Can I eat these ???????

I have a small bush / shrub growing in the garden which I can't ID. I thought it was blackcurrants but now I am not so sure as I already have a blackcurrant and the leaves look nothing like this. So, before I start a jam factory and poison this part of London, can anyone ID the berries and tell me what they are and if they are poisonous or edible!! Many thanks.

 

Sure look like Blackcurrants to me, crush a leaf, it'll smell of Blackcurrants too.

 

If you don't have enough blackcurrants to make jelly (jam is a PITA what with topping and tailing them all) then I recommend making a liqueur with them, such as Blackberry Vodka which has a very intense flavour that obscures the alcohol making it rather deadly delicious.

 

I agree, blackcurrants.

 

Why not make a Jelly then? All you do for that is to put the currants in a pan, bring to the boil, strain the liquid through a muslin cloth. Discard the remains and 1 pint of juice to 1 lb of sugar.

 

Vokda

 

But that's exactly what I was suggesting as a first option:

P.S. One pound of blackberries will be sufficient to add to a 700ml bottle of vodka. I forget the sugar addition - Google it.

And what I meant is that it's hardly worth topping & and tailing a small amount of blackcurrants to make (less than?) 2 jars of jam, or definitely less than 2 jars of jelly - one and a bit at the very most.

 

I forget people do not pick them in the amounts we do. I am about to go and pick another couple of kilos in a few minutes.

 

Or...creme de cassis Steep the fruit (whole) in red wine for a couple of days, add sugar, simmer, crush and strain. Add a slug of vodka or eau de vie to resulting juice and bottle. A dash of that in a glass of white wine is the ultimate aperitif..kir

 

It's the slug of vodka that worries me, still have nightmares about the slug of the beer can

 

You had a slug in your beer can??? Euwww Slugs pickled in vodka, however, yum! I've convinced the neighbours that slugs are just homeless snails No more hosta munching round here.....

 

No, a huge one wrapped around the rim of the beer can that I picked up in the dark and plunged straight into my mouth

 

Years ago I was out on a fortnightly reunion booze up that I used to attend with former colleagues. One lad was known for his inability to take his beer. As usual, about an hour in, he was plastered. We all had a cigarette. Plastered friend lost his shortly after it was lit. This caused great panic as obviously you have to find where a lit cigarette has landed when you're indoors. It took all of us searching the whole area, down the back of the furniture and everywhere, for a good 10 minutes, before on of the lads pointed into plastered friend's pint and burst out laughing. There was a whole cigarette, no longer lit of course, floating in his still almost full pint.

Sorry for the digression, its just that's exactly the kind of thing that really tickles me.

 

And then there's the Mexican? drink with a dead worm in the bottle....isn't it enough to make you teetotal?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyote

Not really