British seasonal food

[Renee Profile]

Ah good! I'm glad that you have some put away for this Christmas!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I can't turn your predictive text off for you, but I've amended the post.

My damson gin yonks ago wasn't ready for 3yrs. My fault, I'm twitchy about sugar, and only put 1/4 of the amount in you're supposed to.
It was a bit sharp

[jeral Profile]

Do people grow mulberry bushes now? An acquaintance 100 yds away has a bush in his garden with sweet little berries in summer. It's the first one I'd ever seen and had begun to think they were mythical rather than actually existing.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Do people grow mulberry bushes now?

There's a lovely one at Wisley.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Of course we're not talking British here but the hameau in which we live was a silk raising place - our bedroom was the silkworm dormitory! So there are several mulberry trees, and they are trees, around. I have acess to some of the berries and, although they take some picking they make heavenly jams and jellies.

[jeral Profile]

Joanbunting. An aside, but if so it was a bit mean to leave you only a wasps' nest IIRC. It's in the news that clothes moths are in full flow here again, although I don't need a news item to know that! Grrr Little blighters.

[Linnet Profile]

Many moons ago a garden centre I knew had a huge mulberry tree quite near the display swimming pool, and some of the fruit used to fall into the water, staining it.
It's all under a car park now...

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Our local Zizzi has a public boulevard of mulberry bushes, complete with twinkling lights at night.
When I had lunch with BelgianEndive and her chum here, they were curious as to the fruit. Summer, we were all wearing some form of white, so we had to be careful as we picked.

The fruit tastes gently of apples.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Take your point, DEB/Stokey/Pampy.

Back in the early 70s one of my first projects (age 19) as a Graphic Designer was converting the whole Music For Pleasure back catalogue of record covers to cassette format. I still have samples in the loft, and the type I used is so weeny that I can barely read it with reading glasses/magnifying glass. Back then I thought it was immensely legible, and if anyone had told me it was too small I'd have told them where to go! Bear in mind that the oldest person I remember working with in the early days was an ancient designer of 32.

Sorry, back to seasonal food...

[Binky Profile]

When we lived in Kenilworth, we moved to a 1930s house that had one owner since new. His garden was a wonderful thing to inherit as he'd been a keen gardener from the start. In the middle of the garden was a medlar tree. I've not seen one since.

The fruits were horrible brown things, inedible as far as I was concerned (in my twenties and busy working full-time). However, a colleague found a recipe for using bletted medlars, which I didn't use as it looked a faff, plus the fruits weren't appealing in any way. I wonder now, in my sixties, what they tasted like.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

We had a mulberry tree (black mulberry) at school, left from the big house that was on the site before the school was erected.

We weren’t supposed to go near it when it was fruiting, as the stains rivalled beetroot, but of course we did - free fruit!

I don’t remember it tasting of apple, but if not completely ripe it might taste of malic (apple) acid. The fruit drops as soon as it’s ripe, so picking can be a bit of a gamble

Dried white mulberries are a hipster fad, not sure I see the attraction as I had some in Sicily and found them virtually tasteless. They contain quite a lot of vitamin C, iron and calcium but they aren’t in my view specially nutritious

Ha Sakkarin! I seem to remember that the main issue with commercial cassettes was that however they were printed they usually smudged

Binky, I have tasted bleated and properly processed medlars, once as a sort of compote (I wouldn’t bother) and once as some kind of chutney that would probably have been nicer made with Bramleys

[Linnet Profile]

Almost two years ago, I found medlars growing wild near where my daughter lives in France, and picked quite a lot out of curiosity. (they have a very unfortunate name in French!)
After leaving them to blett, I made jelly. It was a darkish red colour, and tasty, but only a small yield because there is so little flesh, and for all the faff, I don't think I would bother again.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Medlars are indeed a faff but I love quinces which grow wild round here. S-I-L has a treasure quince in her garden in Derbyshire and she always grumbles about our wild ones because her little bush cost a heck of a lot from a specialist grower.

[Sakkarin Profile]

"Bletting medlars" - I thought you were being rude, but there's a whole YouTube vid on it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jayCINWidXA

[Badger's Mate Profile]

We love quinces too. Never had medlars, but I believe that Tiptree do a medlar jelly if anyone wants to try them without the faff.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I like quinces, and can buy them from the Turkish Food Centre, and other Mediterranean grocers too of course, but they tend to sell individual fruits, while TFC sell by the kilo at a more reasonable price.

The same shops sell very runny quince jam, which is rather nice with yogurt or as the jam layer in a Bakewell / Maids of Honour / any set frangipane tart kind of thing. A tip from IanInFrance.

[scullion Profile]

there are quite a few mulberry trees around, some that i know of that aren't on this list so there are probably lots more around.

there's one in the quaker graveyard at jordans, near reading - just a young one, a very large, mature tree in the grounds of milfield school, in somerset, and one in the quad of the school i went to in north hertfordshire.
oh, and now a small one in the garden of a friend in hayle.
they sell them at burncoose nursery, north of falmouth.
the white berries, i agree, are a little disappointing but the red/black fruit is lovely.

there was also a medlar tree in the grounds of my school - their french name has something to do with a dogs bottom doesn't it‽‽‽ neither of which are that tasty, i'm sure - i know the medlar isn't when it's unripe/rotten!

i have tried to plant a quince a couple of times in our garden maybe i should have another go - third time lucky.
i've made quince jelly with japanese quinces (chanomeles) - very similar to real quince jelly.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I´ve got a Japanese Medlar in the garden. I wholeheartedly agree that they are a royal pain to prepare - although they´re delicious eaten raw.

I once picked about 15 kilos of them and took them to my kitchen ( when I was making artisan jam & chutney). My two cooks spent 4 hours cutting off the fruit and discarding the scaly bit that surrounds the pit. All for 6 kgs of jam.

I had to promise them we´d never make it again!!!

Japanese /Spanish medlars - nispera - are not medlars, not even closely related

They are in fact the fruit pf the loquat tree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Gill - I saw some Scottish-grown goosegogs in Waitrose today

[Binky Profile]

I am so gratified that my mention of medlars has brought such a response.

Most people haven't heard of this fruit (because it's not in the shops, or recipes, or TV programmes). And the costumed man said they tasted like apple pulp, only a bit more sour. So now I know what the taste is like.