What started as a Sunday-morning trip to Ikea got sidetracked - we were early, an hour early, so decided to go for a walk round the nearby reservoir. As soon as we saw the blackberries, we knew we needed to pick some - but had no bag with us, and thought long and hard about what items of clothing could be sacrificed to juice stains. Fortunately at the end of the path someone had dumped several boxes full of (clean) cardboard boxes to be folded, and we rescued some to fill with berries.
Berry picking is one of my most favourite things to do - in the quiet of a Sunday morning, with the traffic distant and a bit of birdsong, wonderful.... In about an hour we picked five boxes full - 400g each - one box went into a nice big blackberry and apple crumble -
and in the pan is the first lot of fruit for blackberry and apple jelly, which made nearly three jars of jelly, and another lot is cooked and dripping through the jelly bag.
The apples on Tony's tree look like they should be ripe, but even the red ones don't come off when you give them that quarter-turn twist that signals readiness -
So many apples - most are still very green, and some are rotting on the branches. Every day the ground is littered with more windfalls, and it's hard to keep up. We still have last year's apple jelly on hand. Time to give some away!
The hunt for apple recipes is on - there are only so many crumbles you can eat, after all.
Caramel Apple Jam - delight in a jar. Stew the apples, caramelise the sugar and water then add the stewed apples and make the jam in the normal way. Fantastic. ( oh and OH is trying his own home made cider!)
ReplyDeleteWe like chunky apple sauce. So, if I had a lot of apples, I would peel/chop it up and cook a bit. then let cool and freeze it. Or bottle it if you prefer. Use in a similar way to redcurrent or cranberry sauce at a meal. Or warmed with yogurt or cream.
ReplyDeleteI also make up pie filling and freeze it in bags to put in pie crusts later.
Sandy