Yuletide Traditions

Another Yuletide is looming fast and the stormy weather has been perfectly suitable. We have been busy with all the normal preparations and arrangements. We cut our own Christmas tree from a local quagmire (nursery) and this has been a fun, and inevitably muddy, tradition in our family for years. Then we spent about 2 days in the loft hunting for the lights, which were actually buried, deep in my son's bedroom.

Venus has been shining brightly in the East each morning. I'm far from superstitious, but I'm sure that this will be bringing love into our homes. Although, just in case, we did also pop out and harvest a big carrier bagful of mistletoe, to hang around the house. This also always makes a welcome gift to friend and neighbours.

I have also been siphoning & bottling this season's cider, and I'm pleased to report that it is tasting mighty fine already, and will only improve with time.  We are looking forward to adding some spices and mulling several bottles, to take to parties.

We also have 2 gallons of fine rose wine to bottle, this is the produce of our grape growing escapades this year. Obviously, this needs more time to mature but all the signs are good and I have high hopes for it being drinkable!

Christmas is Coming, Apparently!

Christmas is coming, apparently. I'm sure nobody had noticed, so, hopefully this post will be a timely reminder... Don't forget to make a note on the 25th (December) on your calendar. You might, for instance, want to consider some kind of preparation in advance.

I have been busy creating Sloe Gin; Sloes seemed thin on the ground this year but fortunately I stashed a load in the freezer earlier on. With gin, it occurs to me that we gathered the Juniper Berries during the Summer, so no one can accuse me of not planning in advance.

I harvested some Green Walnuts in June and this was the beginning of my Vin de Noix, which is now bottled and ready for those cold Winter nights. I added some spices this year to make it even more seasonal.

During July my son and I gathered a bucket-load of Elderberries and then kickstarted my Elderberry wine. This is the perfect archaic, alchemical brew for spicing up into Mulled wine for friends and festive gatherings. Mulled Cider also always goes down well at parties, and this has all now been safely bottled and stored.

My favourite Chunky Pear & Walnut Chutney makes a nice home-made gift and my wife has now added a batch of Sweet Chilli Jam to our cupboard bound cannon.

All that remains now is to forage some Mistletoe and create some Xmas door wreaths. Hopefully the family will be kept so busy making and distributing things that they won't even notice that their are no presents under the tree yet... Actually, that reminds me, we need a Christmas tree!

Finally, while we are talking about presents, don't forget that the Urbane Forager book is the perfect gift to buy for virtually everyone!

Have a Cool Yule

The Dark Season Cometh

I hope everyone is prepared for the festive season. we have been wrapping gifts and posting cards. I think that the mythical white Christmas is highly unlikely as the weather has been unseasonably warm, misty and generally dreary.

I keep spotting leafless trees, still filled with apples but now we do not have the time to harvest them. Having said that, yesterday I managed to press another gallon of Apple juice out of some remaining fruit, while listening to the Saints play on the radio. 

The Apples and Pears had been laying about in my shed for a month or two and looked a little worse for wear but they were soon battered into submission. This  juice will be left to turn into cider, in order to replenish our four gallon stock that will no doubt be slightly diminished over the holiday.

We have also cracked into some of our frozen Mulberries; I wanted to make Mulberry gin and advised my daughter, who had a cold and nasty sore throat, to create a medicinal Mulberry cordial. When mixed with lemon juice and honey, this delicious tinctuer quickly soothed the pain and brought her smile back.

We have gathered Mistletoe to share with friends and neighbours and the kids have been building wreaths, one to decorate our front door and one for Grandma's. We gathered all the necessary foliage with a quick visit to Deepdene, our local wood. This consists of Hazel whips, to create the circular frame, Ivy to weave around and tie the hazel in, evergreen leaves woven in for texture and bulk and finally holly with berries for added colour.

We will be having a fire in our garden on the Winter Solstice, weather permitting. It would be fun to find a stone circle to visit. Stonehenge is quite close, as is Avebury but the thought of getting there for dawn and then going on to work, is enough to persuade me that a few extra hours in bed might be more beneficial. I'm mainly looking forward to a weeks worth of holiday, a smattering of parties and some nice walks with family and friends.

Super Solstice, Cool Yule & Natural New Year

Christmas is coming and thanks to our virtually Paleo diet (that bit is probably a lie), we hopefully won't get too fat.

We chopped down and decorated a small tree; the children gathered plenty of greenery and made a wreath for the front door.

We also harvested enough mistletoe to bring the love into our house during the Halcyon days and well into the New Year. We spread plenty around our neighbours and friends too.

I have been very industrious in my bottling of Sloe Gin, Taybury Gin, Mullberry Gin and Cherry Vodka. It all looks very stylish in neat square little bottles.

Meanwhile my wife was making mincemeat with the children and we soon had a tray filled with hot mince pies to add to the mix, this made the house smell very seasonal.

