Beef & Wild Oyster Stew with Oyster Ale.

In Dickensian London the humble oyster was a staple food, being abundant along the thames estuary along the Kent and Essex coasts.

As I noted in my latest article for http://awalkinthegarden.co.uk/ February, with it's 2 "r's" in the month, must surely empirically offer itself as the perfect time for a spot of sea shore foraging.

If you take yourself out on the coast between Minnis Bay and around east past Margate, with a sturdy pair of boots, an ebbing tide, and a bucket, you too can find yourself a free bounty of wild pacific oysters.

They're actually a foreign import - which have escaped from the Whitstable oyteries - and by that fact - means they are fair game to the forager. but for safety's sake - don't eat them raw, better still, give them a good old braise in a beef stew.

a dozen will do just fine for this recipe.

A slab of stewing Beef
shucked oysters and the juice from them
A bottle of Marston's Oyster Stout
carrots, onions, mushrooms
bit of flour to thicken
splosh of worcestershire sauce

roll the cut beef in the flour
fry the beef till browned
add the onions and carrots
add the mushrooms
add the stout and raise to the boil
pop in the worcestershire sauce and oyster juice
give the beef an hour and a half of slow simmering (on hob or in oven at gas mark 4)
then add the oysters for the last half hour
season to taste

as you're out on the beach, also worth grabbing a bowl full of sea-kale/sea beet to go with it as a wilted green

serve with some lovely mash, or herby crushed new potatoes, or just a good old fashioned slab of fresh crusty bread, and another bottle of the stout!

Enjoy

Tj@TheForagersNook

Wild Fruit Flavoured Ciders - mixing the seasons

A stroll round any high end supermarket or off license and you will be confronted with an ever increasing array of fruit flavoured beverages from fruity Belgian beers, to mixed fruit ciders from the likes of Kopparberg of Sweden.

Having tried a few, with mixed success, and generally thinking I could probably do better for free, I've set myself the fruit cider challenge this year to see if i can expand my repertoire of home brew.

Especially as it gives me the perfect excuse to increase the amount of wild fruit I pick and preserve throughout the year, to ensure I also have a spare bottle or two to add to the autumn apple glut to make these new flora and fruit flavoured varieties of cider.

I dabbled last year with Blackberry cider, but only used the blackberry cordial to "re-prime" the bottles of cider to add sugar, and as it was only a table spoon per bottle, it didn't add any real colour or flavour depth.

So my first effort for 2013 is a fully flavoured apple and blackberry cider, using the blackberry cordial as part of the initial ferment 500ml of neat cordial (to give colour, flavour, and the extra brewing sugars) to 4 litres of apple juice to make up the demi-john.

I've used up the last 20lb of apples which I'd wrapped and stored in the unheated greenhouse. this weekend's spring-like thaw suggests it's time to get them used so i can clear the greenhouse ready for growing things.  And the last bottle of 2012 blackberry cordial. 

Juicing them, straining the juice, and pasturising lightly to kill off and wild yeasts, before adding the cordial to the mix, and leaving it to cool back to a good starting temperature 37degrees. 20lb of apples gives about 4-5litres of juice, so you'll need some spare bottles for the rest of the juice if you're not brewing it all, and you'll need a spare pop bottle to hold back the top up mixture once the demi-john has had it's quick first ferment and settled down.

To a 4.5 litre demi-john add about 3 1/2 litres of the juice/cordial, and add a packet of good wine yeast, teaspoon of yeast nutrient, and a teaspoon of pecto-lase (to breakdown the pectin in the apple juice and help clarify the brew)

add an air-lock and leave in a non-drafty room corner for a few days.  once you've made sure the brew isn't too vigorous and hasn't burst the airlock, then top up the demi-john (leave an inch) with the mixture. then leave it alone in a dark quiet corner for up to a month until it's cleared and stopped bubbling.  then come back here to the next blog entry and we'll bottle it.

more photo's to follow once the demi-john has settled down a bit!

