One of things that fills my heart with joy about the ever changing seasons is making produce from the hedgerows around this beautiful place we call home. There is something deeply intuitive about creating a delicious store cupboard from the land as our ancestors did. It feels intimate too; it connects us to their lives and their stories.
Always careful to leave more than we find, sloe gin is a favourite, leading on to sloe chocolate shards where the pulp is added to dark cocoa rich chocolate, cooled in a tray, and broken into pieces to enjoy.
Crab apple jelly is another favourite for sweet or savoury use, and from that a distilled liqueur from the pulp, which, when strained, is a warm, utterly delicious digestif. The crab apples give a rich, golden red juice that is beautifully transparent. Rose-hips, too, have produced an abundantly rich jelly where a teaspoon or two added to hot water makes a winter warming rose-hip ‘tea’.
Quince has been a new fruit this last year; first a jelly and then Membrillo. The jelly has a softer hue to crab apple, but is just as tasty, and, of course, both are good with cheese.
For a couple of years now, we’ve also made our own butter. A @kilneruk hand churn does the job perfectly, and although the cream has been bought in, it might now be time to think about a Jersey herd …
No, stop, just getting carried away !
What are your own ‘over winter’ store cupboard foraged favourites? I'd love to know.
With best wishes
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