Apples Pears & Amber Nectar

On Friday my train to work broke down in the station. Despite the guard and driver's best attempts to reboot the train (seriously), it would not budge. I had my bike with me and duly set off down the Bursledon Road, toward Segensworth. En-route I saw a big Pear tree on the roadside that was laden with fruit, my neighbour had recently suggested I check this place out.

On Saturday morning the kids and I got up early to pick some pears before they set off for swimming, it was the start of a very busy day. While the children were sluicing through all their watery lengths, I was lugging all the buckets and bags of fruit (about 120 Kgs) out of the shed and the greasing up the cider press.

After lunch the garden began to fill up with enthusiastic children, all wanting to have a go at turning the mill to grind the apples, or wind the cider press down to crush the pulp and squeeze out the scrumptious juice (is that word related to scrumping?).

There was, admittedly, a massive amount of fruit to process but thanks to the help of friends and families we processed all of those Apples, then added a few freshly picked Pears - the children also bunged a few Blackberries into the mix for good luck.

The juice from the red swimming pool apples always comes out slightly pink and this gave the final juice and delightful amber tint, it also has the very best, gorgeously tangy, sweet/sharp flavour. The children were constantly diving in to slurp down as much as they could before it even reached the bucket, but they truly deserved all they got because we could never have managed to complete the job without them.

The weather was holding out, so we polished the day off with a BBQ that carried on until the Autumnal light faded. The children were scampering about playing and fighting with whatever they could lay their hands on - hopefully they all slept like logs that night, I know I did.

There will be much more Apple picking and pressing fun coming up... 

N.B. Apple Day at Mansbridge Community Orchard 

The event will be held at 2:00pm on Sunday October 11th. If you have any spare apples, bring them along for crushing into juice. Octavia Road Open Space is basically a field and wilderness area, so wear suitably robust clothing, wellies etc. This is a free community event, run by volunteers and all are welcome but everyone one is responsible for their own (and their children's) health & safety.

Sweet Chestnuts

You know that Autumn is in full swing when the Sweet Chestnuts start to pop onto the floor. Normally the first nuts to fall are the runts of the crop, too small and skinny to be of any use.

Meanwhile the finest, mahogany mammoths are safely swelling, encapsulated in their hedgehog-like homes.

There is a vast amount of substantial chestnut trees in some areas of Southampton.

In some places flour is made out of chestnuts but I find them dead fiddly; so I just build a fire in my BBQ and let the flames burn the shells off.

DON’T FORGET TO PIERCE THE SHELLS BEFORE COOKING OR THEY WILL EXPLODE!

Chestnuts Roasting on a Pot Bellied BBQ

Apparently the second Ice Age is coming. Weather lore has it that when acorns cover the ground in October, snow will cover the land by Christmas. At the Urbane Forager, we say  that you know it is autumn (even if you are still wearing shorts), when you can smell roasting chestnuts.

First, get your fire/BBQ burning well - you know the score, dry tinder then small sticks first, piled over scrunched paper in a wig-wam shape. Followed by, well in this case more small dry sticks - you dont want it burning all night do you?

Once you have a good fire blazing away, add your chestnuts - let the flames lick at the shells, this helps to remove the pith later.

The nuts soon start to sweat and sizzle - I hope you cut them first or they will beging to explode about now... Turn them over until they look black all over or start to spit, whistle and bubble. This will not take very long.

Remove the blackened husks from Dante's inferno. Metal BBQ type tongs might be better than your delicate fingers at this point. It looks bad I know but it will be OK (probably)...

Phew!

Peel off the burnt shells (let them cool a tad first), remove any pith you can get at and there you have it/them. The Head Chef insists on adding salt at this point but personally I think they taste fine as nature intened, only cooked.

Some people do eat sweet chestnuts raw but I don't.