Pressing Issues - Juicy Gossip

We decided that we needed to press the remaining apples, which were hanging around in the house in two huge buckets.

The children had let it be known that this time they wanted to be rewarded for all their hard work and contributions, by something like their own weight in apple juice. They said it was unfair that the last five gallons all got turned into cider, which they cannot drink.

As we had four children on hand to help us with the carrying, pressing and milling, I figured that a bottle each, as well as several cups, of gorgeous fresh apple nectar would be sufficient payment.

Once the procedure got underway everything started to happen, swiftly. The Head Chef was slicing and the kids were ferrying buckets of chopped apples up the garden to the mill; here, the crank was turned enthusiastically until the big bucket underneath was full enough.

Then the bucket load of pommace was emptied into the press, which was in the workshop this time, and the screw was turned down until the juice cascaded into our waiting buckets, bottles and cups.

I have to say that the children did a fantastic job, their boundless energy was a valuable resource and I was mainly relegated to making sure fingers stayed out of the scratter, occasionally applying a little extra muscle to the press and of course hosing all the kit down afterwards.

Once the youngsters had drunk their fill and been sufficiently paid off with bottles of juice for later, I was left with two gallons that I put into demijohns to ferment. I added a little cinnamon stick to each batch because I think this adds a subtle extra essence and somehow seems appropriate as the cold and gloomy evenings creep in on us.

Hell's Kitchen

We had just returned home, after a gorgeous long Sunday walk and managed to get our weary offspring up to bed.

I could not face the trauma of watching the new season of Downton Abbey and so I set about conjuring up a new batch of Elderberry Port.

Our once clean kitchen, soon resembled a Hammer Horror mash-up; in the opening scene, I seemed to be playing Damien Hurst, a role that deftly segued into something between Count Dracula, and Dr. Frankenstein.

I took my assorted bags of Elderberries out of the freezer and the first thing I did (by way of scientific preparation) was to empty one of them, partly onto the floor but mostly into the cutlery drawer!

I cleaned up, as quickly as I could, before the Head Chef spotted the blood red evidence spattered all about the place and continued to further create crimson chaos with my home made chemistry set.

First I boiled up the Elderberries; a process that does rather resemble a seething visit to Satan’s scullery. The smell is intoxicating and as I enthused the archaic brew onward, I’m sure something ancient also stirred, deep within my bones.

Then, after wiping a slightly maniacal grin of my face, I proceeded to sieve off the pulp. I poured the potent liquid onto the sugar and some currents (the recipe said raisins but I was improvising by this stage) and then stirred some more.

I had previously set the yeast to start, and by this time it was looking suitably active. So, after cooling the potion to "body" temperature, the final ingredient was added (with a pinch of wicked cackling). The demonic concoction was then drafted into demijohns and bubblers were added.

By the following morning my toils were no trouble, everything was Hubble Bubble. The rest is simply a matter of being patient…

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





Pretty As A Plum

Better For You Than M & M's

We decided to check out a road where I had spotted lots of fallen fruit last year, to see if any wild/cherry plums were ready to drop yet. As we arrived, we saw quite a few plums on the road and pavement. We also found that the road bordered a cricket pitch, which was even better news.

A tree-full of yellow plums or mirabelles

We found small, slightly pointy, yellow plums (possibly mirabelles) – they looked a bit like pixie hats. We also found reddish orange plums, which were slightly rounder. There were also some green fruits and purple ones but these were still a week off being ripe.

A Tree-full of Red Plums

I find it a real pleasure to gaze up into a tree laden down with colourful fruit – just to appreciate the sheer beauty that Mother Nature can conjure up. This wonder is only enhanced when you know that you can also pluck and eat this sweet, candy coloured cornucopia and it is all hanging there for free.

You Little Beauties

The easiest way to get the ripe plums off the tree is to shake them into a blanket, this way you only get the most ripe ones. There are bound to be a few that miss the blanket or fall on people’s heads, so it’s best to get children to hold it. It takes a while to train them to keep their arms out wide and straight but once you have achieved this, you can martial them into position and give the appropriate branch a good old Heave Ho!

