Red Onion Marmalade.

Crab apple jelly

-Cut the crab apples in half and put them in a pan.
-Just cover with water and add a stick of Cinnamon and a couple of cloves.
-cook out till apples are completely soft. Then pass through a muslin cloth.
-for every pint of strained juice add 1 lb of sugar.
-Put this back on the stove for between 8-12 mins at a rolling boil.
-remember to skim any foam.
- put in jars and enjoy with cheese or charcuterie

liquor 44 verdict

Tastes great!! The orange and coffee really comes through. And not as harsh as the Eau de vie alone. I shall be trying this again in the future maybe with a little less sugar. In the mean time I have just made my second batch of sloe gin recipe as follows:

SLOE GIN

1 ltr average quality gin
1 ltr sloe berries ( pricked with a thorn from the blackthorn bush, or a needle, or you can freeze them to split them)
300g sugar

mix the 3 ingredients together and give them a little shake every week.
after 3-4 months strain them. Sloe gin is best consumed 6 months to a year later.
So mine will be ready next december.

Time to find some storage space.

for all things sloe

I have chanced on these forums were you can join a small community that talk about all things sloe. http://www.sloe.biz/pip/ And as their motto suggests `Theres no biz like sloe biz` they might be a bit mad too.

Greengage Jam

Some greengages were given to me so I decided to jam them. I used the same recipe as some plum jam I made a couple of weeks ago.

2lb greengages
2lb demerera sugar
1/2 pint of water

Method:

De-stone and chop up gages put in a pan and cook with sugar and water on a rolling boil till setting point reached.


As with all jams put a saucer in the fridge before you start. Setting point is reached when the jam wrinkles after putting on the cold saucer. I`ll make a post some other time about some basic rules for jam making and setting.

Liqueur 44

In a kilner jar put 1 ltr eau de vie or vodka, 44 cubes of sugar and an orange pierced and studded with 44 coffee beans.

Leave for 44 days. Shake occasionaly to disolve sugar

Strain.

Mine will be ready on the 26th september. Fingers crossed.

First post

Here is the start of my blog. My goal is to spread my growing knowledge in identifying wild food, harvesting them and what to do with them in the kitchen.
I am a profesional chef who uses wild foods as much as possible in my cooking both in my work environment and at home. Sourcing ingredients will never get more local than this and there is never any doubt in how fresh or organic the food is.

Any recipes I post are tried and tested (let me know if they dont turn out right)

At the start of wild berry season my kitchen table at home after a forage usually looks similar to this.