Elderflowers in a couple of months...watch this space
I'm also keen to make up some extra bottles of elderflower cordial too this year, to try and emulate Kopparberg's Lime and Elderflower cider.  why pay £3-4 a bottle...when the apples, and the elderflowers are freely foraged....and £1 for a few limes, and £1 for a bag of sugar to make the elder cordial...and you can make a dozen bottles :>)

I'm also eager to get a good batch of elderflower champagne this year - last years efforts came to nothing.

I think a late autumn cider variety worth trying too might be elderberry and blackberry cider too.

Tj@The ForagersNook.

Winter Gorse Wine

Anyone who wanders the cliff tops of Kent in summer can't help but recognise the warm, coconut fragrance of the bright yellow gorse bushes that stand proud against the sea breezes.

But if you thought you need to wait another 6 months for them, there is an old saying that "Gorse is out of flowering season, when kissing is out of fashion"; which should give you a clue to the fact that you should be able to find gorse flowers almost any time of the year.

It makes a wonderful hedgerow wine (or so i've read...and hope to find out for myself), so what better than to take a winter walk along the saxon shore way and see if I can find some this weekend.

If I can get enough, this is the recipe I'll try, a mix of a few recipes i found on line and in a "Booze for Free" book

6 pints (a good carrier bag full) of gorse flowers (though I've seen recipes where you can also throw in any spring flower like dandelion, primrose, etc too)
3lb of sugar
4 pints of water
can of grape concentrate (or throw in a cup of chopped sultanas) - this is basically to add tannins to make it more "winey"
2 oranges (zested and juiced)
tsp Citric Acid
half a cup of black tea (more tanin - optional - leave out if you want it more white winey that rose')
packet of yeast nturient/yeast (champagne yeast best for high alcohol)

put the flowers, sugar, grape juice, tea, orange juice and zest, citric acid in a large sterilised fermenting bucket or big pan (that can be covered)
(don't add the yeast or yeast nutrient at this stage)
boil up the water, and add to the mixture, stir, cover, and leave to steep and cool - make sure it's boiling water to release the flavours, and also to sterilise the mixture to kill of any natural yeasts that you may not want.
once it's cooled to room temp (or a little above) throw in the yeast and yeast nutrient
cover with a breathable cover, and leave to ferment until the fermentation dies down - probably 3-5 days in a reasonably warm house.
once finished, strain it through a sterile piece of muslin, into a demi-john, add the mandatory air lock, and leave in a quiet corner to finish it's ferment and clarifiy (this should be about a month - you'll notice when you no longer hear it bubbling away to itself, and sediment has settled)

depending on how clear you want your wine, you could re-rack it into a clean demi john and leave for another month to clarify further, before bottling.

"Re-Fizzing" - bottle it with a spoon of sugar....
right...if you like the taste of it flat...then once bottled, feel free to drink, or keep for later as required.

If you would like to re-energise it and make it sparkling, then make sure you bottle it in swing top strong glass bottles, and add 1 good tea spoon of sugar to each bottle as you bottle it.
leave it to referment in the bottle for another couple of weeks, then chill well, and open carefully for golden yellow, coconut flavoured dry sparkling gorse wine!

Enjoy

Tj@TheForagersNook

...more cider...this time with instructions.

The last of Sue's apple harvest (best part of 150lb's over the season) freshly juiced and made into Cider.

Someone on twitter asked about how many apples for how much juice for how much cider.

I get about 1 x 4.5Litre demi-john out of about 20-25lb of apples.  you need to only fill the demi-john's 4/5ths full for the initial ferment (otherwise the rising cloud of yeasty bubbles will breach the airlock and cover your carpet with sticky stinky cider and yeast! - so for each 20-25lb batch, store the final litre of juice in a plastic bottle for a week until the initial ferment has settled, then add this, skimming off any of the scum that rises out of the demi-john when you top it up with the held-back juice.

Full recipe and instructions:-

1)Juice! - we use a Dualit juicer which takes about 20 minutes to juice 20lb of apples.  having to stop every 5lb or so to clear the hood of debris and empty the bucket.

we don't use the silly little jug that comes with it that takes the juice of 3 apples...we direct the spout out into a 3litre steel pan to can carry on juicing longer.

the juice is then strained through a fine sieve into a big 25litre pan to clear the bulk of the sediment, etc.

