegar (barely cover the berries, i used white wine vinegar as I had it to hand) and slowly bring to the boil - mashing the berries, from recollection was for about 10 mins, adding sugar to taste.
Sieve the berries again and the small amount of liquid (c. 10ml) left is your haw sauce - there should be enough to fill 2 empty miniature bottles with screw caps. I used an empty herb jar which had a screw top. Keep in the fridge and use it with game dishes.
We have stacks of Blackberry and plum vinegars.
Every so often you can get a shed load of fruit form the supermarket for silly money (like 10p for 500g strawberries) and we make vinegars with those as well. Orange is particularly nice with a peppery salad.
g/f is really rather good at it and the owner of the local Deli loves them so much he tried to convince her to get the certs and so on and to produce and sell it on properly but it just wouldn’t be cost effective. He still drinks the stuff himself though and it makes a great inexpensive gifts. Gets a better reception than even a £20+ bottle of fizz or plonk when going round to friends for dinner.
Every so often you can get a shed load of fruit form the supermarket for silly money (like 10p for 500g strawberries) and we make vinegars with those as well. Orange is particularly nice with a peppery salad.
g/f is really rather good at it and the owner of the local Deli loves them so much he tried to convince her to get the certs and so on and to produce and sell it on properly but it just wouldn’t be cost effective. He still drinks the stuff himself though and it makes a great inexpensive gifts. Gets a better reception than even a £20+ bottle of fizz or plonk when going round to friends for dinner.
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