The Good, Old-Fashioned, Blanket Method

What seems odd to me, is that hardly anyone else is going to utilise this gift; and that they will fall onto the ground to be consumed by the birds and wasps. Well, today we saved a few Kilos from this inglorious fate and ate quite a few on the way too.

A Few Kilos of Colourful Fruit

They look so gorgeous and colourful; it almost seems a shame to eat them.

Cherry Picking the Best

People always look at me incredulously, when I tell them that we picked 5 Kgs of ripe cherries in St. Deny’s (close to where we live in the heart of Southampton city).

Pick Me, Pick Me...

However, it is true and here is the proof...

Over 5 Kilos of Cherries

We walked round the corner with our pickers and boxes and set siege to a tree we spotted earlier in the week. It only took us about half an hour on this one tree and there are plenty more left where they came from. 

They Look Just About Ready To Me

We probably picked more that 5 Kgs, but rather a lot got consumed (largely by my daughter) before we even got them home and weighed them.

Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff

We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of competition, although having the Phantom Limb and a telescopic picker does give you something of an advantage over any potential opposition.

The Phantom Limb Fruit Picker in Action

My son prefers his cherries dried, which converts them into large raisins as far as he’s concerned. He helped me stone them beforehand, using the very handy cherry pitting tool that we invested in last year.

Chief Cherry Pitter

There is a potential down side to this abundance though... My daughter had tummy ache today, probably from gobbling down too many in one go!

More Than Enough to Go Around

Perhaps it’s time to get baking...

Wasp Wars & Purple Wine Explosions

One of my earliest attempts at creating foragers wine involved wild damsons, and they turned out to be very wild indeed.

As young lads, we often used to play in the local woods, which involved a quick trip across the local railway branch line, fording the Monks Brook, walking through a cow field and hopping over a style - there was our place of boyhood adventure. There we built dens and tree houses, frightened pheasants with home-made spears, caught lizards, slow worms and grass snakes (we all now know that you should never do this) and fought wars with crab-apples and catapults.

A Lovely Grass Snake

Late one spring, we discovered the foundation ruins of a small building, we called it the Gravediggers cottage; it was probably just a couple of bricks left on the ground.  Next to it we found a damson tree bearing unripe fruit. We planned all kinds of ways to use this purple hoard once it had ripened; including, giving them to mum to make stuff out of, and inevitably… Damson wine of our own recipe.

As spring crept toward summer and we watched for signs of ripe fruit dropping, other, uninvited guests came to join the party, WASPS! The stripy blighters had deliberately built an underground nest, right beneath our tree.  To make matters worse, they were eating OUR damsons. 

Yellow Jackets at Four 'O' Clock!
 That's OK, we've got 2 hours then.

Despite the striped no-fly-exclusion-zone the insects established around OUR tree! The next day we declared war and visited teenage shock and awe upon the wasps, I think we all got stung at least once but we did manage to liberate our tree in the end.
The Damson wine did eventually get made and it cleared to a beautiful pinkish-purple hue, somewhat akin to methylated spirits. Fortunately, it tasted better than meths. I admit that it may have tasted sweeter due to our recent victory but it was sparkling too, fizzing with Champagne like bubbles. If only we had had the foresight to store it in Champagne bottles…

Looks Explosive...

Luckily for all concerned the explosion occurred at night; glass shards embedded themselves in the plaster of the dining room walls and ceiling, and the mess was very messy. You live and hopefully, you learn from your mistakes but my interest in wine making did not stop with damsons; I went on to make others including ginger, elderberry, rice and even water wine. The latter was purely to satisfy my curiosity and personal messianic complex, using only tap water, sugar, and yeast. Needless to say, it tasted quite vile and I never did manage that other thing with the loaves and fishes either.

I should point out that this terrible tale of anarchy, chaos and destruction occurred about 35 years ago, I am now older and wiser. We know, for instance, that wasps play an equally important part in the role of ecology as butterflies and we should not attack or kill them (even to protect a fruity purple hoard).

Summer Fruit Liqueur - Beware!

Now, back to the future and last year I made green walnut schnapps, which now tastes lovely despite looking like used engine oil. I also made a summer fruit liqueur, employing vodka, raspberries, blackberries and other foraged things - it is a beautiful red colour and is dangerously delicious...