Silly amounts of strawberries.....

[santaman2000]

Have you thought of making some strawberry wine?

 

[British Red]

so will they keep fruiting for the next 4 weeks?

SHould do - and more, but the rate falls off

 

[British Red]

Have you thought of making some strawberry wine?

I've made it before. It was nice - but not a patch on raspberry to be honest

 

[Toddy]

The jam looks lovely, but you've lost me at gallons of fruit and pints of sugar

I have masses of the little wild ones to pick I love the syrup, so that's what'll be made from them. This warm weather is really bringing them on. The rasps are still at the flowers full of bees stage, but I'm looking forward to them. I want cranachan, but strawberries just don't work for that....too wet and sweet, iimmc. Great for meringues though (tonight's pudding )

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Goatboy]

Oh Toddy stop! Cranachan's one of the few things I'll eat cream for, love the stuff - just works so well.

 

[British Red]

Its more coulis / pie filling / yoghurt topping than jam this stuff. If the numbers are confusing Just call it 2 parts strawberry, 2 parts chopped rhubarb. 1 part sugar by volume

 

[British Red]

Cranachan's one of the few things I'll eat cream for, love the stuff - just works so well.

That does look good!

 

[Toddy]

You know that smell of toasting oats ? the one that's better than bread or cake baking ? I want that I love it with rasps or with brambles, but they're not right yet. However, the rhubarb is showing willing, and a bit of that gently poached in it's juice and set, makes great cranachan ....and if you slice up a bit of stem ginger until it's in transparent wee sheets, and add that to the rhubarb too with a bit of the syrup over the top, then crush up a meringue and add the fresh cream and toasted oats......far too sweet but a delicious treat of a pudding.......ten o'clock at night and I'm hungry

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

My buddy was delivering to a food packing station last week - they had too much root ginger and he asked if I wanted some? I said sure - and he gave me a carrier bag full!

Ginger I have!

 

[Goatboy]

You know that smell of toasting oats ? the one that's better than bread or cake baking ? I want that I love it with rasps or with brambles, but they're not right yet. However, the rhubarb is showing willing, and a bit of that gently poached in it's juice and set, makes great cranachan ....and if you slice up a bit of stem ginger until it's in transparent wee sheets, and add that to the rhubarb too with a bit of the syrup over the top, then crush up a meringue and add the fresh cream and toasted oats......far too sweet but a delicious treat of a pudding.......ten o'clock at night and I'm hungry

atb,
M

You are a bad, bad lady! Stop doing that! (Gooseberries work too by the way!)

 

[santaman2000]

You know that smell of toasting oats ? the one that's better than bread or cake baking ? I want that I love it with rasps or with brambles, but they're not right yet. However, the rhubarb is showing willing, and a bit of that gently poached in it's juice and set, makes great cranachan ....and if you slice up a bit of stem ginger until it's in transparent wee sheets, and add that to the rhubarb too with a bit of the syrup over the top, then crush up a meringue and add the fresh cream and toasted oats......far too sweet but a delicious treat of a pudding.......ten o'clock at night and I'm hungry




atb,
M

There's no such thing as "too sweet!"

 

[Toddy]

I bought a standard grosset tree a fortnight ago, and it has berries ripening nicely on it

British Red....my sugar comes in kg bags though, not pint jugs. 4:1 makes sense when it's piefilling
Talking of sugar though; if you make a cracking toffee and pour it onto a butter baking tray so that it runs out really thin, let it cool and then shatter it; it's awfully good on the top of anything creamy.

Santaman2000.....I up the ante with tablet sliced into fine wee slivers and sprinkled over ice cream I like sweet, but a tiny wee bit at a time, I'd be ill with that. I'm still trying to finish my Christmas chocolates, and no, I'm not joking

atb,
M

 

[santaman2000]

LOL. You need to try Pecan Divinity.

 

[British Red]

British Red....my sugar comes in kg bags though, not pint jugs. 4:1 makes sense when it's piefilling

I like volume based recipes - really easy as harvested fruit rarely comes in convenient weights. Lob it all in a small jug - and add a jug of sugar for every four of fruit. Simple - like me,

 

[Toddy]

I like arithmatic
Volume I'm not so fond of for fruit; fruit's rarely evenly sized, iimmc. and if I'm jam making I want my measurements right.
The only time I use a jug to measure it is once I've got the fruit reduced to juice. It obviously works for you though.

The other thing that you could do with all those strawberries is to make ice lollies. Hull the strawberries, slice them in half and sprinkle with a little sugar. Leave until they've drawn the juice a bit and then whizz them up with a blender. Strain through a coarse sieve and pour into ice lolly moulds and put into the freezer. Small is better than large for this though, since they grain a bit like sorbet, but they're very good If you do make sorbet pots with them it's worth giving it a good whisking when it's half frozen.

I do like them dehydrated into crisps like the ones you showed at the start of the thread They make a really tasty trail mix with dried apples.

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

I'm hoping to dry a load of our apples - and maybe a few sour cherries too.

The lolly idea is genius. I have lolly moulds Watch this strawberry flavoured space!

 

[Toddy]

Son2 was allergic to the azo dye food colourings that were in every blooming thing when he was a child; I got a lot of practice making stuff he would eat that wasn't either fake coloured or ridiculously sweetened. I wanted them to enjoy real food; strawberry things that actually tasted like real strawberries, for instance, not of 'strawberry flavouring' in anonymous super sugared gloop.

I'm not much of a fan of ice cream, but I do like sorbet

If you juice and strain the strawberries, and simmer the juice down until it's a thickish liquid but not caramelized at all, it'll make a great starter for jellies, and it keeps well in a jar too It darkens though, so not strawberry red-red. It makes very good basis for Turkish delight

cheers,
M

 

[British Red]

You aren't allowed Turkish delight surely - its mostly cow bits

BB will not have me making it in the cottage - another reason for the barn stove - it fairly hums

 

[mrostov]

The main thing were are trying to grow this year are tomatoes, pumpkins, and a mango tree. I love strawberries, but Texas is having a bit of a drought (which seems kind of odd right on the southern coast), so my substitute for strawberries that I don't have to buy in a store, or worry about watering, is this plant that grows all over the place here that is actually native to South Africa. It's technically called a 'carissa'. Locally it's called it a 'natal plum' but I've heard that in South Africa it's often called a 'num num'. It's grown here as a barrier (very dense and thorny) and ornamental plant. The fruit makes an excellent jam, and I let the local parks and golf courses do the watering for me. Most people I've talked to think that the fruit is poisonous since it's an ornamental and barrier plant, so I don't dissuade that opinion. In the USA it's generally been planted in Florida, the Texas coast, and southern California.

 

[Toddy]

You aren't allowed Turkish delight surely - its mostly cow bits

BB will not have me making it in the cottage - another reason for the barn stove - it fairly hums

Real Turkish Delight is a boiled sugar base though, not gelatine.
Agar sets it very well too.
Dead animal bits just....nah, not in my sweeties.

Sounds like Guerilla Gardening mrostov though technically it's foraging

cheers,
M