2)"sterilise" to kill off natural yeasts.

There are 3 chains of thought....I've tried all three, and get the most consistent results this way.

Chain A) don't do anything with it...just demi-john it, lob in some extra yeast, and "see what happens".  you will definitely get cider...you just might get a bit hit or miss as to the quality of the natural yeasts you encounter, and increases the likelyhood of a bacteria incidence in the brew too which will acetify it and make it turn to vinegar whilst it's maturing.

Chain B) use a chemical "campden tablet" - which is essentially sulphur dioxide - to kill bacteria and the natural yeats.  before then adding your own yeast.  I don't really like this, I think it alters the taste.

Chain C) (the one we use) - I quickly bring the apple juice up to 70 degrees to kill off all the natural yeast, and any bacteria, then quickly cool the pan in a sink of cold water, back down to 37 degrees.

This way, you have a sterile juice, you can control the brewing of, and it's also now at the perfect temp to begin fermenting.

3)demi-john and ferment
once sterile and ready to demi-john.  we add yeast nutrient and pectolase (to dissolve out the pectin which can cause cloudy cider), then add some juice, then add the sachet of wine yeast, then top up with juice.  top up to 4/5th's and add an airlock.

keep in a steady temp place (spare room, etc) and leave to ferment.

should take about 1 week before the initial brew finishes and settles.  you can then top it up to 7/8th's (leave a little breathing room) and re-seal.  leave it for another couple of weeks to re-ferment and settle.

at this point you have two choices...you can leave it in the demi-john to mature, or bottle it and leave it to mature in the bottles.  we use the latter method.

4)Bottle it
make sure you heat sterilise the syphon and bottles well before use, syphon the cider out into the bottles.

if you want "flat" cider, any bottles will do.  if you want naturally sparkling cider, then use "grolsch" type bottles (i.e. sprung loaded, pressurisable ones) and before you add the cider, add either a good table spoon of sugar (to reactivate the yeast and create sealed CO2 which dissolves in th cider creating sparkling cider), or even add a shot of your favourite fruit cordial...we use blackberry cordial - to make perfect pre-mixed sparkling fruit flavoured ciders.

seal these and leave to re-ferment in a cool place - I reckon given them at least another month to mature. chill well, open carefully!

depending on the yeast you used, you should get between 8% and 14% ABV  - we get about 12% so if it's left to mature and clear for a few months it taste more like champagne than it does cider!

autumnal flavours...

What better to do with windfall pears before they go overripe.

they never seem to store as well as apples do, so thought i'd try bottling some this season.

Recipe (for 8 pears, 2x 1pint kilner jars)

If you followed my blackberry cordial receipt earlier, and made some blackberry wine then you'll have the two main additions.

300ml of neat blackberry cordial/syrup
300ml of blackberry wine
depending on how tightly you pack your pears you may not need all the liqour but make a little extra incase.
tea-spoon of chopped preserved stem ginger (the sweet sticky sugar'd stuff)
boil these together whilst you peel, quarter, and core the pears
place the pear quarters in the sterilised jars
pour over the boiling liquor
seal them
for a longer keep, place in a ban-marie, or large saucepan, and bring the sealed jars to the boil for a few minutes.  then let them cool.

Forager's Chutney....

Time to get the pans out tomorrow and knock up some foragers chutney.

basic recipe

1 pint of vinegar (we use mixture of 50% cider, 40% cheap balsamic - not the decent 4 leaf stuff, 10% white wine, vinegars)
1-1.5kg of "fruit" chopped, peeled apples (any type will do..whatever you find), and maybe any plums or gage's chopped and stoned
1-1.5kg of "veg" - we use onions, garlic, carrots, celariac, maybe swede, the odd green tomato this late in the season (whatever the garden has too much of, chopped as chunky as you like your chutney)
500g of sugar

throw it all in as big a pan as you need to, and boil and stir until it's got no free juice/liquid flowing, and thick enough for you to run a spoon through it and see the bottom of the pan for a second before it closes back in. - should take about an hour or so of cooking

sterilise some jars, bottle it super hot, straight from the heat, and seal.

photo's to follow...

