Adventures in foraging
This year, I picked a whole lot more wild garlic than last year, because it seemed a shame to waste it. Some of it I blanched and froze (ok results. Nothing amazing, but that may be partly because the only thing you can then do with it is stick it in a stew-ish thing with lots of other stuff), most of it I made into wild garlic pesto, which was fabulous even after being frozen, and will be repeated.
I didn’t pick as many blackberries as last year, I’m not sure quite why. Sadly, this means there isn’t a stash in the freezer for making crumble with. I did pick enough to make blackberry and apple jelly, though, along with the apple and lavender jelly and the apple butter.
On the booze front, we’ve had
- elderflower vodka (tasty, but it did seem to make people poorly. Note to self: check if elderflowers are slightly poisonous in the same way that the berries are)
- vin de pêches (not strictly foraged, but very, very tasty: I’ll be making more of that in the spring when the new peach leaves come through. Might also try cherry leaves)
- chestnut liqueur (still in the bottle. I have no idea if it’s going to work or not: Mike is doubtful that any flavour will come through)
- wild strawberries in vodka (also not strictly foraged, although they're wild plants on our land, and also still in the jar. Really must do something with those, it looks lovely...)
- sloe gin (of course!)
(We’ve not had hop vodka, sadly. The hop had a bad early summer, which we think was not enough water: it was dry, and there were tomato plants near it this year. Next year.)
On the non-booze drinks front, the usual apple juice with apples from the common, some strawberry juice (panda-bowl man while he’s packing up counts as foraging, right?), and spiced elderberry cordial (must make some more of that, the berries are in the freezer).
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I didn’t pick as many blackberries as last year, I’m not sure quite why. Sadly, this means there isn’t a stash in the freezer for making crumble with. I did pick enough to make blackberry and apple jelly, though, along with the apple and lavender jelly and the apple butter.
On the booze front, we’ve had
- elderflower vodka (tasty, but it did seem to make people poorly. Note to self: check if elderflowers are slightly poisonous in the same way that the berries are)
- vin de pêches (not strictly foraged, but very, very tasty: I’ll be making more of that in the spring when the new peach leaves come through. Might also try cherry leaves)
- chestnut liqueur (still in the bottle. I have no idea if it’s going to work or not: Mike is doubtful that any flavour will come through)
- wild strawberries in vodka (also not strictly foraged, although they're wild plants on our land, and also still in the jar. Really must do something with those, it looks lovely...)
- sloe gin (of course!)
(We’ve not had hop vodka, sadly. The hop had a bad early summer, which we think was not enough water: it was dry, and there were tomato plants near it this year. Next year.)
On the non-booze drinks front, the usual apple juice with apples from the common, some strawberry juice (panda-bowl man while he’s packing up counts as foraging, right?), and spiced elderberry cordial (must make some more of that, the berries are in the freezer).
This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/1058804.html, where it has
comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it.