Home Grown in Grantham (Jostaberry Jam)

OK so this post comes from my new weekend abode in Grantham and I admit its been a long time since I posted but I just had to share my latest Wild Foodie find.

I have been watching the berries outside the house grow with interest and not really known what was going to be the end fruit.

Initially we thought we had a gooseberry bush but as the fruits started to show, it was clear that not only were they too small but also starting to turn a pinkinsh red colour. As the months have gone on, the berries have finally turned a deep, almost black colour. Testing the fruits, I was delighted to taste a delicious sweet, sharp flavour almost that of a Blackcurrant. Turning to the mighty Google, I finally discovered that what we have is actually a Jostaberry, which is a hybrid comprised of the blackcurrant, black gooseberry and European gooseberry.

So armed with a big bowl I finally succumbed to the branches heavy leaden with fruit and started picking! The final result, two large bowls of ripe, juicy plump Jostaberrries.

Now what do do with them? Again, scouring the internet I found a few recipes including jams and jellies. As we are not a huge fan of seeds in our jams, I decided to use these babies to make a clear, tasty jelly to be used as a conserve. Loosely following a recipe by Mary Margaret Briggs on Fruit Forum, I let the jam making commence.

I started by washing the Jostaberries and draining in a colander and adding to a large heavy bottomed pan with a small amount of water and set them to come to a boil, then simmer slowly for over 30 minutes.

The smell that filled the kitchen was divine! A rich blackcurrant smell and a large pan of softened jostaberry compote.

At this stage, I have to add that the mix looked so good I decided to split some of the fruit and make into a fruit filled jam so I could compare a Jelly and Jam.

 The next step was to scald my jelly bag and start the straining of the softened fruits. While that was straining I set about sterilising the jars in Milton fluid for 15 minutes, then drying off in a warm oven.

While the jars were drying I started on the jam making by adding the sugar to the fruit pulp and stirring over a medium heat until the sugar dissolved, then boiled the mix for about 10 to 12 minutes. After this time, I tested the jam had reached setting point by putting a small amount onto a clean plate. After about 1 minute, push the jam with your finger. If it has reached setting point, the surface of the jam will wrinkle slightly.

It seems Jostaberries must be quite high in Pectin as the jam seemed to set very quickly. So time to jar up the first batch.

I have to say this jam is probably the nicest I have ever made. The rich purple/black colour is impressive and tastes like a high quality blackcurrant jam.

Time for a cup of tea and a scone, methinks!

Elderflower Cordial

I love the taste of Elderflower cordial and it's particularly rewarding to know you can make it so cheaply that you'll never have buy an expensive bottle of it ever again.

Elderflowers typically burst into flower at the end of May and you can spot them in many places and smell their beautiful summer scent.

The important thing about choosing and picking Elderflowers for consumption is to choose a good healthy bush or tree away from pollution so avoid the roadside sites. The best time to pick is after a spell of rain, followed by a warm dry day or two of sunshine. Choose the pure white large heads, without signs of dry, browning petals and don't pick from too low down, to avoid risk of picking contaminated blossoms!

Once you have a large carrier bag full, get home and start the recipe as follows:

Elderflower Cordial

20 large heads of elderflower
1.8kg granulated sugar
1 litre water
75g citric acid (from chemist)
2 lemons

Place the elderflowers in a large bowl.
In a pan, mix the sugar with the water and gently bring to the boil, stiring until the sugar has disolved.
Pour over the elderflowers and stir in the citric acid. Grate in the zest of two lemons and then slice the lemons and add the slices to the bowl too.
Cover and leave for 24 hours.
Strain through a jelly bag or a double layer of muslin, then decant into sterilised bottles and store in a cool, dark place.

It is vitally important that bottles are scrupulously clean and sterilised. This way the cordial will keep for several months. An alternative is to freeze the cordial in plastic bottles.

Try it served with fizzy water or gin, or even spooned over vanilla ice cream.

