Autumn Foraging

Sloe gin, Hawthorn jelly, Rosehip syrup, Nettle pesto and Nettle soup

Shiny powerhouses packed with Vitamin C

The swallows have departed for about a week, and earlier this week we have seen the autumn equinox with an equal balance of night and day. Now the nights rapidly become longer. Autumn is in full swing and the pickings are rich when out on any walk at the moment. I had a great foraging session in Kent on Friday with my Mum. We gathered haws, hips, sloes and nettles.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of demonstrating at Belsize Eco Week and used my gatherings for a cook up to the Hampstead Heath foragers. One of the most popular tasters was the nettle soup. Nettles are in season again and are highly nutritious, abundant and free. The nettle pesto served on little squares of bread is always a novelty and a big crowd pleaser.

Nettle pesto See here for Nettle Soup recipe and Nettle Pesto. (Note that soup & pesto recipes were made in the Spring, so omit the wild garlic and for the nettle pesto, use Kent cobnuts - now in season)

The magical hawthorn tree is a delight all year round and now the fragrant blossoms of May have born deep red berries. Haw jelly is said to be good with meat, and by coincidence I was making a huge venison stock today and realised how this would be a natural marriage, assuming that deer would probably be foraging on these berries. To finish a game sauce with a spoon of haw jelly would be an interesting experiment and one I will reporting on this week.

Amongst my haul were sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn, which is a relation of the plum. The blackthorn blossom is a joyful spring sighting. Miles Irving the forager told me that these blossoms make a wonderful almond flavoured infusion. The colour of these plump berries is magnificent. I pondered what to do with them..... sloe jelly is a possibility but my larder is somewhat groaning with various jellies and so opted for sloe gin. This takes about 3 months to mature and so will make a welcome fireside tipple in the mid winter.

Rosehips are a taste of childhood. At the demonstration many faces smiled at the evocation of taste memory on trying some rosehip syrup. One visitor from Belarus told how she made rosehips with her grandmother. They would scrape out the seeds from each hip, which seems greulling labour. However, what a lovely way to pass an evening to be chatting and story telling whilst making rosehips for tea and syrup for the winter ahead.

Rosehip Syrup

Wild rose hips

Rosehips are abundant and very easy to find. The hips are where a rose had been and now turns to seed. I followed Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe as follows:

The hips picked and cleaned

1Kg hips

1Kg sugar

1. Pick through the hips, removing the stalks and remains of the rose. Wash, drain and roughly chop (or blitz in food processor).
2. Bring 2 litres of water to the boil and add the rosehips, bring to the boil and turn off the heat - infuse for half an hour.
3. Strain through a jelly bag or a colunder lined with a tea towel.
4. Return the pulp back to the pan with 2 litres of water and repeat the same exercise.
5. Discard the pulp.
6. Combine the 2 rosehip waters and boil hard until reduced by half.
7. Add the sugar and boil hard for 5 minutes.
8. Pour into seralised bottles.

Sloe Gin

500gm sloes

750ml gin

125gm caster sugar

1. Pick over the sloes and remove stalks. Wash and drain.
2. Prick each sloe with a cocktail stick and put in a large steralised jar.
3. Add the sugar, followed by the gin.
4. Shake the jar until the sugar has melted.
5. Put in a dark place and shake every other day for a week.
6. Shake once a day until the sugar is dissolved. Store in a dark place for 3 months, giving it a shake every now and then, by which time the sloe gin will be ready for drinking or decanting into bottles for christmas presents. (It will keep longer if decanted).

Hawthorn Jelly

Haws from the hawthorn tree

Strain the pulp & juice over night

• 500gms haws
• 2 cups water
• 125 gm sugar
• 1 lemon

1. Pick over the haws, removing stalks. Wash and drain.
2. Add 2 cups of water and bring to the boil and simmer for an hour, mashing every now and then.
3. Strain through a jelly bag, preferably all night.
4. Measure the juice and add 450gms of sugar to each 600ml of juice.
5. Heat the juice in a pan and add the sugar and juice of one lemon, bring to the boil and test for setting point.
6. Pour into hot steralized jars and seal.

Elderflower Cordial, The Essence of Summer - Cinderella goes to the ball.

Elderflowers in their first flush, shimmering like Cinderella's dress at the Prince's ball

The flowers infusing

The elderflowers have been bursting into millions of tiny white flowers and with the floral erruption comes a sweet and heady scent. Brilliantly white and shimmering delicately, they are the fabric of Cinderella's dress at the ball. The Domestic Fairy Godmother can transform Cinderella's dazzling dress into a summer drink which is the definition of summer itself.

In their first flush the smell is delightfully fragrant, but within a few weeks this delight is lost and just as Ciderella's glass coach turns back to a pumpkin, so the sweetness turns to a rather foul cat's pee aroma...... From the Prince's ball, back to the cinders of the fireplace.

But Cinders can go to the ball, and the magic captured for the rest of the year......... The Domestic Fairy Godmother waves her wand.

On a sunny May afternoon, I picked elderflowers on Hampstead Heath. Clearly a forager and safe person, about 6 people stopped to ask me the way to the here and there. It was like walking with a dog and small child, you're alright. Numerous people asked me what I was doing and how to make it and we chatted about steralising bottles, sugar/water ratio and general delights of elderflowers.

Of the few ingredients for the recipe, you will need some citric acid which you will find from the pharmacist's counter.

So here is the recipe.

The most important ingredient is a happy forage.

• 20 heads of freshly flowering elderflowers
• 1.2 litres water
• 1 kilo sugar
• 50gms citric acid
• 2 lemons

1. Shake the elderflower heads to get any tiny insects out.
2. Boil the water, add the sugar to disolve.
3. Clean the lemons and pare the rind, slice the lemons.
4. Add everything together and pour on the sugar water.
5. Cover either with a lid or a tea towel and leave to infuse.
6. Stir twice a day for 5 days.

You really don't need to do 5 days, I am trying it this way this year. But a good 24 hours is essential. 48 even better.

Bottle into steralised glass bottles or plastic bottles. Elderflower cordial freezes very well.

You will taste the summer.