Urw Irl?, Real Life Unreal World Activities.

[Ohnanka]

Group: UrW-forum members
Posts: 81
Member No.: 236
Joined: 6-February 06



I moved this to the new off-topic section, once I spotted it!

So, Autumn is truely here and the bite of winter is already in the air...
But there is still so much to be done!

The Blackberry and Elderberry wine is maturing, the jam is made, but the Berries of the Hawthorn tree and Rosehips are just now ripe and soon, once they are 'bletted' (thats rotting and fermenting by frost to you and me,) The Berries of the Rowan or Mountain Ash will be usable also!

Right now I am thinking of making Haw taffy with boiled haws baked with a little honey. My friend recently gave me some of his to try and it was delicious, and its good for you!

Nb: Check with your doctor if you have a heart condition. Some conditions can be helped, but others can be made worse by Haw-berries.

Recently I found a secret woodland to coppice in an old abandoned slate quarry. Several hundred young trees, un-disturbed, ready to be coppiced for Fire-wood and fencing. Since Autumn is the best time to start Coppicing, as the sap is low in the tree, I set about this task, pairing back the branches and then the trunks to just a few inches above the ground.

[aislinn]

oh man, I really miss elderberries. my mom used to make the best pies if I could get my hubby to stop hugging the fireplace I would be out searching for mushrooms (if they aren't all frozen). I think I'm gonna try making currant and cherry jams from our berries next fall instead of turning the whole crop into juice like usual.

we currently have a batch of dried meat (not sure it classifies as jerky) that we made waiting in the fridge (we remember to eat it faster that way) that turned out pretty well. we kinda cheat and dry it in the oven at lowest heat, but it's still darn good my brother-in-law promised us some reindeer jerky when he comes to visit from lapland this weekend, can't wait.

[Ohnanka]

excellent! I had some potted bear meat recently... it was like Corned beef, I suppose, but, well, 'bearier.'

[Qwerty]

Here I used saskatoon berries for a pie, raspberries for eating fresh, and blackberries for a couple large batches of jam. I had a thought to try blackberry wine, but now I've missed my chance and will have to wait till next year. I've also got my eye on the mountain ash berries, but not quite sure what to try with them. More jam probably. The salmon are also running well here now. If I wasn't at my parent's for thanksgiving I'd be out fishing for them this weekend.

[Qwerty]

I also just finished collecting all the ingredients I need for a batch of homemade root beer. Sassafras root, sarsaparilla root, licorice root, ginger root, birch bark, vanilla bean, then molasses for sugar, and yeast to start it fermenting. The birch bark I just gathered near my parents home, and the rest was all found at various health food stores. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[Ohnanka]

wow, sounds like an exciting brew!

[Qwerty]

From what I've heard it tastes only very remotely like commercial root beer soda. Whether that's a good or bad thing I guess I'll find out soon. I'm back at home now so I'll be starting it soon, tomorrow probably. And I'm sad to say my first experience with mountain ash berries was a failure. I thought a few good freezes was supposed to remove most of the bitterness, and then boiling would get rid of the rest. But I picked the berries after a string of cold below zero nights, boiled them down into jam with the addition of apples for extra pectin, and a good amount of sugar, but the final product was a disappointment. There was definitely some good flavour detectable in there, but the bitterness was still too overpowering. Any advice?

[Paul]

I've never actually made any jelly (of any type) but I seem to recall a British exchange student I used to chat with a few semesters ago at college talking about making Rowan berry jam. If I remember correctly you're supposed to freeze the berries completely solid, like in a freezer over night if it hasn't gotten cold enough outside.

If I remember right this topic came up back when I was talking with her about making frozen banana treats. She was of the misguided belief that they would turn black and mushy when frozen, when in fact they make a tasty creamy treat similar to ice cream.

Mmmm, frozen bananas...

[Qwerty]

It got down to -10 on one of those nights, but maybe that wasn't enough. I could try putting them in the freezer instead of just letting them freeze on the tree. As for frozen bananas, I've only thawed them out to use in banana bread. Maybe I'll have to try a frozen one sometime.

[n9103]

Sounds like there's an additive missing to help neutralize the bitterness... actual Ash perhaps?
Or maybe it needs something acidic, rather than alkaline.

[Paul]

Somehow the thought of adding ash to jelly seems unappealing.

[Qwerty]

You might be on to something n9103. One source I found did suggest soaking the berries in vinegar overnight, then rinsing them and using them for jam. But many more sources just mention the freezing and boiling being enough. I'm thinking maybe it's a difference between the european rowans and the american mountain ash. Just a guess there though.

[Paul]

That's possible. I did some internet searching out of curiosity. I found tons of sites talking about making jam/jelly out of the European Rowan (aka Mountain Ash) berries, but very few talking about Americans making it from the NA variety. Even the wikipedia article on the subject specifically mentions culinary uses for european rowan berries with no mention of other varieties. There are a couple of sites that offhandedly mention something along the lines of "for Americans, the Rowan berries over there can be used in the same way" without going into if there is any difference. Funnily enough, the sites I found that do that mostly don't even mention freezing the berries to get rid of bitterness (one even said that they were "naturally sweet").

So I'm guessing that either those crazy Europeans just have a taste for bitter jams or the North American variety of berries is different.

Or maybe you just got a bad batch of berries - I've picked wild dewberries before that tasted like crap, sometimes even off the same brambles that I collected sweet & tasty berries from the year before. Could have just been a bad year for them.

Man, now I'm craving dewberries. And it'll be at least six months before they're in season again.

[Qwerty]

Well, maybe I'll try another batch using all the ideas so far. Maybe check a few trees and do some taste testing for any that seem a bit sweeter, give them a night in the freezer, soak them in vinegar, and then see how the jam turns out. The berries do have some good flavour, even straight off the tree, but I wouldn't exactly call it sweet, and it comes with a bitter aftertaste that doesn't leave you wanting more. Descriptions of the jam seem to say it should be tart, which to me means sour instead of bitter.

Where do you find dewberries? Those aren't one I know, must not grow here. My favorite has always been thimbleberries, but I've gone several years without any now. I never seem to be home at the right time for picking them, and I haven't seen them on the coast here.

[Paul]

Dewberries are very similar to blackberries, but they come in season earlier in the year. They also grow on low to the ground brambles instead of the larger bushes of blackberries. I'm not sure how widespread they are, but they're all over Louisiana and Texas. I don't know if they grow up north or not - I don't think I've ever looked for the bushes when I've been to northern states.

Anywhere that has had a chance to grow up a bit has them around here. They grow right on the side of the road in some places, and I often pick them where they are growing around fences on the side of the road.