Elderberry syrup

Inspired by last night's episode of countryfile (oh yes!) we went on another foraging expedition today for elderberries. Elderberry syrup is said to be a cure-all medicine as well as being super tasty, more effective than tamiflu (and much safer!) as well as making a tasty mixer for many an alcoholic beverage (it's purely for medicinal purposes, promise!)and, we have discovered, much fun to make...we adapted the recipe based on what we had to hand and based the quantities on a few recipes we found online, they used star anise on the tv, which I bet would've been lovely, but we've run out, so here's what we did...
pick all the berries off their stalks (I reckon we had about 1.5 kg) and put in a pan, just covered with water, add a big chunk of root ginger, 20 cloves and a stick of cinnamon, bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour. Strain through muslin and add 1lb of sugar and the juice of a lemon for every pint of juice you have (we had about 3), stir 'til sugar is dissolved and then boil rapidly for 10 mins. At this point we decided it wasn't syrupy enough and boiled it for too long, and now it's cooled its turned into jam(!) so we have returned it to the heat and diluted it with water, it's now a much happier consistancy and tastes scrummy...I am now rather looking forward to the first cold of the season!

Foraging fun!

I have just had a lovely weekend with an old pal, spent foraging in the hedgerows and woodlands for autumnal abundance! We picked blackberries and elderberries which we made into autumn fruit cobbler:

Put lots of berries in an oven proof dish, sprinkle with sugar and set aside while you make the topping...
For the topping:
100ml milk, slightly warmed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
100g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
75g butter
100g dessicated coconut
50g caster sugar
Add the lemon juice to the milk and set aside. Rub the butter into the flour and baking powder, then add the sugar and coconut, mixing well. Add the milk and lemon juice (which will be a bit gross and curdled, hmmmm) to form a dough which you dollop onto the fruit in sticky blobs, each 'cobbler' not quite touching the next, and bake in the oven at 180 deg. for about half an hour. Yum yum!

Having feasted on such lovelies we decided to go and see what else we could find, feeling in such a joyful and autumnal mood, as I remembered spotting some sloes recently...With much excitement we went looking for, and found, an as yet undiscovered patch of sloes (the location of which I shall of course be keeping secret in true country forager style...) before going on and searching for chestnuts ( it was a bit early for this I feel, and the ones we got were tiny and useless, but we were just in such a fruits of nature mood that we couldn't help ourselves!) We then went home and spent a lovely evening drinking wine, watching a film and nattering about nonsense as we made sloe gin...

Sloe gin: 450g sloes
115g sugar
75cl gin
Prick a hole or two in each and every sloe, (with a blackthorn spike you took from the tree as you were gathering the sloes for personal preference, or a darning needle if not...) this is best done as described, with good friends and a glass or two of something warming, putting them into bottles as you go. When done, add the sugar and then pour on the gin. Give it a good shake and "ooh!" and "aah!" as the gin, sugar and sloes mingle, get cosy and merge into pretty pinks. This mixture needs to be shaken every day (or whenever you're passing, just cos it's fun) for a week, then weekly for a month or two, then strained to remove the fruit, at which point you can drink it, but if you have the will power, it really is better to leave it to mature for a year.