Wild thing...

I was slightly worried when we went on holiday at the end of August that we would miss the best of the foraging. There was a last minute trek over towards Shrewsbury on the Monday evening, before we were due to leave on the Thursday, to collect as many wild plums as we could before we lost the light. 

MrP's patented foraging method complete with shepherd's crook

And a good job we did too. There were only yellow ones left...the red & black had just either gone over or already been had. Fortunately the yellow ones are the best in my opinion and we should have enough to last well into next year now.

Wild Cherry Plums - ready for washing before going in the freezer

It's been a great year for fruit and I didn't miss it all. We've had damsons, elderberry, rowan, blackberries, and apples. I've been told there's a quince tree somewhere nearby on public land but I haven't found it yet & it breaks my heart to think of that lovely fruit going to waste!

A couple of years ago I made rose-hip syrup which went down well with my older customers who, like me, could remember having it as a child. Back when I was a child it was the answer to my mother's wish to get enough vitamin C into us as possible (a hangover from her war time experiences as a child I suspect). I loved it.

Instead of syrup this year I made a jelly. Not as limiting in its uses.

Wild RoseHip Jelly

1kg rosehips

3kg crab apples or other foraged apples (cooking apples will do if you can't find any or haven't got a fella handy with a shepherd's crook)

About 1.8kg sugar

Makes about 14 200g/8oz jars

Spend some time picking over your rosehips removing any stalks, leaves, smushy hips and foreign bodies of the insect variety (eeeew earwigs)

Blitz the hips in a food processor (or leave whole if you haven't got one, it'll just take a little longer for them to soften). 

Roughly chop the apples. No peeling or coring required. These apples were neither crab apples of bramleys..they tasted slightly like a fresh golden delicious and they were collected from a hedgerow about 5 minutes from our house.

Place the hips and the apples in a very large pan. Mine are 8 litre jam pans & are full!

Add 2.5 litres of water and bring gently to a simmer. Pop a lid on and continue to simmer until all the fruit is soft (about an hour)

Remove from the heat and cool slightly while you get your straining equipment ready.

You will need a scalded jelly bag or a clean piece of muslin. I have a jelly bag but frankly it scares the poop out of me to use it as there have been many an over balancing disaster so I prefer muslin and a colander. Either way, make sure you have a large enough bowl (or another jam pan) ready to catch your juice.

Now, word of warning. Rosehips contain tiny hairs that can irritate so do not be tempted to just sieve the mixture. It needs to be filtered through the cloth slowly, over night preferably and try not to squeeze the juice out as your finished product may be cloudy.

Once you are happy with the amount of liquid you have I recommend a second filter just to make sure you've got all those hairs out. Just repeat by running the liquid through a clean jelly bag or piece of muslin...it won't take long this time.

And don't forget to compost the pulp from the bags!

Now measure your liquid and allow 450g of sugar for every 600ml of juice.

Boil until setting point has been reached, pour into sterilised jars & pop a lid on.

At this point I'd show you a picture of the finished product only I forgot to take one!

Try it on toast, warmed up & runny in ice cream or with lamb, pork, duck, turkey....be brave & adventurous.