Autumn Berry Immunity Tonic

750g elderberries

250g blackberries

½ litre water

1 rounded tablespoon echinacea root

1 rounded tablespoon freshly grated horseradish

1 small chilli chopped (with or without seeds)

2 tablespoons rosemary roughly chopped

300mls raw honey for every litre of juice

large stainless steel pan & sealable bottles

 

Combine everything, except the honey, in a pan.  Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer very gently for 30 minutes

Remove from the heat and strain out the herbs and fruit pushing the fruit to extract all the juice.

Measure the liquid - you should have a litre.

Stir in the honey.

Bottle the juice in sterilised jars.

Store in the fridge for up to 4 months unopened and for 1 month once opened.

Take a teaspoon daily during the autumn for immune support  (or make a soothing drink with hot water if you succumb to flu or a cold)

 

Tomato Sauce

Making a tomato sauce is a good way to preserve a glut of tomatoes. Tomatoes contain more of the carotenoid lycopene than any other vegetable. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant which helps prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer especially breast & prostate cancer.

Lycopene is absorbed better when eaten with fats and can be absorbed more efficiently when cooked

 

tomatoes

salt

500ml kilner jars

 

Wash the tomatoes.

Using a sharp knife quarter, core and seed the tomatoes and place into a bowl, strain the juice from the seeds into the bowl.

In batches Blitz the tomatoes in a processor & tip the puree into a large stainless steel pot.

Very gently, bring the tomato puree to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the mixture has reduced by about a quarter.

Stir from time to time to prevent sticking

 

Whilst the tomatoes are reducing sterilise your jars in a hot oven.

Boil the metal lids

If you are using jars with rubber seals make sure you use new ones.

Line up your sterile jars and put ½ tsp salt in the bottom of each jar.

Using a funnel and ladle, fill the jars with the tomato mixture, leaving about a ½ inch space at the top of the jar. Fasten the lid.

Line the bottom of a large pan with a dish towel to keep the jars from banging around too much and fill with as many jars as you can, top with water and bring it to a boil.

Boil the jars for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat. Very carefully remove the jars from the water. Allow to cool store the jars in a cool, dry place.

 

Rose Hip Chutney

550ml fresh rose hips, seeds removed

550ml apple cider vinegar

225g sultanas

700g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

knob of ginger grated

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground cloves

2 chopped cloves garlic

225g sugar

juice and zest 1 lemon

juice and zest 1 orange

 

Soak the rosehips, sultanas, and apples in apple cider vinegar overnight. After soaking, place the rose hips with the remaining ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened.

Leave to cool, then place chutney in clean, dry jars. Store chutney in a cool place.

Keep for at least a month before using.

 

Blackberry vinegar

Vinegar's acidity makes it an effective solvent and preservative for extracting flavours and phytochemicals from fruits and herbs.

Fill a jar with just picked blackberries, cover with apple cider vinegar and leave to infuse in a cool dark place for a month. Strain and bottle.

 

Hawthorn Tincture

500g ripe hawthorn berries

750ml vodka

 

Rinse the berries and place them in a processor with the vodka and very gently pulse to break up. Do not puree.

Pour into a kilner jar or similar, securely fix the lid, give a good shake and then store it in a cool, dark place. Leave it to infuse for six weeks. Shake the jar every couple of days or so.

After six weeks, strain through muslin. Bottle in dark glass – bottles with glass dropper would be ideal

Use a few drops daily in a glass of water

 

Sloe Gin

450g sloes

100g rapadura sugar

1 litre gin

 

Prick the tough skin of the sloes all over with a clean needle and put in a large sterilised jar.

Pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake well.

Store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week. Then shake once a week for at least two months.

Strain the sloe gin through muslin into a sterilised bottle.

You can make blackberry brandy in the same way, substituting blackberries for the sloes and brandy for the gin. (Though you don’t need to prick the blackberries)

 

Autumn Pudding

1 large head of elderberries

225g blackberries

2 quinces

110g damsons

225g mulberries or raspberries

125g rapadura sugar

8 medium slices wholemeal bread

1 x 1.2 litres pudding basin

 

Peel and core the quince cut into small pieces and put into a pan with the sugar and about 4 fl oz water, gently cook for about 20 minutes or until tender

Cook the damsons in a little water until soft and mushy. Sieve to remove the stones.

Strip the elderberries from their stalk.

Add the damson puree, the elderberries, blackberries and mulberries or raspberries to the cooked quince.

Cover the fruit and bring to the boil and cook gently for 2 minutes and remove from the heat.

Remove 1 cup of the liquid. Cut a circle from one of the slices of bread and line the base of the pudding basin, then line the sides of the pudding basin with strips of bread leaving enough bread to make a circle for the top. Set the top bread circle on one side. Tip the fruit into the lined basin and cover with the reserved bread. Pour over the reserved cup of juice so that the bread is completely soaked in juice. Put a plate that will fit inside the basins rim on the pudding and weight it down with anything heavy - kitchen weights or a jar filled with water. Put the basin on a plate to catch any over flowing juice and leave overnight in the fridge.

To serve, remove the weight and plate, gently run a palette knife between the bread and basin and unmould the pudding onto a plate. Pour over any juice that over flowed onto the plate and serve.

 

Blackberry & apple breakfast

Serves 1

handful of sprouted buckwheat

1 tablespoon hemp seeds

1 dessertspoon pumpkin seeds

1 dessertspoon sunflower seeds

110g almond milk

1 teaspoon honey

1 apple diced

1 tablespoon ground flax

 

Soak the buckwheat and seeds with the honey in the almond milk overnight.

Add the blackberries and apple.

Serve topped with ground flax.

 

Elderberries

When foraging for elderberries look for nice ripe dark berries. The elderberry is highly astringent. They contain cyanide-inducing glycosides that will cause a toxic build up of the poison cyanide (yes, that is poison) in the body and will make you sick, put you in a coma, and/or possibly kill you. When you heat the berries it destroys the cyanide-inducing glycosides

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