The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Pine needles

It was Danny’s turn to buy the Balsamic vinegar last weekend. Someone had put an expensive bottle of Balsamic beside the cheap ones in Tesco and he ended up paying five times more than he could have. The resulting shriek got me thinking about Balsamic vinegar in general.

The price and quality of Balsamic vinegar can vary enormously. We have a very expensive bottle that we use occasionally for dipping or salads and generally have a ‘cheap’ bottle that we use for cooking. But cheap Balsamic vinegar is still much more expensive than other vinegars.

We use it a lot in cooking as it adds a wonderful depth to slow cooked stews and casseroles. I couldn’t think of a way of making a cheaper alternative until I came across this recipe for pine needle vinegar on Eat Weeds. Apparently it tastes similar to Balsamic vinegar.

Danny was suspicious.
“I just don’t see how it could work. Anyway where are you going to get pine needles from?”

The recent storms sent us a small branch from one of Anne Mary’s Wellingtonian pine trees. A perfect present from her woods. I was delighted with the bounty. Robin Harford suggests nibbling the pine needles from several trees to chose a good aromatic one. There was no choice involved for me but I nibbled a pine needle and it tasted rather good – rich, earthy, aromatic flavours. I could see that the combination of the pine needles infused in cider vinegar could taste wonderful.

So that’s what I’ll be making today. It should be ready by the New Year and already I can’t wait to taste it.

Photo: Old tactor and strawberries

One of the things that I’ve always longed for is to spend time with someone who can teach me about foraging in depth. There are courses but rarely local to me. Also some of the best ones can be ridiculously expensive once you add the price of the petrol and staying overnight.

I have several foraging books and these have proved to be very useful – especially the small edition of Richard Maybe’s Food for Free which can be slipped into a pocket or Jalopy’s glove compartment. But I knew that I wasn’t even beginning to take full advantage of the free food that’s on offer nearly all year round.

I subscribe to Robin Harford’s site Eat Weeds which is a brilliant resource for foraging recipes. That is where I found out how to make rosehip tea. This site is also promoting Marcus Harrison’s Wild Food Mentor course. Not having found a personal mentor I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for the course. This is a seven month video course paid for in monthly instalments.  I have found it to be all that it promises and so much more. Each month a range of plants is examined in depth – history, healing and culinary uses. Clear identification is through videos and photos. Marcus is a companionable guide.

It is just like going out with a chatty and relaxed professional forager. Here are plants that I’ve never even heard of before. Loads of information and even better I can learn at my own pace and watch the videos tucked up in bed.

If you have an interest in increasing your foraging skills and knowledge this course is well worth considering. I’ve learnt masses already and I’m only half way through module one.

N.B. Marcus Harrison is now offering a discounted course to Cottage Smallholder readers click here to view.

Photo: Jars of rosehip tea

“Those two rose bushes beside the back door are totally out of control and need cutting back.” Danny remarked back in June.
I couldn’t oblige as I was planning to make tea. The bushes got more and more flamboyant until they were given a harvesting haircut at the weekend.

There are lots of roses growing in the cottage garden so we have a profusion of hips for preserving in the Autumn. I usually make rosehip and apple jelly and sometimes rosehip syrup but this year I’d discovered the huge benefits of drinking rosehip tea.

This would be less figure challenging than all that sugar and also preserve most of the vitamins and nutrients that are contained in the rosehips. Apparently they are packed with vitamin C A, B, E and K. Drinking the tea is said to help build the body’s immune system and combat colds and fevers. This tea also is believed to relieve mild arthritic pain and flush out the kidneys and urinary tract.

I mentioned on our forum that I’d found a great site for foragers – Eat Weeds and I used Robin’s method for drying and preparing the rosehips for tea. I was tickled to see that he has the same food dehydrator as me. He has a nifty method for removing the little hairs from the hips – they are a bit of a nightmare and are ultra itchy. Perhaps this could be a new sideline – selling itching powder to the children in the village?

I packed the dehydrator with rosehips and ended up with just these two jars so I’ll be foraging in the garden for more today. Tonight I’ll try my first pot, two heaped teaspoons infused for 15 minutes sweetened with a little honey. It’s supposed to be most effective taken at bedtime.

Photo: Wild cherry plums

I’ve had quite a few emails recently about identifying hedgerow fruit so I thought that it might be helpful to post some of the pictures that I have. Sloes, wild damsons, wild cherry plums and bullaces all came from the same family – albeit distant relations. They all have stones and the bushes have similar leaves.

Photo: Sloe on a branch

The main problem seems to be differentiating sloes and wild damsons as they are both small and dark. Sloe bushes have sharp thorns and wild damson trees do not. Damsons have longer stems so hang and look more like a tiny plum. Sloes have shorter stems and hug the branches more.

Steve pointed out (see comments) that sloes can be confused with Deadly Nightshade – you can see some photos Deadly Nightshade photos here.

 Wild plums taste like domestic plums (from sharp Mirabelles to sweet Victorias). Wild bullaces taste like greengages. Wild damsons are very sharp and sloes taste almost bitter.

Photo: Wild plums and bullace

Of course the best pocket guide to hedgerow foraging is Richard Maybe’s Food for Free (Collins GEM). It’s now on offer on Amazon for under £3.00.

Photo: Crabapple jelly and crabapple cheese

I only discovered how delicious fruit cheeses are a few years ago. Until then I had rejected them out of hand – using the left over pulp from jelly making seemed skinflint behaviour to me. And anyway would this pulp have any flavour at all?

I didn’t even bother to taste the pulp when jelly making which was a big mistake as I missed out on this treat. Fruit cheese can be sliced and served with starters, chops, roasts, cheese and even with fruit desserts.

Crabapples, particularly when they first start to ripen often produce very little juice. But the jelly making process leaves a lot of pulp. By turning this into cheese you are using all of your foraged bounty (crabapples are not generally for sale in the shops as they aren’t grown commercially in the UK).

I’ve deliberately used a small amount of crabapples in this recipe as the less that you use dramatically effects time that it takes to make the cheese. Our quince cheese recipe (Membrillo) can take several hours to thicken.

I took a tip from Sarah who left a comment on our hot crabapple chilli jelly recipe and added some chopped dried chillies just before potting. Excellent. Thank you Sarah.

This recipe made just over a pound of jelly and four small straight sided jars of cheese.

Hot crab apple and chilli cheese recipe
Ingredients:
• 600g of crab apples washed and chopped
• 35g of medium red chilli peppers, washed and chopped with seeds in
• 1 litre of water
• White granulated sugar 320g to each 400ml of pulp
• 2-3 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
• 2-3 small chopped dried Bird’s Eye chillies to be added at the end just before potting up

Method:
1. Put the chopped crab apples and chillies in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
2. Add 1 litre of water (they should just be floating). Bring to the boil and simmer very gently (lid on) until the crab apples soften and become pulpy. This took about 45 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.
3. Strain through a muslin square or jelly bag overnight.
4. Retain the juice for hot crabapple jelly – our recipe is here.

5. Strain the pulp through a sieve
6. Add the pulp to a large heavy bottomed pan and add the sugar. Bring very slowly to the boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.
7. When the sugar is dissolved simmer gently stirring every now and then until the pulp thickens. This took me about twenty minutes as I was using a large pan, it would take more time in a smaller pan. Watch the sides of the saucepan, when you notice the pulp thickening on the sides the cheese is ready.
8. Dollop into well greased (I used olive oil) warm sterilised flat sided jars. Fit cellophane tops or lids and leave to cool.