Dementia is my friend too…
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I have a surplus of last year’s frozen blackberries in the freezer to use up.
Ok, time to make blackberry vodka
I’ll be putting the blackberries in the jar with 70cl of cheapo vodka, some golden caster sugar, a cinnamon stick, a bayleaf and although it’s not called for in the recipe some lime zest for that little extra something!
It’ll stay in the jar to infuse for a few weeks and shaken regularly before being strained and bottled in time for Christmas 
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That sounds fantastic 
There’s no way it would last until Christmas in my house, not a chance. 
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Ah! but it must last, Father Christmas doesn’t visit naughty kids😉
Thanks for the positive post Ralph… it’s a new one on me, I’ve never made this before although I’m feeling positive about the outcome.
Stay tuned, hopefully there’ll be one or two festive hedgerow tipples coming up on the thread 
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I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread. Thanks 
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And here we go!
I prepped up the goodies while the kilner jar was cooling down after being flushed out with hot water and carefully dried in a low oven to make it sterile, the rubber seal in boiled water straight from the kettle.
The smell of the grated lime zest was sublime, filled the living room with a citrusy aroma!
I’ve just given the jar a gentle swirl to start dissolving the sugar, next stop several weeks in a dark, cool kitchen cupboard.
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Chilli, is there any chance of renting a bed in that cupboard ??
I’d only ask for a pillow, a rug … and a long length of plastic tubing.
And I’d be very quiet - well other than some soft occasional slurping sounds I might make .
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Possibly… it’s quite a small cupboard though, you might have to watch one or two contortionist tutorials on YouTube!
One month’s rent in advance if you please 
Chalk me up for a month with option for a longer stay … 
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Leaving blackberries aside just for the time being here’s something relating to an earlier post.
I’m ashamed to say that I’d almost forgotten that there’s still plenty of homemade wild garlic butter in the freezer.
What better way of bringing yesterday’s semi stale baguette back to life!
Into the oven it goes!
And cooling on the rack
Smells delicious!
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DAMN you Chilli, you should be banned, or at least your photos should be banned.
For people like myself here “behaving” ourselves when it comes to food as I have only 30 minutes ago when I again said to myself “OK that’s enough food”
And then what happens… I come in here only to find that ChilliDISASTER has struck once again and DAMMIT I’m certain I can smell hot baguette and butter and aromatics of garlic OOZING out of my computer monitor.
Some people are just plainly sadistic. ( imho ) 
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Bless you Oldbloke, you say the nicest things 
No behaving on this thread allowed…watch this space! 
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If you needed another reason not to forage, removing a round worm from someone’s brain might give you food for thought.
I thought I’d go for a bit of a recce just after sunrise this morning and blow away the cobwebs.
The hawthorn really are heavily laden this year, I’ll be gathering them in batches and freezing ready for haw gin and spicy haw ketchup,I might go back later today and make a start.
It was a pleasure being out early on the mill pond, saw one dog walker and one angler, probably one of the carp boys! There was almost an autumnal chill in the air.
The old water mill, there used to open days when certain parts of the building were open to the public, I must check it out.
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Thank you Eliza, my pleasure
We’ve just been picking… I’m going to be cutting off the flowering tip of eat and every fruit this evening before packing into freezer bags, freezing will break down the fruit before making hawthorn gin/ketchup. I nearly mentioned the Christmas word again
I noticed some young nettle shoots too, might make a nice creamy sauce!
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Hi Chilli, Interesting - I should have realised earlier that the “haw” that you have spoken about in earlier postings & I think other Brits refer to is actually Hawthorn which to add to the confusion goes by a surprisingly wide range of names. So many varieties of this tree & fruit as well as a similarity to other unrelated species too.
I’m sure you’d be aware of it’s beneficial properties in relation to the heart ( & as always the contraindications )
Only yesterday I had the last of some capsules that I’ve taken occasionally - need some of your trees here as it is not cheap.
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Yep, haws are the fruit of the hawthorn. I had a quick Google and it seems that they can be found in parts of Australia having been introduced there. I also learned that there’s actually a place called Hawthorne which is a suburb of Melbourne…no doubt you knew that already 
Now the finicky bit begins before this batch is bagged up ready for the freezer.
It is actually quite thereputic.
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Hmmm “therapeutic” ?? Have you heard of a cooking technique called “carbonising” ? 
Quite different from caramelising. Both my neighbour & I have been practicising this specialised culinary technique in last couple of days. 
He was first. We were chatting in his driveway when I happened to mention cooking - he just about launched himself vertically up his stairs & inside to his kitchen, No explanation just WHOOSH ! and he was gone. 
He was MUCH slower coming back & his response to my obvious question was a description of carbonised soup “crackers” as all the water for the soup had long boiled away. 
Tonight I had several mandarins and some other items left over and thought to sorta partly dry them in the microwave to nibble on later as a “chewy” snack. 
I was down this other end of the house when an ominous aroma snuck down the hall and made itself apparent. 
Luckily I’d used a special microwave cover over the dish but nonetheless there was LOTSA smoke desperately trying to sneak out.
I don’t know if there is an art colour that is blacker than black but if so that was the colour that after cooling went down the loo. 
Next time I’ll set the timer at a lesser value. DUH ! 
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