Man Needs Shed

At last our allotment is coming to life. Fruit trees are in bloom and shoots are peeping through the ground. We have even found an abundance of wild garlic on the site. Apart from its potential use in salads, garnishes and cooking, the children love to nibble on the leaves.

My energies have been mainly spent on erecting a shed/shelter (one end is completely open) out of recycled pallets; well, I say shed but actually it’s more like a personal tribute to Heath Robinson, there’s not a straight line, level or square angle on it anywhere.

Pallet wood is not nice stuff to work with; it’s very hard and brittle, loves giving you splinters and is filled with nails that cannot be removed. Having said this, it was all free; so I spent a quite a few lunch hours at work dismantling these nasty spiky items, loading up the car and piling the planks up on site.

Then I set about creating a carefully designed plan, with the help of a fully qualified architect, created a level base out of high grade concrete and fully treated all the timber before measuring twice and cutting everything to exact lengths (this part is all a big, fat lie).

To be truthful, I basically hammered several  posts into steeply-sloping, uneven ground and then stumbled around trying to nail various planks of uneven sizes onto them; very much doing everything by eye and making plans up as I went along. I’m definitely not a qualified builder but I’m quite good at improvisation and the family and I will be pleased enough with the end result, especially if we get caught in a sudden shower.

Mystic Medlar Wine

When I initially sliced the medlars and put them into my bucket, I was not at all sure that things would turn out well. This was at least in part because these curious fruits are not especially pleasing to the eye but also the smell reminded me of tasting a freshly picked one; YUCK!

However, after 5 days soaking in water with half the sugar added, the juice smelt quite tasty; although it still looked distinctly unappealing. I skimmed off the brown fruit pulp and then strained the murky liquid through a jelly bag.

The resultant juice now magically changed colour, turning a soft pastel yellow. In the interest of science, I tasted some - it was pearesque and quite delicious; I swear you could have bottled and sold it just as it was.

I was here to make wine though, so I added the remaining sugar and the yeast and decanted it into a demijohn. Within a couple of hours the pale and interesting medlar wine was bubbling away enthusiastically next to the unpretentious crab apple.

Tasty Truffles

Last Sunday my daughter bought me some “truffles” as a Father’s Day gift. They were delicious but I found myself thinking that they tasted not unlike, our own homemade Hazelnut Chocolate Spread.

Yum! - Hazelnuts!

Last year we nearly destroyed our blender trying to create this stuff but it sure was tasty. A quick glance at the truffle ingredients confirmed that they were indeed made out of similar constituent parts. Experimentation was bound to follow…

Yum!  - Hazelnut Cocolate Spread!

We scooped out small amounts of the stiff spread and rolled them into balls. Then we trundled them about in a bowl of cocoa powder to prevent them from sticking to our fingers and each other. Next my daughter (the official tester) felt that she really ought to sample them. I was pretty sure what the result would be and yes, the outcome received a resounding thumbs up.

Yum! - the Urbane Forager's Truffles...

So that’s two recipes for the price of one; as well as a homemade gift idea!

Sloe Business



Sloes on a Blackthorn Bush



Sloes are currently everywhere in the hedgerows. I picked enough to make wine and gin in just half an hour. I wore my cycling gloves to allow faster picking with less pain.

Sloe Wine

It's Difficult to Photograph Wine Making and Make it Look Appealing

The sloes are immersed in boiling water with some raisins and then stirred each day for up to a week. After a couple of days the mixture turns a lovely thick deep red, this reminded me of making elderberry port but it did not require the lengthy boiling.

Especially When It Begins To Ferment

After a suitable period the previously activated yeast is added to the mix. It is then left in a warm place to get on with the process.

Time to Strain into a Demijon

Sloe Gin



There are lots of different recipes for Sloe Gin but the simplicity and cheek of this one (from Sloe.biz) appealed to me.

1.      Pick your sloes from blackthorn hedges in October or November when they are most ripe - probably after the first frosts.

Blue Black Beauties

2.      Take a litre bottle of gin, and drink half a litre.

Remove the Leaves Before Freezing

3.      Cut or prick the sloes and drop them into the half-empty bottle so that they displace the remaining gin to near the top.

4.      Add one wine goblet of sugar (approx 150g).

More Gin Required

5.       All you have to do now is turn or agitate the bottle daily for a week, then weekly for a month or two ... by which time it will be ready to drink (but it is really best kept until the next winter.

That Looks More Like It





Green Tomato Chutney

The Head Chef decided to make Green Tomato Chutney with the unripe produce from the mini vegetable patch in our garden. Combined with apples we had picked, onions, raisins, a bunch of spices and the inevitable vinegar.

Ready, Steady, Chop!

After a mountain of pealing and chopping I got the opportunity to take some lovely, crisp, in-pot photos.

Sorted

Soon the whole house smelled of boiling vinegar.