I made several bottles of Mulled Wine. This time I used 2013 Elderberry Port as a base and poured it over the Sloes that were left after bottling the Sloe Gin. I added some nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice and cloves and left it to soak for a couple of weeks. I then strained off the resultant potent brew and bottled it.

This archaic alchemical potion won't just warm the cockles of the heart, it will blow the bloody doors off it! Perfect with Mince Pies when visiting friends...

Have a Super Solstice a Cool Yule and a Happy New Year! x0x0

Now, That's a Christmas Tree!

Don't forget to put, the Urbane Forager book on your Christmas present list. 

Order your copy now!

You can buy this lovely book for your friends and family from all good book-stores or Amazon.

the Urbane Forager: Fruit and Nuts for Free

Author: Alan Gibson

ISBN: 978-1-78507-300-7

The best Urbane Forager images are now on Pinterest. Please follow & share.

Exciting Events

We are organising a free community walk with Clare Diaper.

The last walk we did was a huge success, so please share this info to help promote the event.

We meet at 1:30 pm Sun 29th November, at the St Denys train station (Car park of Great South Western pub).

We will walk through St Denys and over Cobden bridge into Riverside Park with the potential to carry on along the Itchen river to Mansbridge, depending on the available light.

I will be pointing out lots of fruit trees that I know in this area including Cherry, Apple, Plum, Crab Apple, Pear and even Mistletoe in my guise as the Urbane Forager.

Clare will be talking about climate change and the potential for river levels to rise as a result. The walk is free and anyone can come but it may involve some rough terrain, so people should dress appropriately and be responsible for their own safety.

If anyone would like to purchase copies of the Urbane Forager book on the day, please notify me in advance through here or on alan@wingchun.org.uk and I will bring some along.

Please put this date in your diary and come along to discover some exciting new things about our lovely city.

Another interesting event is the, Goswell and Milne Midwinter Pop Up Supper Club. This takes place on 5th Dec 7:30 pm at the Art House Cafe. Tickets for this event can be obtained here.

The best Urbane Forager images are now on Pinterest. Please follow us there too & spread the word.

Walk Out in Winter

I hope all our readers got what they deserved from Santa this year. We were busy making wreaths for the home and even found Mistletoe on the local Pitch and Put golf course. Our Mulled Cider and Elderberry Wine seemed to go down very well at various Christmas celebrations.

After a while though, I was getting cabin fever and so we had to get out for a couple of hikes, to blow away the cobwebs and burn off the mince pies. The New Forest is always very convenient for us and we ended up marching out for a brilliant frosty walk with friends around Bramshaw.

We also braved a blustery day and scrambled up and around Old Winchester Hill in the fantastic Meon Valley. This ancient place was once a Bronze Age Enclosure, then later an Iron Age hill fort. It has burial mounds on top and the incomparable view stretches for miles, out over the Solent to the aforementioned New Forest and the Isle of Wight.

There is an abundance of interesting landscapes to be enjoyed on the South Downs but the Meon Valley and especially the area around Old Winchester Hill, are too interesting not to explore in greater depth. Our trip took in beautiful villages, fields of Watercress and the meandering Meon River that was once the main transport route to London from the South coast, before the silting up of the estuary (now an important nature reserve) allowed Southampton to take the lead.

On the way up the hill, we took refuge from the wind's icy blast by spending a while clambering around in a grove of  Yew trees, which for all I know, could have been there since the first human occupation. Then it was out onto the crest, to admire the view and attempt to cling on to a wildly flapping kite.

While the kids were enjoying being dragged about by the howling gale, I discovered a plantation of Juniper bushes, hunkered down and clinging resolutely to the side of the hill. These shrubs are the only native UK fir trees and are now seriously endangered due to disease and also because of their spiny leaves being nibbled up by sheep and rabbits. Interestingly I also found Juniper on Danebury, another local Iron Age hill fort. 

I gathered a pocketful of ripe, black Juniper berries to take home; their exotic aroma adds a unique spice to many meat recipes, as well as being the main flavouring in Gin. It was a good job I was wearing gloves, as the needles of this bush are quite savage. By the time we got home, we were thoroughly tired and all of us had a ruddy glow in our cheeks.

So readers, what have you resolved to do differently in 2015? Personally, I'm going to finish and publish, the Urbane Foragers Field Guide. Actually, I think I'm going to need a more snappy title for this forthcoming book, so please, send in your suggestions...

Perfect Perry and Mulled Cider

the Mayors Pears

Christmas is coming (in case you hadn’t noticed) and I decided to turn our surplus Pears into scrumptious Perry! First I had to dig out the cider press, which I had not thought we would use again this year.

Looks Messy but Tastes Delicious 

Then we smashed them to tiny pieces in a bucket, using a branch of a tree and squeezed out all the precious juice. I gave the children a taste of the plain juice but they were not overly keen and preferring the gallons of apple juice that we have stashed away. So the obvious thing was to get it fermenting.

