Fruit Harvest

Picked a (small) bucket of Elderberries a short while ago, could have got loads more but had to return for dinner. Will go back tommorow.

 

Picked some blueberries today. Looks like im going to try blueberry jam ?

 

Blueberries can be frozen if you don't want to make jam.

 

Just easier for me to store as jam as freezer is always full. Everthing tastes weird after being in the freezer here. Too much haddock and salmon in it no doubt

Btw is there much pectin in blueberries?

Just googled it and the answer is yes very high. So jam time as its still raining

 

My freezer is full of red, black, white and pink currants. Had to do a lot of redcurrant jam with fruit from last year, just to get this years in.

 

picked a bucket full of peaches yesterday, now what to do with them all?

 

You could make a peach preserve.

 

Picked over 10lbs more in about 20 minutes, taking total to 14lbs 8ozs, then spent absolutely ages stripping the berries and skimming off unripe floaters, I hate that bit. 10lbs of stripped, ripe berries ready to be stesm juice extracted tomorrow morning.

The earliest berries are already overipe and shrivelled and I doubt if there'll be any left by September, szme with the Blackberries. But look in older books and they're classified as September fruits.

 

The rain has made all the ripe Blackberries go squishy and completely unsuitable for eating so I'll be forced to use every single one of them for winemaking.

 

The most productive Blackberry patches finished before the end of August, and Elderberries weren't far behind. Only enough Blackberries now for eating with ice cream, the days over buckets full for winemaking have finished. Bottled enough juice for 12 galls of Blackberry Wine, 18 galls of Blackberry & Elderberry Wineand 3 galls of really fruity 'Port' mix for fortifying with brandy.

Not many Damsoms on the local wild trees, but picked enough for 2 litres of Damson Gin plus some to eat.

Got enough Crab Apples picked to go with scavenged/scrounged cookers and eaters to make 12 galls of cider.

Noticing a bit of a theme here?

 

Sounds like you are having a good harvest @Scrungee but that lot would make my sugar levels go through the roof and make my waistline expand

 

It's OK, I completely ferment out all the sugar

 

My apologies as I have never made an cordials etc so didn’t know what the process was and that you could get rid of the sugar content

Would you like me to say Hi to Julian next time I see him?

 

Bumper crop of wallnuts on the local trees, but they need a few more weeks.

Plenty of Hazelnuts this year, ones shelled so far and a colander full still to do.

I intend going there Wednesday next week (visiting Ham Wall either on way down or on way home) EDIT: Unlikely as rain now forecast, or sometime 24-28 Sept, plus we're all staying nearby in October (Red Deer rut).

 

I pulped my 20lbs of crab apples this afternoon ready for pressing, but pulp was so dry I thought it would be like trying to get blood out of stone pressing them, it was like damp sawdust.

Never known them so hard and dry, so I added 4L of water, sulphite and loads of pectolase to break down the pulp and I'll leave it 24 hours before pressing.

Sweet chesnuts are tiny this year and don't look like they'll be worth gathering.

More funny weather stuff, we've been picking ripe walnuts for 2 days now, the earliest I can remember. These are the first from 2 days ago. Those nuts plus the ones we picked this morning have already been turned into walnut cookies.