The birds and the seeds

I love my new blackbird family but I'm struggling with Daddy B tramping over my beds looking for worms to feed the young 'uns. Its really hard to know what has priority? I have struggled to get Dwarf French beans to grow in the past; the seeds rot in the soil only then to be frazzled by the sun once they emerge from the earth. The finally survivors look set to work until I discovered Tess, my dog, munching the tops off!

I have now got a few precious seedlings above ground, looking healthy and protected by a mesh cage, but what did I find today? Yes, a seedling pulled up and earth disturbed! The cheeky little BIrdy must have gone under the cage to get to a meaty morsel! I returned the injured seedling to the earth but I have no idea if my emergency 911 treatment will allow it to live long enough to see bean producing days. Why am I so unlucky with french beans I wonder? Maybe its revenge for not favouring German over GCSE French!!!

The Miracle of life

Chris was outside pruning our buddleia and found a birds nest. He picked Tom up to look inside and then came running to me saying, "Mummy, I've just seen some chicks." Not quick believing him we investigated the nest and he was quite right. Amazingly there were two tiny blackbird chicks, eyes still fused shut and two unhatched eggs. We quickly left the tree alone and allowed mummy blackbird to continue to nurse her babies. She is a grand looking bird who I'd seen in our garden regularly. She perches on the compost bin quite unfazed by Tess, our dog who watches with interest.

About an hour ago I saw her fly off to gather food so I took an opportunity to photograph the nest. Sure enough, the chicks were healthy and now three! I feel overwhelmed by the fragility of these tiny creatures. Mother nature sure is wonderful.

Honey and Walnut Bread

My foody friend Dave asked for my recipe for Honey and Walnut loaf. Although it contains nothing grown in my garden, I did feel it fitted our self-sustainable lifestyle and more importantly, a good enough recipe to share here.

We have a good quality bread maker with a seed dispenser, which is really important if you want good bread. It also has a timer, which is great if you like hot fresh bread in the morning. We have the Panasonic SD255 (shown below) and I can really recommend it. We have used it almost every day for over 2 years and it is still going strong.

The other important thing (to us at least) is that you use good ingredients. We make bread almost every day so wanted to buy flour in bulk to save money. We found a fabulous supplier here in Cambridgeshire who sources and grinds the wheat locally in his own mill. Fosters Mill in Swaffham Prior is one of the three remaining working tower mills in Cambridgeshire and the owner Jonathan Cook is helpful and a pleasure to buy from.

They grind organic wheat, certified by the Soil Association and wherever possible, is sourced in East Anglia. We buy large 25kg sacks of flour so we don’t need to use the car too often on shopping trips. The wholewheat is £24 for a 25kg sack, while the white is £30; a bit more expensive but stops the kids complaining about ‘brown bread’.

I really recommend getting your flour from Fosters Mill. They also supply smaller bags if you don’t want a huge sack and you can buy mail order too.

So, on with the bread recipe.

HONEY & WALNUT BREAD

Ingredients

• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 250g wholewheat flour
• 225g strong white flour
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 300ml Water

In seed dispenser tray:

• Raisins
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
  
• Roughly broken walnuts (not too small)

You need to add all the ingredients in the correct order as listed above.

Setting is Wholewheat > Bake > Raisin and takes 5 hours to bake. You will need to check your machine for its own settings.

Here is a photo of the loaf I made today. I hope you have success and let me know how you got on baking your own.

Lettuce gather here together....

The start of summer always brings a desire for fresh crisp salad. Again I cheated and bought some small plug plants from our local farmers market. A Lactuca Sativa and a Cos. After a couple of weeks they have grown well and although we have eaten most of the Red Sativa, the lovely crisp cos is 'hearting up*' nicely and will be ready to cut and eat any day. (*Thanks Geoff, for that term!)
The rocket has been successful and I am totally taken by the taste. Now I know why it is so popular. You can see the pot I sowed in April has produced lots of yummy leaves which are being eaten daily by my husband for his lunch. I have planted another 2 pots but now need to buy more seeds as I think my summer 2010 obsession is certain to be rocket salad!

Blast off....we have Rocket!

I got some free seeds from the BBC Good Food Magazine for Rocket. I have never really eaten rocket but hey! lets give it a go....