Tuesday 27 July 2010

Blue Berries

We went along the lane tonight picking bilberries. I find bilberries (for no good reason) rather interesting. They're from the same family (Vaccinium) as blueberries (V. species in the Cyanococcus ('round and blue') section and cranberries (V. Oxycoccos ('acidic and round') species)), and the look a lot like blueberries. They're smaller (4–7mm diameter, against 6–12mm), though, with bright red flesh (a blueberry's is pale green), and the flavour is deeper. The plants are low-growing (30–60cm tall, instead of the 1–2m a blueberry can grow to), but broadly similar in foliage.

They are, sadly, deeply tedious to collect. Blueberries, which form in clusters, are a lot easier, but bilberries form singly or in pairs, are smaller, and often hidden in the foliage. Also, as they're so much smaller, you need more! I'm given to understand that they make a fine country wine, which I'll try if I can collect enough, or might make a smaller quantity into a blended-fruit wine.

Continuing the comparison with blueberries: bilberries also keep much less well. Blueberries are easy to store for several weeks, and don't split or bruise too easily. Bilberries split readily on picking, and don't lend themselves to storage and transport. Needless to say, transporting them a few dozen meters to the house, and storing them for the few hours to days it takes to eat them is not a problem... Because they're difficult to cultivate (and collect), they are, seemingly, quite a pricey commodity (€25 per pound?), if you can even find them. Given the number of plants growing near us, it will be no surprise to reveal that they like (very) acid and nutrient-poor soil.

Here's hoping that I can collect enough to vinify!

Monday 26 July 2010

...still more coming up!

There are now eleven pulsatilla showing, which is much improved (37%). Now I just need to keep them alive...

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Germination

The Pulsatilla vulgaris seeds I sowed 31 days ago have finally started to show: three of the thirty have germinated. I'm hoping that more of them will gradually emerge, and I'll tend them on a bit before potting them up in a while.

No sign of the contemporaneously sown Erythronium 'Pagoda', though.

Sunday 18 July 2010

Potatoes and Fruit

When we completed the fruit beds at the start of May, we planted out a number of potatoes and onions in the spaces between the (rather small) fruit bushes. It's still a little soon for the potatoes, as they've not gone over, but they're rather large, and are threatening to swamp the blueberries, currants, and gooseberries, so we've harvested about eight plants.

Most successful has been the Belle de Fontenay, which is an early, and has thus cropped quite well. We also had to bring up some Pink Fir Apples: as it's a late maincrop, it was a little disappointing—but by September should be much better. The same is true of the King Edwards, which are pretty, but small.

The Belle de la Fontaine were extremely tasty, however, boiled and buttered.

We also collected the red, white and blackcurrants: two of the three blackcurrants were casualties, so we're rather short of those (I think we had four currants). We also had a good bowlful of gooseberries (Invicta (green), and Hinnonmaki Red & Yellow), which have been frozen for now.

Sadly, that's almost it for soft fruit this year: there might be a few raspberries, but not many, and I hope for another bowl or two of strawberries. That said, there'll be blackberries and elderberries from foraging!

Saturday 17 July 2010

A Bubbling Demi-John

I've strained the elderflower wine into its demi-john: it's obviously still rather murky, but smells yeasty and fruity, and is bubbling away quite quickly. It didn't seem to have generated much foam, but I haven't filled the demi-john too much, in case: the excess is alongside in an air-locked bottle, ready to top-up in a week or so.

Monday 12 July 2010

Fermenting

The elderflower wine has started its transmogrification from soup of flowers and lemon pulp into (hopefully) glorious nectar. Or some-such: at least, the yeast has kicked in, and it's bubbling away. It'll get strained into a demi-john in a few days, and left to its own devices.

Sunday 11 July 2010

Elderflower Wine

As intended, I've started a batch of elderflower wine. It's a little time-consuming, trimming the flowers from the stems, but hopefully worth it. I used Gervin strain 5 (GV5, white label) yeast, which is the white wine, low-temperature strain. The low-temperature (down to 8-10ºC) ability is actually one that would be useful in a red-wine yeast, as the blackberry/elderberry wine made in the autumn is slow over the cool winter months. As it's staying 18-24ºC at the moment, I hope this wine will move quickly!

Anyway, I've made enough (hopefully) to fill a demi-john, which meant scaling the recipe slightly (to 4l of water). Notes on progress will follow...

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Elderflower Cordial part 2

The elderflower cordial we started at the weekend is ready. The recipe makes about 5 pints (we doubled it), and it's been decanted into pint milk bottles and frozen. We tried it a couple of days ago, and it didn't seem strongly flavoured enough, hence leaving it a couple of days longer: much better now.

Monday 5 July 2010

No sign yet...

...of my pulsatilla seeds germinating. Nonetheless, I'm not giving up yet: apparently they might take a couple of weeks to come up, and I am at least trying at the right time. I wasn't sure (no detail in any of my books), but a bit of rooting on t'internet suggests fresh seed is the way to go. I'm still hopeful!

Similarly, the Erythronium 'Pagoda' seeds haven't germinated...apparently, though, they could take several months...patience, patience.

Saturday 3 July 2010

Elderflower Cordial

After a run of sunny days last week, it was time to make elderflower cordial. Harvesting the flower heads in the morning works best, when the scent is strongest and sweetest: and the cordial starts to smell wonderful almost as soon as it's mixed. On Monday, we'll bottle it up and freeze it: and then next weekend (hopefully), I'll start some elderflower wine.

I've also added a few more planks to the compost bay, which was starting to over-fill with lawn clippings and kitchen waste. Its capacity is probably about 60% greater now, so it should keep going for a bit. As before, I used pallet planks, which seem ideal.