I love the idea of wild food -- it's fresh, tasty, and best of all, free! I wish I could say that I'm brave enough to hunt for wild mushrooms, but I'm fairly certain I'd end up in hospital if I tried. I'm much more confident about berries and seeds, and I really enjoy taking a basket out for a bit of foraging.
Yesterday, I found lots of blackberries, elderberries, rosehips, and a few crab apples. Using my handy jam maker/steam distiller, I made a lovely batch of hedgerow jelly. The recipe is dead easy. Use equal parts of the cooked/strained juice of your hedgerow bounty and sugar. I didn't use pectin because of the crab apples, but you could add a dash (or substitute jam sugar) if you feel the jelly won't set.
4 comments:
That's one thing I need to make more of: jams/jellies. Tell me more about your jam maker-steam distiller. Sounds like a handy contraption.
Your jelly is lovely!
I feel the same way about mushrooms. It took us years (and some nice neighbors, plus a short class) to make us comfortable enough to identify 2 well (morels and chanterelles).
Tfal Jam Maker
Thank you! I have to admit I was lazy and used a stock photo for this post. :)
I love my jam maker. It doesn't do large batches, and it's not really cost effective for jams, but for clear jellies, it can't be beat. The steam distillation is awesome. The juice is perfect.
They were selling chanterelles at my last market, but I was too late arriving to get any. They went fast! I'm too scared to try to pick my own. I'm quite sure I'd end up sick - or worse.
*grin* well, it's a lovely stock photo.
Thanks for the jam maker link! I'm going to check it out and see if I can convince dh we need it. ;>
It's a fantastic little contraption. I really like it for making jellies.
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