Spending a too-short weekend at home before going back to the city, loving the crisp autumn weather. I’ve spent as much time outside as possible, preparing the garden for winter, painting the arch that leads to the vegetable garden and going for a long walk today. The hedgerows are groaning under berries this year – my neighbours have stripped the blackthorns of sloes for sloe gin but there are bushels of rosehips and hawthorn berries still there.
It made me think of making jams and jellies – rosehip and apple jelly and hawthorn jelly are both classic english flavours. There’s excellent step by step instructions on how to make hawthorn jelly here – the main thing they don’t explain is that when you are testing whether your jelly has set you should do it on a plate you’ve chilled in the fridge.
They also have a nice article on how to dry rosehips for tea.
For rosehip and apple jelly go here.
Both those jellies have lovely tart flavours – perfect with all those lovely roast dinners coming up over the winter. Enjoy the beautiful autumn colours – my overbearing project is coming to an end in a few weeks and I’m looking forward to resuming normal life and regular posting.
Tags: foraging in hedgerows · hawthorn berries · homemade jellies · rosehips1 Comment
Oh, I love the berries this time of year. Can’t get enough of them. We have quite a lot in Denver thanks to all the old-growth garden neighborhoods.