brambles – Donich Website

Jelly

donich_admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 14:04:18 +0000

After ‘panicking’ because someone was poaching all the brambles, the season got into full swing this week and there are actually so many now that twenty people could go at them without making a serious dent. It is really a shame because I have now made 18 small jars of jelly, have processed and frozen enough juice for the same again, and also have approx. 20lb of unprocessed fruit in the freezer for pies etc. I’m not sure I can use much more, but on the other hand I don’t like seeing it go to waste, so perhaps I will get a couple more batches.
Two good tips for making the jelly:-
a) A sugar/jam thermometer is soooo useful. For years I have been messing about with saucers in the fridge and wrinkle tests. The thermometer takes a lot of the pain out of that.
b) Having said that – I could not get my jelly to come to 104C which is the magic setting point for jam (a bit lower for high pectin fruit). Try as I might it would not go over 102C, and the amount of boiling time didn’t seem to make any difference. I’ve had a recurrent problem with getting jam to set – and this time I discovered the problem. I had scaled the recipe (the River Cottage – Hedgerow jelly one) up three times because I had a lot of fruit. Don’t do this because it makes it difficult to get a uniform high temperature across the batch. As soon as I divided the syrup into three batches I had no problems getting it to 104C – and as soon as it reached that point it set fine. Actually you can see the change in the consistency of the syrup as it goes over the setting point even while it is still boiling.

The new jelly is very good on homemade bread – in fact it is one of my most favouristest foods. Odd when you think that it is also about the cheapest food you can get.

Brambles

donich_admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 21:59:29 +0000

There are a lot of brambles (blackberries to southerners) around this area, and every year I make jelly from them, plus freeze several boxes for use over the year in assorted pies, crumbles etc.

In previous years no one else seemed to have come after them much, with the exception of one elderly gentleman who only “worked” the area close to the village. But yesterday I went up to one of my prime picking grounds on the hill behind the scout centre – only to find that someone else had been there first! All I managed to get were some poor remnants they had left behind.

So I am going to have to hustle this year if I am going to get a good supply (particularly as I have just bought a load of new jam jars). I do have one idea of a good place but I am certainly not putting its location on here in case my rival reads it.

In general, autumn is just setting in here. The trees in the garden are just starting to lose their leaves and there is a territorial battle starting between this years’ brood of young jays on which pair is going to own this prime feeding ground.

No witches here…

donich_admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:52:49 +0000

We’ll be sorted against any witchcraft activity here this year – I have never seen anything like the rowan trees around the village. They are dripping with berries, to the extent that some of the branches are dragging down to the ground with the weight. I’ve never made any use of them in cooking myself, though I believe you can make jelly out of them.

The deer like them anyway – as (not to put too fine a point on it) you can tell from their poo on the paths at this time of year.

I picked a few brambles today and it will soon be time for jelly making activities – must get all that done before I go off to Rome.

A la Recherche du pies perdu

donich_admin — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 20:24:25 +0000

In the rather turgid “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” by Proust, the narrator dips a madeleine into a cup of tea and the smell and taste bring back a vivid memory of his childhood. I had a similar experience with a pie the other day (luckily it only has inspired me to write a couple of paragraphs rather than a 1000 page epic). I made it out of some of the new plums and a box of brambles I had frozen last year and wanted to clear out before I pick some more this year. It tasted lovely, and it brought back to me suddenly my first ever day on the hills..

I must have been about seven or eight and my Dad took me to climb Cat Bells, which if you know your Beatrix Potter, is the hill where Mrs Tiggy-Winkle lived. We went across Derwent Water from Keswick, climbed up to the 450m summit and had lunch there while I looked for the ‘little door’ in the back of the hill (I didn’t find it). The point I am getting to is that my Mum had baked bramble pies, and the one I made, suddenly reminded me of those, and of a lovely day I had in my childhood.

Here are some of the pies I made – I must report that there was not a soggy bottom amongst them.

I also made a swiss roll and tried piping a pattern into it like they did on the bake off. It turned out nice looking (though I am not sure that what was supposed to look like flowers and vines didn’t more resemble tentacles) and tasted good too.

Brambles

donich_admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 20:42:47 +0000

When I was a child, my family and I would go bramble picking several times around the start of autumn. Between the four of us we would gather a serious amount (I’m talking 40lb or so), but at the cost of our hands being scratched to bits. Then my dad would make bramble jelly, and his hands would be stained bright purple with the juice for weeks afterwards – he was an Excise Officer in the Civil Service, so goodness knows what people made of that. The jelly was very very nice though, and in addition, when we got our first freezer in late 1970s, we would also freeze enough to make pies and crumbles for the rest of the year.

Coming back to the present, we have lots of brambles around the paths here, and for weeks I have been keeping an eye on them, waiting for the first crop to be ready for picking. I’ve nearly finished my strawberry jam – so I have it in mind to make some jelly of my own. Anyway, yesterday I went out at lunchtime, and noticed that there were a load nearly ripe by the side of the river. Come 5pm, finished work for the day and set out with my bowl to gather them.

But what did I find but that a ‘thief’ had stolen in and pinched my crop from underneath my nose!! The grass was all trampled down and the best of the berries gone. In order to get enough for a pie (because most of them aren’t ripe yet) I had to take my life in my hands and climb across a ditch to get to some untouched bushes at the back. Luckily the other picker was either less agile, less brave, or less stupid than me – so I did get enough on this occasion, but if I want my main crop I am obviously going to have to be a bit swifter off the mark.

Actually I am really only joking – it is actually quite nice to see that someone else apart from me actually wants them – the same didn’t apply to the raspberries earlier this year, which seemed about to be left to go to waste if I hadn’t picked them.

So I made an apple and bramble pie for tomorrow when we are having friends over for dinner. They are hoping to see some wildlife, so fingers crossed that it will oblige. Actually tonight I have seen a load of bats which we don’t normally get in such numbers.