Cooking with Blackberry wine, and Wild Herbs

Now if you've been keeping up with the Blackberry season, you'll know we laid down a few bottles of Blackberry wine a few weeks ago.

http://foragersnook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/blackberry-wine.html

We always keep a "taster bottle" to see how the batch is getting on, and having tried it after 3 weeks, I can confirm it's now like a sweet and sprightly french beaujolais - i.e. fresh, fruity and light on tannins.

Today's wander took us along the cliffs of Dover from St Margarets back towards Dover to the National Trust centre above the Port of Dover - along the "Saxon Shore Way"

(The Cafe at the Dover National Trust cliff top centre is a splendid place for a mid-walk cup of tea and a scone)

All along this sun drenched cliff top are patches of wild marjoram/oregano

as well as big specimens of sea beets, ready for next spring (they'll be a bit tough and stringy by now)

And what better to do than mix the two...

so today's recipe is a wonderful lamb-shank, pot braised in blackberry wine, with wild oregano.

(Wine, stock cube, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, tomatoes, mustard, worcestershire sauce, wild herbs, - 3 hrs slow braise at 180 degrees)

sweet, succulent, and delicious, served with home grown new potatoes.

And also...watch out out for wonderful butterflies feasting on the thistles, scabies, and the oregano flowers.
 

Blackberry Jam....

Now.....not sure if this is a soft set...or a hard set....I guess you'll have to re-visit this in a few hours to see how it turned out.

___________________________________________

Today's recipe - Blackberry Jam (seeds left in...perfer a bit of texture, rather than a smooth jelly)

• 1 Kg of blackberries (picked last week, and frozen - so i just defrosted them on the hob and cooekd them to a pulp)
• 1Kg of Jam Sugar (the silverspoon stuff with added pectin)
• Lemon Juice

Cook the blackberries down until they are fully broken down and liquid.

(at this point, if you want to make a smooth seedless jelly rather than a jam - then you can rub through a fine sieve or leave to drip through muslin overnight, to get just the juice and use this instead....there are recipes (try Pam Corbin) for this)

without boiling, stir in the sugar and lemon juice, and make sure it all dissolves.

Do a taste test at this point too.  there are 2000 different varieties of blackberries and they all taste slightly differently.

This batch was made from the first flush of big juicy ones from a south facing hedge of brambles, so didn't need any more sweetening and they were even sweet to eat raw.

If you like it a bit more tart, adjust the sugar accordingly, but you may need to add some more pectin (throw in a chopped cooking apple, or powdered pectin as required)

If you like it sweeter, add more normal sugar, the pectin sugar will do it's bit, don't need to add more.

once you're happy with it, then turn the heat up, put a long sleeve top and gloves on to stop boiling jam from spitting all over your skin, stir continuously to stop it sticking and burning.

once it's on a full boil, then it should take about 4 minutes of boiling to reach the setting point.

if you want to stick a thermometer in to test it feel free, 104 degrees C is what you need to aim for, or just go by the feel of it, you notice it thickening once the setting point is reached, and have a chilled plate at the ready to test a blob of it on for setting.

remember it continues to set further as it cools...so it will always feel a little looser at jaring stage then it will actually turn out.

as soon as your happy with it, funnel it into pre-heated/sterilised jars, lid, and seal.

essentially...as long as you have enough pectin, and as long as you boil for 4 minutes, it will set to something between a soft set jelly, and a fully set jam - as the berries will always be slightly different each time, you'll rarely get the same result twice....but that's surely the fun of foraged produce.

Tj@TheForagersNook

blackberry wine...

Having now picked about 10lbs of blackberries from our old favourite spot, and now a new favourite spot on the Greensands Way, we've put down our first batch of blackberry wine.

