18/11/2016
While our polytunnel and veg patch have taken a back seat this year, Pete and I made a promise this summer to make the most of any food that was brave enough to grow in our garden. We have three apple trees, two huge rosehip bushes, some damsons donated by Petes mum and more nettle patches than we care to admit!
As you can imagine we had a challenge on our hands as well as a whole lot of apples. We didn't want to spend the entire winter eating our way through apple pies, as delicious as that sounds, so we began to consider other possibilities.
With a little help from cooking gurus like the gang at River Cottage HQ, Jamie Oliver, Wholefoods Market and BBC good food, as well as a spending a day at the fantastic Irish Seed Savers in Co.Clare completing a wild food foraging course, (me), and a cider making course, (Pete), we were all set!
This is what we've ended up with; 18 litres of cider, 2 jars of damson gin, 8 large jars of apple and chilli chutney, 5 large jars of crab apple and rose hip jelly, 4 large jars of apple and ginger sauce, 6 litres of apple cider vinegar, (this was actually a happy mistake one of Pete's cider batches went sour...well a happy mistake for me, he wasn't quite as positive about it!), 5 litres of nettle beer, (Pete), or champagne, (me), depending on how fancy you're feeling, 2 large bags of apples were given to friends and family and we still have a medium box left to be transformed into a yummy treat, maybe a pie or two or three are on the cards after all! There are still a couple of big, beautiful and stubborn specimens clinging bravely to the top of one tree way out of reach for us but the resident magpies seem to be enjoying themselves.
I have attached some pictures as proof for all you doubters out there but as you can see we had a bumper crop from mother nature this year with very little effort on our part...now we just have to start eating and drinking our way through it...might have to call in some reinforcements ###
