The Good Life - Harvest festival
I hate Sunday nights. Usually. The dread of going back to work the next day, the shock of how quickly the weekend has gone, but mostly it's the sheer frustration at knowing that I have got nowt done, been nowhere or done nowt, or if I have been doing a spot of DIY or housework, I've left the house as more of a shit hole at the end if a weekend than it was at the beginning on Friday night.
This Sunday was different. My wife even remarked that wasn't the miserable bastard that I usually am - she even asked if I was ok!
She was right, but what was the cause of my "chillaxed" demeanour?
Well, I had spent a lovely Saturday afternoon with my wife and kids picking blackberries from the fields and woods close to where we live. It was an unusually warm sunny day for September, very pleasant.
Soon, our two small cartons were crammed with blackberries and we couldn't carry any more. But we also had a carrier bag, so I suggested we pick elderberries as well. Now, I've never picked these before - I didn't know what they looked like until about a week ago!
Rewind a week: We were at Beamish museum, and had popped into Pockerley Manor on the site - a Georgian manor house with a small holding. Inside, the museum staff, in period costume, were making elderberry cordial. I watched what they were doing, saw the berries they were using and had a taste of the juice they had prepared - lovely. I recognized the berries straightaway, as you can see them all over at this time of year. So I thought, I can do that.
Fast forward a week, and a Lidl carrier bag full of elderberries later, I was all set to start making some cordial. A quick check on the internet confirmed that we had indeed picked the right berries: Sambucus negris (yes sambuca comes from the oil of this plant). They are poisonous so can't be eaten straight from the branch - they have to be boiled in water for 20 minutes at least.
So on Sunday morning, this is what we set about doing. After boiling them for 20 minutes, you strain the mixture through some muslin to get the juice free from bits if you are making cordial. (Alternatively you can use the whole berries in jam or chutney).
Pop the juice back in the pan, add some sugar and boil for about ten minutes.
The resulting cordial juice was 'propa lush like' - and it's supposed to be good for fighting colds.
I also had a go at making apple chutney from the bountiful harvest of apples we got this year off the two trees in our garden. Turned out de-lish. Oh, and I made apple and blackberry crumble from the product of our foraging and apple harvesting activities.
Rock and roll, do I know how to live or what?!
This Sunday was different. My wife even remarked that wasn't the miserable bastard that I usually am - she even asked if I was ok!
She was right, but what was the cause of my "chillaxed" demeanour?
Well, I had spent a lovely Saturday afternoon with my wife and kids picking blackberries from the fields and woods close to where we live. It was an unusually warm sunny day for September, very pleasant.
Soon, our two small cartons were crammed with blackberries and we couldn't carry any more. But we also had a carrier bag, so I suggested we pick elderberries as well. Now, I've never picked these before - I didn't know what they looked like until about a week ago!
Rewind a week: We were at Beamish museum, and had popped into Pockerley Manor on the site - a Georgian manor house with a small holding. Inside, the museum staff, in period costume, were making elderberry cordial. I watched what they were doing, saw the berries they were using and had a taste of the juice they had prepared - lovely. I recognized the berries straightaway, as you can see them all over at this time of year. So I thought, I can do that.
Fast forward a week, and a Lidl carrier bag full of elderberries later, I was all set to start making some cordial. A quick check on the internet confirmed that we had indeed picked the right berries: Sambucus negris (yes sambuca comes from the oil of this plant). They are poisonous so can't be eaten straight from the branch - they have to be boiled in water for 20 minutes at least.
So on Sunday morning, this is what we set about doing. After boiling them for 20 minutes, you strain the mixture through some muslin to get the juice free from bits if you are making cordial. (Alternatively you can use the whole berries in jam or chutney).
Pop the juice back in the pan, add some sugar and boil for about ten minutes.
The resulting cordial juice was 'propa lush like' - and it's supposed to be good for fighting colds.
I also had a go at making apple chutney from the bountiful harvest of apples we got this year off the two trees in our garden. Turned out de-lish. Oh, and I made apple and blackberry crumble from the product of our foraging and apple harvesting activities.
Rock and roll, do I know how to live or what?!
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