For the recipe we used, you will need:-

• 4lb of fresh juicy blackberries (you can freeze them first so that when they thaw you get more juice out of them more easily)

• 3lb of sugar


• a big bucket to steep them in


• a packet of wine yeast


• 4 litres of water


• juice of a lemon

Instructions:-

place the blackberries in the bucket, and mush them with a potato masher

Add a litre of boiling water to the mush to help release the fruit juices from the pulp,

Add the sugar to the mush, the boiling water will help to dissolve the sugar

in a seperate bowl, mix 3 litres of cold water, the yeast, and the juice of the lemon

stir all together, put a lid on (or cover with a clean towel), and leave it to steep for three days in a warm place

On Day 4 - be prepared for the most wonderful alcohol heady aroma to be released from the bucket when you take the lid off!

strain the liquor from the bucket through a sterilised muslin/fine seive and then pour the strained liquor into a 4.5litre demi-john

now...when we did this, we ended up with about 6 litres of juice as the berries were so juicy....so I guess you could use a bit less water, if you want a stronger wine, or a bit less blackberry if you want a lighter wine.

With the extra juice, I've bottled it in a pressure bottle, to make a side batch of early sparkling blackberry fizz (I'll release the pressure every few days to stop the bottles exploding)

put an airlock/bung on the demi-john, and leave in a dark corner until it stops fermenting - this could be anything from a week to a month.

what you do with it next is yours to decide.

If you want a more complex wine - then leave it "on it's leas" - i.e. in the demijohn with all the yeasty slurry for a few month before syphoning off and bottling.

If you want a quick and fruity wine - then syphon it off into bottles as soon as it stops fermenting

...and don't forget, if you want to add your own fizz to it when you syphon it off and bottle it, then drop half a tea-spoon of sugar into each bottle when bottling (but if you're going to do this, make sure they are swing topped pressure capable bottles....and make sure you release them slowly when you do drink them to release the pressure slowly (like you should with champagne)



The Green Sands Way @ Linton

This evening's pre-dinner interlude was a stroll East out of Linton on the Green Sands Way through the grounds of Boughton'











Large, Delicious, Nutritious...and foragable....a giant puffball












However, the best view is south over the deer park.

Large, Deliciuos, Nutritious....and sadly not foragable..... :>)



plums...by the bowlfull.

What better way to gather plums on a perfect, balmy August morning....than at the end of a 6 mile stroll across the Kent Downs.

Sit under a plum tree, and enjoy a handful of ripe fruits, pick a couple of bagfuls, then stroll back.

But be quick...

They appear to be ripening well in the sunshine, and won't be long before they start to fall.












perfectly ripe little red cherry plums will be the perfect addition to some greengages and blackberries for a hedgrow jam.

and the larger gage like yellow plums will be split and destoned, and combined with blackberries for a delicious baking dish full of hedgerow crumble :>)

 Fill your bags, fill your pie trays, and fill your jam jars to enjoy this little piece of late summer all year round.

Tj@TheForgersNook

The one mile blackberry challenge....

Blackberries and their many guises, brambles, etc must surely be everybody's first, and to some, their only foray into foraging.

I remember the railway sidings behind our school, carrier bags, stained fingers and clothes, in the early 1980's school holiday's, the screwed up face from the tart ones and sweet heady aroma of them baking in a crumble.

eat them raw, sugar them, warm them through, bake them, juice them, jam them, freeze and preserve them, ferment their juice, leather/jelly them, there's something different for every bagful you pick.

It is rumoured there are over 2000 individual species of bramble/blackberry - and you'll also notice that the closer they are to homes, gardens, allotments, and farm animals (and thus closer to a ready free supply of fertiliser from run off) the fatter and juicer they usually are, with the hedgerow ones being much smaller, later to ripen, and much planer in taste - but still perfect for sugaring up and baking with.

 

So I set you a challenge - even if you've never foraged before, that within a mile of your house, you can find a good bagful of blackberries between now and the middle of September - enough to at least make a good crumble, and a pot of hedgerow jam or two.

Tj@TheForagersNook

North West to the South Downs - summer sea shore plants

Where better to spend the summer than by the sea...

