Processing the Harvest

Sounds pretty good to me Colne. I'm naughty, I like my strawbs sliced, sprinkled with vanilla caster sugar and 1 teaspoon ofAmaretto liqueur - left for 30 minutes. Then a slice of good ice cream and a dessertspoon of double cream. I'm in heaven with just that,
Jenny

 

Do you make the ice cream? I used to a lot, but now found a half USA gallon ( of low fat but still creamy) of ice cream for $6 so that is hard to match even if eggs are free. The cost of the cream and milk, vanilla or whatever, and sugar..............

 

No I don't make ice cream Colne. I like it as a treat but not often and I don't have space for a deep freeze . The tall fridge is 2/3rds fresh goods and only 1/3rd for frozen. I try to shop daily if I can,
Jenny

 

Jenny, I gave up smoking a few years ago, after a lifetime of it - and then quit drinking alcohol a couple years ago after a lifetime of drinking - and now have a big dessert, often a double portion, every day. I do love it. If in a couple years I turn vegan I just will not know what to do......but that seems about .0001% likelihood; but one never knows.

Speaking of which - my incubator full of eggs is due to hatch on June 8 - and they are to be meat birds, as are the ones I hatched out just a few weeks ago, so not vegan yet.

 

are they the specifically bred to become "hatch to table in X weeks" ones? If so, how can you give them as good a life as possible?
Jenny

 

That is the Cornish cross meat bird - 6-8 weeks from hatch to butcher. If one kept them longer they could not function because their breast is too big, could not even live. 95% of meat birds are these.

Mine are Orphington Banti crosses so will be scrawny and tough and small - because they have to be butchered very young, say 14 weeks because they get tough fast. They will not be like the birds you buy but with, thin, pointy breast, skinny legs.......Also because they are loose out in the woods they are not kept on the 24% protein diet it takes to make them meaty - foraging regular foods from nature and eating the hens 12% protein feeds.

They will not be for fried chicken or roasting, but Mediterranean, Indian, Persian, European cooked dishes.

 

It is getting dusk out, I have returned from walking about - first picking the berries and then locking up the chickens.

I left the picking too late, as I approached a big bush two rats ran off, I am glad the dogs were playing or they would have gotten torn up chasing them through the thorns. So it is rats at night and birds during the day and I know some berries were taken.........

But these are not urban rats - I am the only house about, and they were a long way from the chickens and feed. Also they are pretty, fluffy, rodents - completely natural. Anyway I picked 1 2/3 pounds, they are ripening fast as the bushes play out. And, with a few frozen ones, I made up the two pounds in the recipe I posted in International, and doused it with two pounds sugar - which seems like awfully a lot, but did it as called for.

Now it is on very low heat as the berries are not melting - they are not fully ripe because I have to pick them early. What to do......

when I saw how much it was I put it into a bigger pot


tomatoes just picked too. A funny thing, many of the berries which went into the freezer black turned red when frozen. Note the ones here - with a covering of frost in the hot air.

 

So I got the syrup developing over low heat and turned it off to let osmosis do its thing and get the berry lobes popping and juices flowing. Then slowly brought it to a boil and turned it off and dumped it into a normal kitchen strainer and let it drip. I did get the 1 American quart the recipe said I would - so excellent.

The syrup is sickly sweet as syrups are, and slightly jelled - left on longer it would be jelly probably - only the flavor is essence of blackberry. Quite an amazing flavor without that different taste actual jam has. My wife is using the leftover berries, deflated, but still whole and with the core still having some texture, for mixing into her breakfast granola and yogurt.

The kumquat marmalade I made from that little potted tree - and 1 grapefruit juice and 2 lemons - has already been half used, I made 6, 16 oz pints - but I use it in cooking a lot.

And here the syrup is:


It is clear than that, I took it out of the refrigerator and with the high humidity from our rains the glass fogged over.

Now I am on a pavlova kick I envision blackberry cream, sliced bananas, or something - stuff like that. I think 3 quarts of jam and 4 quarts of syrup more. Naturally in sterilized pint and half pint jars and boiling water bath canned so it can last on the shelf for a year.

 

And just a bit ago had Pavlova again - the base freezes perfectly, just leave on the paper, stack them into a bag and toss in the freezer - take out an hour ahead to thaw, when you sugar the berries to steep - then just before serving whip the cream and assemble. The top of the whipped cream has some of the blackberry syrup on it, I know it is red but the flavor is pure, prime, blackberry. I recommend the syrup recipe I posted, very easy and very good with good clarity.



Out of focus and colour but just snapped a short time ago. We had a lovely Waldorf salad instead of the green salad - one of our favorites. The garden only supplied the soup vegetables, and the blackberry syrup, very good though.

 

Looks excellent Colne, and so much better than a shop bought one. You know what went in the making of it and where it was made...
Jenny

 

It seems as if you're hooked on the Pavlova's now Colne! I haven't made one for ages, a must do!

 

Sheal, make 4 at once. 7 whites and 150g (I used 175g) of sugar. One, cut in half, is pictured above. Two to a baking pan, 2 pans, - and cut the paper so when cool each goes into the bag with it on, just stack them in a shop bag, twist, and pop in the freezer. As easy to make 4 as 1. Yes, I really like them, so amazingly simple.

 

They would rot before I got round to eating them Colne, even in the freezer. We don't eat desserts at home so anything I make is for family get togethers/celebrations and made at the time it's needed.

 

I do not know sheal, we are talking the same language but I cannot understand. I am - well not properly a foodie - but very food oriented. When I grew up meals were always several courses with good ingredients selected; and we would spend a good amount of time eating and talking; it was enjoyable. I always have at least a separate soup course, hopefully also a salad course - always a dessert course! and then the entrée and side dishes. I want to spent at least an hour dining, and I enjoy particularly having something local or I caught or I grew, or a treat I would not typically buy.

I am sorry to admit it but we do put on some movie or such now because we are not so full of talk, two of us, to fill that - but I do try to find something good, or at least less obnoxious. Also I prepare and cook all the food. My wife is not into cooking and I always was - from a young person on. Certainly we eat at a table with a civilized setting.

But to go to all that effort making and enjoying an entire meal and not finish it with a dessert, even some low fat, cheap, icecream, I would be miserable all night.

And it is all ready to be assembled - my wife is making some drawings for a clay mock up of a building for an unlikely reason - and will not be back for another hour.

Also - tonight I have picked red Asian beans (really red long beans) and yellow wax beans, from the garden to have as a loud veg side - good fun.

 

This is where we differ Colne. I see food as fuel and nothing more, I don't enjoy eating or cooking it, cooking a meal is the only chore in my household that makes me miserable. I do enjoy creating desserts for my family though when we get together, I put that down to it being more of an art form and not the endless monotony of producing meal after meal!