Pearly Pear Juice

Pear Juice ferments very vigorously, so I did it in a bucket and then transferred it to a demi-jon once it had calmed down a bit. A month or so later it finished bubbling, cleared beautifully and tasted remarkably drinkable, so I bottled it up.

Hubble Bubble

At the same time I decided to make some Mulled Cider and Wine, in readiness for the Xmas season. I always find that a simple recipe is best for these things. Here is what I use…

• Cider or Wine (home-made of course)
• 1 x Nutmeg
• 1 x Stick of Cinnamon
• 6 x Cloves
• 1 x Star Anise

The wine/cider is placed into a large saucepan with the spices and gently heated to simmering. Do not allow it to boil, unless you want to drive off the alcohol. By this time the whole house takes on a very Christmassy aroma.

Home Made Drink

After 20 mins turn down the heat and leave the mixture for an hour or so then re-heat and strain off the herbs and spices and bottle. The drink can then be heated up again prior to serving; you can add a few white almonds and raisins as an extra treat. 

Elderberry Port: 2011 a Good Vintage

I processed my Cider first and then reused the soggy spices on some of last year’s Elderberry Port. I stored the mulled alcohol in Kilner jars. The Cider proved very popular at our first festive get-together.

Summer Summary

Hazelnuts are now starting to fall, so make like squirrels and get collecting. They come in many different shapes and sizes and only trial will tell which nuts hold the biggest kernels. I have my favourite trees but these nutritious little beauties are very common in hedges and woodland all over the UK.

Hazelnuts will keep very well in a dry place. So, if you don’t cook or eat all of them straight away, you can save some until Christmas. They will keep a lot longer than that too; I recently finished cracking my supply from last year, to make space for this year’s crop!

Apples and Pears are still ripening on the trees and they will soon be ready to pick. I have been scoping out my favourite local trees to see how well they are doing. When fruit trees supply a heavy crop one year, they tend to have a bit of a rest the following year, so it’s well worth checking before you make any plans.

In due course, we will be organising an Apple Day at Mansbridge Community Orchard. This fun annual event is likely to be held in early October.

Other things to be thinking about at this time of year include Elderberries, Sloes and Medlars, all of which are plentiful and can be converted in to an array of delightful and delicious hedgerow treats.

Blackberries and Mulberries are still very abundant at the moment and you can always freeze any that you or your children do not greedily gobble up.

Crab Apples can be processed into a great many different preserves and drinks and there are loads available for free at the moment.

As Autumn begins, It’s always worth keeping an eye on the Sweet Chestnuts. It’s far too early to collect them yet, but it’s always good to bear these magnificent trees in mind.

Frosty days might seem a long way off at the moment, but the seasons still turn and keen observation of change is a key weapon in the forager's arsenal.

a

Awesome Autumnal Update

Trick or Treat

We might well be heading for a cold/wet/windy/frosty Winter, but no one complained about the sizzling summer that ripened everything, ready for the bumper Autumnal harvest this year.

Crab Apples at Mansbridge Community Orchard

Elderberries were abundant and we picked a sufficient amount to make a gallon of Port from one tree, during a Picknik at Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort.

Red Devils at St Mary's

It’s hard to get across just how many Apple trees there are on public land, loaded with free fruit. We live busy lives like everyone else, yet the children and I collected over 200 Kgs of delicious ripe apples this October and that was before we even ventured into Mansbridge Community Orchard.

Apples by the Bucket-load

Our Apple store is filled to the brim, a stock which should easily last us into next Spring. We created 11 Gallons of Cider, so that  should last longer, even after talking thirsty friends and Christmas into account. It beats me why anyone buys apples from the supermarket.

Autumn Beeches and Holly

A couple of brief but timely visits to local Walnut trees yielded more than enough to see us well past Christmas. Hazelnuts were also prolific this year, these I mostly gathered by filling my pockets during lunchtime forays around Hedge End; I didn't need to look anywhere else but I'm sure there were plenty everywhere.

A Great Year for Shuffling Through Dry Leaves

Some of our favourite pear trees have been shamefully destroyed but fortunately friendly neighbours came to the rescue and we poached some and added a load more to the cider; judging by the taste, this was a good idea.

Plenty of Nuts for Xmas

We seemed to be too busy pressing apples to collect many chestnuts this year. I visited Telegraph Hill, but spent most of my time simply soaking up the special atmosphere.

Squash Army!

My son scrambled up the Medlar tree in the University grounds and in about 10 minutes we had picked enough to make a new batch of wine. I also picked enough Sloes, during my lunchtime wanderings around Hedge End, to make Sloe Gin and Sloe Wine.

Crackling Lightning

We are still eating our way through the army of squash that we grew at our allotment; it was a very good year here too and my shelter and fruit cage are still standing after all those exciting storms. 

Selling Mistletoe for the School Xmas Fayre

This Winter, if I find time, I will be building a compost heap, from up-cycled pallet wood on the site (that's how exciting my life is). 

Bye Bye Office, for a While Anyway...

Enjoy your Christmas holiday and let's hope for a brilliant New Year.