Being from Cumbria we try and get back to Barrow-in-Furness as often as we can to see family and enjoy the peace beauty of Walney Island.

In season at present are the seed pods of Sea Kale.  quite rare in the south these days with the erosion of pebble beaches, but abundant all along the Lancs and Cumbria coasts of Morecambe Bay.

 

Another stunning plant at this time of year is Sea Holly.  but this is quite a rare plant these days, and the only part of it historically edible were the roots.  so on both counts, this should be left alone, but enjoyed for it's beauty. 

Back down south, we skipped down from the North Downs to the South Downs above Beachy Head.

Amazing that 350 miles makes such a difference to the coastal climate, from blustery wet north, to semi arid, almost Mediterranean south facing chalk downs, we get herbs. the wonderfully fragrant wild thyme, as well as large swathes of marjoram/oregano - all 3 now in flower so easily recognisable.

Herbs which are perfect to add to something robust and creamy like cauliflower gratin with home grown cauli's and freshly picked home made garlic.

Wherever you travel this summer, have a great holiday, and don't forget the scissors, and foraging bags.


Tj@TheForagersNook

plums et al.

July marks the start of the plum season....so keep an eye out in the hedgerows for them in this usual order from July through to October.

1)from mid July - greengages - juicy and tart - great for chutneys and jams
2)July into Aug - cherry plums - small and juicy
3)from Late Aug - victorias (usually escapee trees self seeded from gardens) - delicious torn open with your thumbs when fully ripe
4)from Sep - damsons - perfect jam
5)Sep onwards - sloes/blackthorns - perfect from pricking and steeping in alcohol

And as it's July...here's the low hanging fruit off one of our favourite wild greengage trees.

These will be made into a couple of jar's of jam, and also - they curiously the jam we made last year with them tastes a bit like Mango Chutney, so we're going to spice up a batch of the jam and throw in a token mango to make some hedgerow curry chutney.

Tj@TheForagersNook

Cheriton Hill to Etchinghill via Summerhouse Hill

A day of hills along the North Downs Way, back down to Eltham Valley Way, round Summerhouse Hill, and back up the steep sided Downs above the channel tunnel terminal.

on today's list, the wet spell has kept the fungi season going.

Jews Ear Fungus

And the wild apples along the Eltham Valley link road behind the Channel Tunnel are swelling nicely with all this rain.














And for the perfect addition to home made pasta and pizza sauces - wild marjoram - now more obvious now it is coming into flower - pick and rub it - it's aroma is unmistakably mediterranean

The North Downs and Pilgrims Way are covered in it, a wonderful reminder of the paths taken by our invading latin ancestors.

PS - my next article in AWalkingInTheGarden is due out next month  - subscribe now.

Tj@TheForagersNook

Preview of a forage with "The Minnis" Chefs

A couple of months back, via twitter, the Chef's at The Minnis - Birchington asked if I would take them out for a sea shore forage, to see what there might be on offer to tempt their taste buds.

As a combination of weather, other plans, and tide times have scuppered efforts so far, I managed to sneak past one evening and did a little "test forage".

So, in advance of our foraging wander, here's the sort of things we might find this summer - there were plenty more - but only passed by on a cycle, so snapped the more obvious ones.


Above the tide line

Behind the beach huts are big patches of Purslane.















Sea Purslane - wonderful succulent leaves - eat raw in a crunchy well dressed salad, or like Samphire, briefly blanch and serve in a warm salad with a simple vinaigrette.


Down the steep banks from the foot patch to the sea look out for mallow

it's gelatinous leaves can be deep fried to make green crips - perfect bar snacks
or used in soups as thickeners, as when boiled exude their gelatinous protein rich mucilage (often used in middle east/north african soups and stews)
it's pretty pink flowers used in salads, and even the seed heads later which resemble small round cheeses before they ripen.

Along the footpath by the cabins are also some herbs - patch of spear mint growing happily

Bladder campion - worth coming back to next spring for the sweet young shoots and leaves

All along this grassy bank are ox eye daisies (young leaves, unopened flower heads chopped in salads, or flowers, petals added later) most of the common "greens/wild leaves" & thistles.

