Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Autumn finally arrived. Suddenly, my Monday morning ride to work was shrouded in mist, my feet wet with dew and more worryingly, my cycle helmet wreathed in October cobwebs. My legs and arms ached from a weekend of exertions and yet it was a very satisfying ache. The kind of satisfaction that comes from knowing you have realised, what you set out to achieve.

Carnage and Cleaning

The reason for my sore limbs, was that we (my family, plus some friends and their children) had pressed five gallons of apple juice, from the fruit off Southampton Common and from Hedge End. That’s a whole lot of chopping, milling, pressing and cleaning followed by a warm glow of contentment (and a bbq) afterwards. More about this though, in a later post.

Medlars

The trouble with Autumn is that all its bounty comes at once; hence harvest festivals, pickling and preserves. The day after the cider pressing, my son and I also set off to pick Medlars; those medieval munchables that can be made into ruby red jelly or pale and interesting wine, amongst other things.

My son had been playing rugby in the morning but the tree was loaded with fruit and he was up the trunk in seconds, like a simian shoplifter. In about 10 minutes we had filled my bag with plenty of the curious looking, golden-brown beauties. Now we  need to think about how we should prepare them.

However, our day was not yet done! We thought it was high time to see if the walnuts were dropping yet. They were... We were bang on time and as we searched, you could hear the odd rattling as fresh nuts fell to the pavement. 

Competition, the Grey-Coated Gangster of the Nut World

The noise soon escalated into a clattering storm, as I shook the outer branches with my apple picker; I wasn't actually trying to get them to fall on my boy, as he scampered about grabbing them, but I managed to once or twice. I got one in the eye myself at one point.

Walnuts - Ripe and Ready to Drop

We Got Loads! Of course, Walnuts will keep for ages; especially with this quantity in our cupboard. They can be used in many recipes, including chocolate brownies. We also had a great year for Hazel or Cobnuts, so we will need to think of some interesting ways to utilise the nutty hoard we have squirrelled away. My son suggested Walnuts covered in melted chocolate... Unsurprising, but it would make a totally tasty Christmas treat/gift.

Finally, we rewarded ourselves with a quick trip to Mansbridge Community Orchard for a couple of ripe and juicy apples – I'm quite sure we deserved them after our afternoon travails.

Apple Day celebrations at Mansbridge will be held on the Octavia Road Open Space 26th October. Bring your own apples for pressing into delicious juice, or pick some from the trees on the day. More details soon - don't touch that dial!

Medlar Wine Experiment

Last year a friend of ours gave us a delicious jar of claret-coloured Medlar Jelly, which was a big hit, especially with my daughter. This year I discovered a medlar tree in the University grounds, it is likely the same one that the jam originated from. I waited for a suitably sinister, cold and dank autumnal evening and furtively picked a big bagfull of the fruits and stored them in my laboratory until they were bletted.

After collecting these old English fruits, you need to leave them to blet, which as far as I can work out means to ripen, ferment or even rot. In the interest of medical science, I tested a fresh medlar and can confirm that it is dry enough to grow a fresh layer of skin over your teeth. Bletted produce on the other hand can be described succinctly as tasting "somewhat apple-ish/pear-ish with a hint of almost-cinnamon-like spice, perhaps".

I decided that it would be an entertaining experiment to attempt medlar wine this year, I uncovered a couple of articles and whittled them down to (what I guessed was) their vital parts and then, made up my own recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients:

·         8 lb. Medlars

·         2.5 lbs sugar (you can add half and half honey)

·         Pectin enzyme

·         Water up to 1 gallon

·         1/2 pint strong black tea (or 1lb of chopped raisins) for tannin

·         Campden tablet

·         Wine yeast

Method:

1.       Wash and crush the ripe medlars, place the fruit in a fermentation bucket.

2.       Add 1 lb. of sugar and the chopped raisins or tea.  

3.       Boil half the water and pour over the mixture, making sure the sugar is dissolved, then add an equal quantity of cold water.

4.       Add the campden tablet and pectin enzyme.

5.       Cover closely and leave for three- five days in a warm place, stirring daily.

6.       Strain through a fine sieve (do not press) add the rest of the sugar; a rule of thumb with country wine is, only add as much sugar as you need to reach an SG of 1.080 – 1.085 and that will almost guarantee a dry ferment at 12%.

7.       Add the wine yeast, put the mixture into a demijohn and fit an airlock to seal the jar.

8.       Store in a warm place and allow the fermentation to work.

9.       When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and place in a cooler environment and leave. When the wine is clear and stable, siphon into bottles.

I will let you know how my science experiment goes in a later post; I hope it turns a claret red...

Meddling with Medlars

My friend Alison kindly sent me this recipe for medlar jelly, she also took the lovely photographs to illustrate the process.

People have been eating medlars for a long time; Shakespeare said some fairly rude things about them, some people call them cat’s bottoms and others, worse things still but the end result here looks like bottled rubies.

Cat's Bottoms!

Here is Alison’s Medlar Jelly recipe...

1.      Pick the medlars when they are hard and store in a cool place for 2 - 3 weeks until soft (bletted).

When the Stored Medlars Change Colour, they are Bletted

2.      When your medlars are bletted gather a few more firm medlars to mix with them. This helps the jelly set.

3.      Cut the fruit into quarters and place in a large pan. Cover them with water and slowly bring to the boil. Cook for about 1 hour until the fruit is soft.

4.      Gently strain the fruit through a jelly bag. Do not squeeze the bag as this will make the jelly cloudy. Leave it overnight if necessary.

5.      Measure the juice back into a large pan and for each 600mls add 450 g of sugar. Bring slowly to a rolling boil and cook until jelly reaches setting point 220 - 222 degrees C.

6.      Remove scum with a spoon and pour into sterilised jars.

Ta Da! Like Bottled Rubies

Medlars are not very common and even less well know; I thought I had found some earlier this year but they turned out to be only some kind of small pear, they still tasted very good after they had changed colour though.

I must find out what they might have been...