Sloe Syrup

I have been looking at the sloes in the hedges around the field for some time now, and trying not to get ahead of myself and pick them too soon. Some books say wait until you have had a frost, but we are quite mild here, so that might be a while. But the other day I noticed that quite a few were starting to shrivel, and looked a bit like raisins, so decided it was time to pick.

My son and me both picked a colander, so we had about 3kg between us. Although I have made sloe gin other years, I decided this year it might be better to make sloe syrup. We could put this in gin, but it might also be nice to have on porridge, or yoghurt, or even icecream. It is meant to be packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, so hopefully will ward off any winter colds.

Hawthorn Berry Jelly

 

There seem to be more than usual hawthorn berries around this year. Is that a sign it will be a cold winter? So I decided I would have a go at making some hawthorn jelly. I used this recipe from Practical Self Reliance.

I am not sure why my hawthorn berries were not particular juicy, but it took me three colanders before I thought I had enough juice to add the sugar. In the end I made this single jar of hawthorn jelly. Plenty of hawthorn berries were left for the birds.

And now I can hear the rose hips calling to me. Recipes say they will be juicier if you wait until you have had a light frost, which we haven't yet, so I am trying to be patient.

Poor Man's Capers

Not everything has gone to plan in the garden, and I'll be doing my monthly garden update for August soon. One of the plants that has grown well are the nasturtiums, which I planted as a companion plant to distract the critters from the vegetable. I think there is a saying about making lemonade if life has given you lemons, so I decided to do what I can with this surprise success. You can eat the leaves for a spicy salad, and I even saw a recipe for nasturtium flower wine, but the family drew the line at this. I also found out that the seeds can be pickled to make "poor man's capers", so this is what I decided to do.

Here is a link to the recipe that I used Nasturtium Capers. There are a lot of other recipes out there. Some people like to soak in brine before pickling, to reduce the pepperiness. Also I have stored them in the fridge, but some recipes say just store in a dark cupboard. I added a bit of garlic, and they should be ready to eat in about 4 weeks, so I will let you know how they turn out.

Brewing and Bottling

My husband and son have spent some time bottling our homebrew blackberry wine. I had the idea to try and make some labels, but when I showed my daughter my efforts she was very harsh with the criticism. She didn't like the layout, font, artwork .... If it was "The Apprentice" I might have thought she was setting me up to blame for the failure of the project. She was right though, as my efforts weren't very good, Then by asking me want I wanted in a label (rustic but not too complicated or fussy) she got working on some designs. Here is a little video of the labelled wine. So rejected from the marketing and production departments (although I did pick a lot of the berries last autumn) and have decided to move myself to tasting!

 

But with the demi-johns empty we decided to start a new brew, and this time are going for the slightly more unusual dandelion flower wine. Plenty of dandelions in the field. Thank goodness, as on the first attempt I did not read the recipe properly. Only the yellow petals are needed, as any green included can make your wine taste bitter. So after one false start the dandelion wine is now bubbling away in the airing cupboard.

Country Life

 

I've been busy here in the country, but can't believe I have nothing woolly to write about. There just seems a lot of other things to do, and although I have the beginnings of an idea for a new pattern, I am not sure it is going to work out. It is funny like that, sometimes things just fly off the needles, and other times not.

I have booked a table at another craft fair, not until December, and am thinking about making a few very small knitted toys. I felt that there were one or two children at the last fair, who had been give £1 to spend, and would have been very happy to buy a little toy. The current UK news seems to be suggesting there will be no toys in the shops, so perhaps homemade/local is the way to go.

At the top of this post is my single jar of homemade Rose Hip and Apple Jelly. Here is a link to the recipe I used. I love the beautiful colour, and hope it was worth the effort of getting prickled picking the rose hips. The apples came from the supermarket, as our very small crop of apples is all brewing into cider.

Apart from that I have been busy tidying the garden. This isn't my usual garden diary, as a lot of autumn tidying is not very photographable, but here is a selection of the squash we grew. The first is called honeyboat, and then there is the butternut. But finally the more mysterious white acorn squash, which I did not buy seeds for, but just appeared. I think there must have been a mistake at the seed packeting factory, but it was very excited to realise we had something unusual among the other plants.

We also have a few pumpkins, which I haven't picked as yet. I feel they may not be growing any more, but I just like seeing them in the garden.

We have had a few other dramas - losing the dog, and big relief finding her. And I have got a part-time job at a school. I don't begin until November, but am hoping it will really help me feel part of the locality.  

Finally a photo of Lanhydrock House, which we visited at the weekend.

Still plenty of time to to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for October.