Below the tide line

Sea Weeds

bright green Sea-lettuce is abundant in the rock pools of the chalk reef, as are dulse, bladder wracks, and the odd frond of kelp in the deep water.  salads to sushi via stir-fries - take your pick.

Shell fish - (although the water's a little warm to guarantee quality during summer months in Kent, and they should be left to breed in peace)

native oysters - though observe minimum sizes (these are all too small)
and also winkles by the bucket load - For the patient ones amongst us - boil up a bucket of winkles, then pick them out with a pin for a mini snail feast

Pacific Rock Oysters (foreign imports - invasive - so no minimum size - fill your buckets!)
best used shucked, and cooked - wrapped and grilled (http://foragersnook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/wild-oysters-marsh-samphire.html) - or added to paella's, or even Beef and Oyster stew or pies - for a taste of old London town.

in deeper waters there are also mussels - perfect for a winter paella.

and don't forget to turn the rocks carefully - a bucket of big shorecrabs makes a scrimpers version of lobster bisque - pick out the larger claw meat once boiled, blitz the rest, strain, and follow any good receipe for a lobster bisque.

The rock pools are also teaming with little shrimps - with a net, worth a bit of fun catching the bigger ones, boil and pick from the shells for sweet tasty morsels.


Tj@TheForagersNook

A wander out from Wye....

Continuning our 2012 quest to complete the North Down's way, whilst reviewing the tastier aspects of what we find along the way, we got back on track this morning.

Strolling east from Wye, up to the North downs ridge, over the top of the Wye Crown and onwards.





Just outside Wye there are some naturalised Red Currants

managed to pick a bowl full, but there is a 50 yard path edge of them, so plenty more left.
(They are currently being turned into "fruit leathers" with some wild strawberries and home grown ones - photo to follow)

But whilst picking the currants,
a meatier treat was staring down at me from the tree.


A big thick Chicken of the Woods fungi







Once you climb out of Wye up onto the grassy cow filled ridge fields then there are also plenty of field mushrooms, and also puff balls starting to swell too (too small to pick just yet).


So all in all, a great walk, and a great forage too.

Tj@TheNook



5 litres of Kentish cockles a day - it's official.

Not sure if you knew - but unless you have a permit you shouldn't collect cockles between Southend in Essex, all the way round the Thames Estuary, along the Kent coast, down as far as the old lighthouse at Dungeness.

http://www.kentandessex-ifca.gov.uk/images/stories/KEpicts/repos/Area_A_KESFC_Byelaws.pdf


This reads a little draconian, so I wrote to the Kent Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, to ask for clarification for the purpose of "foraging" for personal eating, as this document doesn't mention it.

and i got a nice email back...which confirms that you are allowed to forage for 5 litres of lovely Kentish Cockles on any given day.

So that's that cleared up.....

PS - they are delicious!....

______________________

Dear Mr Jesson

Thank you for your e-mail.

I have shown below the advice we give to those wishing to take a few cockles for their own consumption but NOT for resale.

The reason we are referred to as both Kent & Essex Sea Fisheries Committee and Kent & Essex IFCA is that on 1 April 2011 the Sea Fisheries Committees ceased to exist and were replaced by the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCA), however the Byelaws which are presently under review are still legal and binding and were signed by the Secretary of State and approved to the Kent and Essex SFC.

“KENT AND ESSEX INSHORE FISHERIES AND CONSERVATION AUTHORITY


Requirements are in place under the Thames Estuary Cockle Fishery Order and also the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee Cockle Fishery Permits byelaw that persons taking cockles must be in possession of either a licence or permit dependent upon which area they are fishing.

The SFC/Authority is not opposed to persons without a licence or permit taking a small quantity of cockles for their own consumption. Officers have, therefore been instructed to take no action against persons removing less than 5 litres of whole cockles in the shell per 24 hour period.