Stirred Not Shaken

Then it’s into the sterilised jars.

Phew!

Finally the best label competition followed by waiting for a couple of months for the chutney to mature.

Oh, It's So Hard To Judge

Guess what all my family will be getting for presents this Xmas…

Yahoo Chutney,Thanks Santa...

Apple Avalanche Leads To Cider Tsunami

All those lovely apples, which are hanging off the trees at this time of year, need to be picked over the next month and stored away in your sheds and outhouses. They will keep for several months if wrapped in newspaper or otherwise prevented from touching each other.



Uncle Lozzer - Chief Chopper



I’m fortunate enough to have an old Apple Store, which is a kind of skeleton chest of drawers. My son and I eat a lot of apples but we do not intend to be buying any from the shops this year; this year’s harvest should see us through to about March with any luck.

  

Chopped Apples Ready For Smashing



There are still lots of apple trees laden with ripe fruit though and if we do not use them, they will only go to waste. It makes perfect sense to crop now and make good use of fruit in any way we can; making cider out of apple juice preserves it very well and it is a very satisfying process…



Children Crushing The Pre-Chopped Fruit - Hard Work But Fun



It is also a very simple process but this does not mean that there is no hard work to be done; I had set an ambitious target of Five Gallons of Juice because that is the capacity of my barrels. So we needed to process about 50-60Kgs (3 builders bucketsful) of apples and that is an awful lot of chopping, smashing and pressing.



Actually, This Looks/Tastes More Interesting



Fortunately, I had the help of my two enthusiastic children, who enjoy smashing things anyway and love apple juice. Their Uncle Loz was on hand to lend essential extra muscle and to expertly wield the very sharp knife.



Darn Those Pesky Kids, I know I'm Going To Ache Tomorrow



After a fairly short while of pulping the apples, the children tired and became more interested in the cider press and the nectar running out of it. So I took over duties on the timber while Loz continued to chop the relentless supply of fruit.



The Juice Begins To Flow, Even Before Pressing



It is very exciting when the juice starts to flow and it tastes far better than anything you can get in the shops. But, when you see the first couple of centimetres at the bottom of the bucket, you begin to realise just how far you still have to go.



Pure Nectar!



Rain nearly stopped play halfway through, due to a sudden violent storm and the weather probably added a couple of centimetres to the mix and I think the drink will have to be called Thunder and Lightning Cider now .



Messy, Tasty, Hard-Work and Fun

I was exhausted by the time we reached our mark and aching from every muscle and sinew; I didn’t weigh that length of wood but I lifted it thousands of times. I still have another 5 Gallon barrel to fill, so next time we may just need to recruit an extra couple of able-bodied volunteers. Don't all rush at once...

The Turn of the Screw - Go-Girl, Put Your Back Into It

Here then, is the Urbane Forager’s Guide to the Cider Press…

·         Pick apples – a mixture of varieties is best to begin with.

·         Wash apples - bung a Campden tablet or two in the bucket first.

·         Chop apples – removing any bad bits (no need to peel or core).

·         Smash apples - into pulp using a piece of timber.

·         Press Pulp - into juice.

o   Add teaspoon of Pectinase (optional but helps clearing).

o   Kill natural yeast – add cider yeast (optional but less risky).

o   Add sugar (not required, unless you want to make alcohol content stronger).

·         Ferment juice in a covered bucket.

·         Transfer cider into a suitable barrel or bottle and allow to settle.

·         Drink!

o   Wassailing (you really should thank the trees that supplied your apples and it’s always provident to obey arcane wisdom and folklore where cider is concerned).



Take Cover and Make Sure Those Children Are Well Earthed



Chunky Chutney

We finally got round to making some Chutney the other night. I tried to think of a witty headline but the only word that rhymed was Putney (do correct me if I'm mistaken) and that's not funny at all. We used Delia’s Stalwart recipe called Old Dowerhouse Chutney. I’m sure there’s a pub quiz expert out there that can tell me what a Dowerhouse is too, but here we are primarily concerned with food and its making.

Stoned Plums

This recipe is really easy - I stoned the wild plums and cut up an appropriate amount of unripe apples, which my mum had thinned from her tree. Then I left the rest to the head cook, simple! Sarah prepared the rest of the ingredients and cooked it for ages – the house reeked of vinegar, it probably helped to clean the inside of the windows too.



I Predict A Riot of Colour, Texture and Flavour



We wanted it quite chunky apparently; and I must say it looked fantastic in the big brass pan. Then we put it in old (but clean) jam-jars. Now we have to be patient for a couple of months as it cures/matures or something.

The Finishing Touches

The finishing touches were supplied by the children, they make the best and most imaginative labels, many of which are nigh-on indecipherable by time we get to eat the produce (actually, that's not fair at all) but the pictures do help a lot.



Now Just Be Patient!