Monday's forage

[lancashire lass]

Keeping to the theme of sloe gin, anyone else ever tried using cherries in vodka or brandy.

And then try other fruits in other alcohols and it can get very (hic) woozy ... testing them all out!

[Caro]

On the subject of foraging for booze

A few years ago, about this time of year, I was out on my horse, bimbling down a quiet country lane. I was looking out for sloes, but also having a quiet curse at all the junk and rubbish that had been dumped in the hedgerows. As I rode along I spotted a number of bottles in a ditch by the side of the lane. A moment later it occured to me that one of the bottles looked full. I turned Neddy round and rode back, hopped off, tied Neddy to gate and slithered down into the ditch. Pushing away the leaves, I found I was looking at about a dozen bottles of unopened booze. What a find!! Brandy, whisky, gin, port and vodka. They were all big pub sized litre bottles. I hopped back on Ned, wooshed back to the stables, swapped Ned for my car and drove back down the lane, yes, the bottles were still there, so I did the only thing a girl can do under those circumstances and loaded them up.

We had a rather good Christmas that year!!

[Mo]

Which lorry do you suppose they fell off the back of?

[Caro]

I think they fell off of the Norty Lorry . I do think they were awaiting collection, I was just lucky to get there first.

[Richard]

Personally, I would have taken them straight down to the Authorities, but I'm just an old clean living, honest, trustworthy person I guess.

[TassieDev]

Lucky you didn't run into the 'intended recipient' !

[James]

going back a bit - do you have the hawthorn brandy receipe?

does anyone know anything else you can do with Hawthorn berries? they seem to be prolific, but fairly useless

[nettles]

I saw a recipe that was simple, like Sloe Gin

Mash/prick the Hawthorns approx 1LB, add a litre of Brandy, sugar, I add pound for pound of fruit, shake daily for at least 4 weeks, sieve and decant. Like Sloe Gin it improves with age. I cannot remember where I saw this, I know it's an American recipe. Worth a try, if you don't like it send it to me! Tee Hee


MRS Beeton has a recipe for Hawthorn flower wine. I also found this site for Syrup, Jelly etc for the berries! Hope it helps.

http://wildforager.survivalistssite.com/edible.html

It's an amzing site with hundreds of recipes
x

[James]

Thanks - It looks like there are some jellys you can also make with Hawthorn. I always wondered if it was poisonous or something to stop people eating it. Although it might just taste bad.

Will give it a try.

[lancashire lass]

I tried to make hawthorn berry jellies but I think I boiled the thing too much and it ended up like toffee. But ignore that piece of information, the berry itself is actually bordering on bland/berry like flavour and not at all unpleasant (nibble one if you like), and I thought the colour that leeched into the jelly mix was like turkish delight - very pretty. I agree there is potential.

However, hawthorn is incredibly labour intensive from picking (scratchy thorns unless you have some way of thrashing the bushes and collecting) and washing. Alright if for personal use, but a bit different if thinking of making something to sell!

[maderedundant]

I'm trying cranberry vodka this year as well. I came across the recipe in Morrison's christmas magazine. Made along the same lines as sloe gin.

I've made this years christmas cake as well. That will be fed regularly with whiskey untill its time to wrap it in marzipan and icing, probably the week before christmas.

Paul