Please note Environmental Health Departments of the various Councils within our District can, if there are health concerns, place a Prohibition Order on the collection of shellfish and the Order must be adhered to at all times and the local Environmental Health Department should be contacted to ascertain if such an Prohibition Order has been implemented.”

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Joan

Joan Taylor | Office Manager
Web: www.kentandessex-ifca.gov.uk


Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority
Paragon House, Albert Street, Ramsgate, Kent. CT11 9HD

Respect your Elders....

It has long been said that the English summer does not start until the Elderflowers are in bloom.

Well. I guess that means it's here.

I'll be blogging throughout the next few weeks on what else you can do with them, but it would be scandalous not to start with what is our favourite summer drink - Elderflower Cordial.


Recipe

Makes 2 litres of cordial (which diluted 1:5 parts water makes 10-ish litres of summer drinks depending on how strong you like your squash.


Ingredients
20-30 Elderflower heads
1 Kg of white sugar
2 lemons
2-3 oranges
spoonful of citric acid (if you want to make a batch that will last a year)....if it's quick batch to drink in the next few weeks...don't worry about this bit
sterilised bottles that don't mind 80degree C hot syrup being poured into them...

1)Gather the Elderflowers

Don't take too many off any single tree...you want to leave some to turn into elderberries later in the year!

you need about 20-30 fully open flower bunches

Gently snip them from the tree, and trim off as much stalk as you can, and pick off any insects without disturbing the flowers, as the pollen shakes free very easily...as it's the pollen that is the flavour!...so be careful not to lose too much



2)Steep overnight with citrus flavours

Grate the zest of a couple of lemons, and slice a couple of oranges (you want the juice of the lemons tomorrow...so keep the lemons!)

put them in a 3 litre pan or bowl with the elderflowers, and pour over 1.5Litres of boiling water.

cover and leave to steep overnight.








3)Make the cordial
Strain the steeped flowers, and use a muslin bag to squeeze as much flavour out of the flowers you can - don't worry if it's a bit cloudy...it means more pollen and more flavour! - the steeped liquid should now be a pale yellow colour and smell deliciously fragrant.

put the liquid in a 3 litre pan,
add 1Kg of sugar,
juice a couple of oranges and add to the liquid
juice the two lemons you zested last night and add to the liquid
add the citric acid if using
gently heat the liquid and stir until the sugar has dissolved
 (there should now be about 2 litres of liquid cordial once the sugar has dissolved)



4)Sterilise and bottle it
Heat the liquid until 80degrees C (i.e. sterilise temp) but DO NOT BOIL! you'll start to lose the aromatics if you heat it too much!
pour the now slightly syrupy cordial mixture into sterilised bottles, and seal.

leave to cool, then enjoy all summer, with ice and a slice (it also goes well as a shot of cordial added to a Gin and Tonic!)


Tj@TheNook

Summer Outdoor Barbeque Flavours

The Kentish summer appears to have commenced at last, so what better time to keep an eye out for some wild summer bbq flavours, at these three Kentish summer outdoor BBQ spots.


Pegwell Bay
Pegwell Bay (park and relax on the open green park by the Viking ship), it's shoreline, and the old hovercraft port are full of Alexanders and wild fennel.

Use the fern fronds to stuff fish with before bbq'ing

cut the thicker fennel stems (they aren't as thick and 'bulb like' as their cultivated cousins) at the base, oil them, and grill them on the barbie, crisp but aromatic.









Joss Bay
Joss Bay (surf beach) - who needs to drive to Cornwall for surfing, beaches, and BBQ's.

The path down to the beach has banks full of "really wild" wild rocket - the smell is unmistakable when rubbed - for a free summer salad leaf to go with your beach side barbeque

Teston
Teston open park and car-park area along the Medway between Teston and Wateringbury - they have now gravel pathed the Medway all the way from Maidstone to Wateringbury, so enjoy an evening stroll - keep an eye out for the kingfishers.

By the old stone Teston bridge, lookout for patches of wild water mint - perfect for shredding into iced Mojitos, or yoghurty dips



Enjoy.
Tj@TheForagersNook