Where the Wild Things Grow

Have been there today for a bit of a forage.  Have come home with purple stained hands, been nettled, and had the odd one or two thorns attach themselves to me, but I couldn't be happier.  I have come home with 1.5kilos of new season's Blackberries to turn into pie filling and puddings for the Pantry shelf for the winter months.

At the end of the day I preserve because I enjoy it, and it also provides food security and can very much get you through tough times, especially if you really stock your Pantry.  Tomorrow we are planning to go again, somewhere different, and will probably start off some Blackberry and Apple jelly using the apples I found today.

On a slightly different tack, but still related to food and pudding.  I was always taught that if a meal started with a soup, it would fill the stomach a bit so that you did not have to serve as much meat, and could stretch the meat that bit further.  The pudding would just be the final flourish, to finish things off and yet again that need not be massive either and you could stretch this for a couple of meals as well.  The soup was also a go to if were hungry and it was cold so it always served several functions. There is therefore a method to how you should eat to stretch the pennies that bit further.

That is one of the reasons I do what I do.  Something even if it is only a little bit of something is far better than nothing. I am processing the jars this evening. I will let you know how many jars tomorrow.  If the mixture is too wet and there is a lot of syrup this can be drained off and drunk as it is or diluted with water so there is no waste and then the drained filling goes into either your pie, sponge or crumble.  It can even be used with cakes/sponges.  The pudding is the sweet reward for eating all your dinner up.

The bonus today for me was that we found apples on the floor again. Two kilos of beautiful apples with more or less perfect skins apart from the odd one or two, but that can be cut off. I cannot pass apples that are on the floor by.  Being bought up with orchards and apple picking as part of the seasons and our lives and spending important family time with my grandparents and other family members with the main aim of bringing the harvest in.  We would congregate for one weekend and do the main crop apple picking.  We were up and down trees from an early age.  I was always taught that fallers were often the best apples and my Nan often sent my brother and I round the Orchards to pick up the apples (the fallers) as she used to use them in cooking, and preserving wine making and Cider making.  Nan always maintained that they were some of the best apples as they had been nearest to the Sun.  I do miss those Orchards, not that they are now there as the chap who bought the property decimated it.  All the Orchards are gone.  That was the family home there as my grandparents lived there for over 60 years.  After losing the family home, that is what made me realise that I would very much like a similar way of life with a decent property to grow stuff.  Perhaps have a few chickens and pigs as well as Orchards.  It has never happened for me, and without a little bit of divine intervention now will probably not be achieved.  But if you have dreams you can let the imagination fly.  Besides I do practice a lot of traditional skills like winemaking, preserving, cooking, gardening etc.  So I am practicing whilst I am waiting.

So happy to have found the wild stuff this morning.  Will go looking again tomorrow.

Otherwise today has been mostly house bound doing housework, washing etc.  

Hope everyone has a lovely evening.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x