Bramble Jam

Another fruit crop that has taken a bit of a hit this year due to the wet spring was the blackberry, or bramble.  The thorny bush that grows along Britain's roads and hedgerows gives gorgeous dark berries in the Autumn months and these are a sweet treat for any rambler or forager.

Brambles are a great freezer berry - popping them in freezer bags allows you you mix them in with your porridge all year round, gives you an easy pie filling and by in the bottom of a pudding bowl and plonking some sponge cake mix on top is a simple twenty minute pudding.

Another way to preserve these is to make jam - which, when I start up the Christmas Feast next year, I hope to use as a form of currency for bartering.  You need

Ingredients
1kg Blackberries (or raspberries)
1kg Sugar
1 sachet Pectin

What you do

Put the fruit, sugar and pectin into a large pot and heat, stirring occasionally.  Here is where you need a jam thermometer, and when the temperature hits 220F, allow the jam to boil for five minutes.  Then pour into sterilised jars and seal with a disc of waxed paper, before covering with either a lid or a piece of cellophane.  You can eat it once cool, but I'd leave it for a month - it tastes better.

Brambles, Sugar & Pectin

Boil at 220F for five minutes

Pour into sterilised jars

Damson Gin - 2012 vintage

So after my bumper Damson harvest last year, that resulted in numerous jars of jam and a bottle of Damson Gin, I was hoping that I could repeat 2011's success.  Sadly a terrible spring has resulted in a lousy crop of Damsons from the trees in which I forage.  Also, the derelict buildings that I forage from the gardens of are being renovated so this would be the last harvest from these wonderful old trees.

Instead of the two plastic bags full that I got last year, I got two handfuls of damsons from this years crop - not enough to make one jar of jam, so I decided to repeat last year's success of a bottle of Damson Gin.

It's pretty easy to make Damson Gin, you chuck a bundle of damsons into a two thirds full bottle of gin, then add a bit of sugar syrup (2 parts sugar to 3 parts boiling water and allowed to cool) and then all you need to do is wait.  Give it time to infuse.

If you are making some in the Autumn, it will be ready by Christmas, but the longer you leave it, the better.  My 2011 vintage is delicious when mixed with some tonic water.

Freshly Made

After a year

Admitting defeat

OK, time to give up - well, partially.  There isn't a chance that I'm going to manage to create a Christmas dinner in the time I have left.  The main reason was that I bought a house and that has meant that the past three months of my life has been spent decorating, and the house still isn't finished yet.  My weekends have been involving trips to B&Q and then covering walls in Dulux's finest rather than scampering through woodlands trying to find mushrooms.

So, for 2012, I'm going to have to give up and admit that my challenge has beaten me.  However, I am determined that this challenge is doable, so am going to try again in 2013.  In the meantime for the few people who have been reading the sporadic posts, I'm going to continue my foraging when time does allow and posting things on here and trying to live the 'River Cottage life' just a little bit.