My Bakeapple Jam, August 2008
One of the advantages of living here is that berries grow in the wild and are yours for the energy of picking them. The first of the season are bakeapples, sometimes known as cloudberries, which grow in the marshes. These berries are used for jams (jellies) and salsas and chutneys. I love the taste - I find them slightly reminiscent of the gooseberries of my childhood but with their own unique flavour and gorgeous colourings of amber/yellow with a touch of crimson, co-incidentally the colours with which I am going to paint my dining-room/kitchen.
Next season up is blueberry (and I have these at the back of my property) with after that the partridgeberry and finally the rosehips from the wild roses that spring from every hedgerow.
Also, subsequent to previous posts, the potatoes are thriving:
Potatoes' Progress ~ August 3rd, 2008
This sure gets my mind off other matters - both personal and political, which tend to chew away at one's equilibrium. If we let them.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty cool that you make your own jam and things, way to go!
A while ago I was living in the country, a little village called Omeath, which you probably won't have heard of, very few people outside Ireland have.
But there was an abundance of apples, blackberries and such. I enjoy cooking, and am fairly good at it too, but every Saturday I went out to pick apples and blackberries and then made pies from them. Far better than anything you could ever buy.
Your bakeapple jam makes my mouth water, though I have no idea how it tastes and I am ready to take a pitchfork to your potato patch and have baked potatoes with sour cream.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are having a lovely Sunday in which you are keeping you equilibrium balanced to a perfect pitch.
oh, lovely. and i can't wait to see those potatoes!
ReplyDeletewe are eating raspberries from our neighbors' bush (they have invited us to pick all we want) and cherry tomatoes from our yard. i love eating what we pick ourselves.
The potatoes have grown like mad, WWW!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of bakeapples - or most of the other berries you mentioned. I bet they're all yummy though.
I haven't picked wild berries since I was a child visiting grandmother.
Her bramble( blackberry) and apple pie was to die for!
DJM:
ReplyDeleteWelcome. Of course I've heard of Omeath, being Irish 'n' all!!
I so miss blackberries, though here we've got wild raspberries which I forgot to mention, I saw them on my ramble today.
XO
WWW
Irene:
ReplyDeleteI've had my moments today, I will write about it when I get some perspective on it.
Potatoes are September, though the blossoms are many. I'm expecting a bit of a crop!
XO
WWW
there's nothing like it Laurie, food handpicked. I tried to comment on your blog but it got very angry for some reason and kept booting me off. :^/
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention the wild raspberries which are getting read as I write. I will have to do something with them!!
XO
WWW
T:
ReplyDeleteI so miss the blackberries, they were so good. We used to have them with fresh cream and Mum made blackberry pies with the latticy top and we'd have a brick of vanilla icecream with it.
I must try something with the wild raspberries.
XO
WWW
We Brits are so ignorant, like Twilight I've never heard of bakeapples/cloudberries. Many years ago I used to brew homemade wine from nature's seasonal bounty - dandelions, elderflowers, and later in the year, damsons, elderberries, rosehips and apples. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteCan't sleep, so I'm up bloging instead. Thanx for commenting on my blog, it was my 1st comment and it very important to me, because you took the time out of your day to do have your say.
ReplyDeleteGlad you've heard of Omeath and remember it, as the Cooley Mountains are such a beautiful part of the world.
I love the city, although Belfast isn't a proper city. But I miss the fresh apples and berries, I also miss looking into the sky at night and actually seeing the stars.
Lucky you, having all that fruit on hand to make some real delicacies. I love rosehip tea, I drink it quite a lot. Apparently so many Brits are now growing their own food the firms that deliver organic veg baskets are suffering a serious slump!
ReplyDeleteRJA:
ReplyDeleteI hadn't either until coming to live here, so don't feel so bad!
sounds like you had a hic-hic time back in the day!!
XO
WWW
DJM:
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't Belfast a real city? You intrigue me!
Light pollution is killing the night sky though some cities are having special nights of lights out, maybe you could activate for that!
Here the night skies are breathtaking, that is when it's not raining. Like it is today. One of the wettest summers on record!
XO
WWW
Nick:
ReplyDeletedo you pick your own rosehips? I'm asking as I would like to know a good way of converting them to tea. Rich in vitamin C.
I made rosehip jam last year, very labour intensive. A huge pail of rosehips for one jam jar!
I think tea might be a better option!
XO
WWW
Belfast isn't a real city because it dies at night. The only time Belfast feels like a real city is coming up to Christmas, when everyone is rushing to do their Christmas shopping. I like that I like the hustle and bustle.
ReplyDeleteI've done a bit of travelling, going to: Japan, America, England, France and Austrailia. The cities in those places were proper cities, awake all night. Chaotic, cramped and alive, buzzing with energy. I remember buying pizza in New York at 3:00 in the morning on a Tuesday, good luck doing that here.
Good idea about the lights out nights. But you still wouldn't get to see the stars, over here no one would leave the house, for fear of being beaten and killed. The ultimate deterant for Astronomy.
Also I would love to go to Florence, Italy and the Ice Hotel in Norway.
dj - "No one would leave the house for fear of being beaten and killed". Oh come now! In certain very specific thug-prone areas perhaps but certainly not where I live (South Belfast).
ReplyDeletewww, funny you should ask about rosehips. I just discovered loads of them on the wild rose in the garden, and I was going to ask you how to turn them into tea! Will have to try Google....
DJM:
ReplyDeletemaybe you could get a march going like I was involved with: "Give us back the Night" where everyone had candles and marched through the streets of Toronto. An anti-rape movement but very successful. we all deserve our nights free from fear.
maybe there is a continuing legacy in Belfast. It's been 10 years since I visited there.
And New York is the size to support all night pizzas!
Toronto has very few after hour restaurants even tho a big city.
XO
WWW
-----------------------------------
Nick:
I'll search too, great that you found your own source in your very own garden. Woo-hoo!
XO
WWW
-----------------------------------
ha! you got it! you got it!
ReplyDeletethat's exactly why i posted the picture of the old sisters--because i had posted the young sisters the day before.
you are so smart.
but i already knew that.
Aw Laurie!!
ReplyDeleteShucks *blush* *shuffles feet*.
they were two great posts and so evocative of fleeting time.'
XO
WWW