Rose hips, sloes and a lovely walk

According to those who know these things, this year is a bumper year for foraging. Well there are certainly lots of blackberries about in the hedgerows. I always pick the blackberries from the lane down at the allotments. This year there have been lots and I also found some at the top of plot10b where we haven't cleared yet. I've made a mental note not to cut these down when we eventually start to clear this area.

My freezer is quite full of fruit now from the raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries grown on the allotments this year, but I managed to find room for a few pounds of blackberries.

I mentioned before on my blog about how I like to make fruit gin and vodka with the blackberries, raspberries, and rhubarb from the plot.  The one thing I've also been wanting to make is sloe gin and as  I haven't found any sloes in the area around the allotments, we had to look elsewhere. So on a lovely sunny afternoon recently Richard and I set off walking in the direction of our local scout camp where I had been told there were plenty of sloes. It was lovely to get out walking on such a beautiful autumn day, it's quite a steep walk, but the views are fantastic. As we walked up the lane we noticed that the hedges had been cut, so if there had been any sloes here there weren't anymore. There were plenty of rose hips though, so I collected those I we walked. I like to dry these for Christmas decorations, so I gathered a bag full, leaving some on the bushes for the birds.

The path went through the scout camp and onto the fields, where we spotted what looked to be sloes in the hedge. We weren't disappointed, we picked nearly 2lbs of them. I was well equipped for foraging with plastic boxes and bags.  My rucksack was a bit heavier as we set off back over the fields.

The sloe gin is now prepared and will be ready for Christmas. I also made damson vodka using damsons from a friend's garden and gooseberry gin with allotment gooseberries, which at the moment looks a bit like frog spawn. I'm sure it will taste good.

Scary moments at the allotment

We were pleased with our work at the allotment on Sunday. We weeded, cleared the sweet peas away, and harvested. We picked beetroot but there is still plenty more left in the ground for other days. We've cleared most of the cabbages now, throwing the worst of the slug damaged ones away or taking them home for the rabbit. We also picked some purple sprouting broccoli which has appeared, very early. They are not usually ready for picking until March. The climbing french beans haven't done all that well, but there were a few to pick.  We also tipped a couple of the potato bags onto one of the cleared areas and found a good number of potatoes still in there. We're now thinking about what we can put in for the winter. Onions, garlic spring cabbage perhaps. The leeks are growing nicely, there is red cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts and the PSB.  We also have celery, celeriac, and one little squash which we thought was butternut but does not look like it.

What we weren't pleased about was the mice jumping about in the cabbage bed as my daughter was weeding there.  Even worse than that was the rat I came face to face with  as I lifted the piece of old carpet covering the compost heap! I don't know who was the most surprised, me or the rat. The rat shot off through the fence leaving me in a rather fragile state. I think it will take me a while to recover from that experience.

We consoled ourselves later by doing a bit of foraging down the lane. We enjoyed collecting elderberries, a few rose hips, blackberries and brambles.  I think there may have been sloes in the hedges too, but as I wasn't sure, we decided not to pick those. I will check those out and maybe go back another day if I'm certain they were sloes.  We left for home with great plans to make elderberry cordial, rose hip syrup and blackberry gin. Unfortunately the handful of blackberries was only enough to make  an apple and blackberry crumble, but it was very good.