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| This time of year we are usually very busy making the most of the produce that the garden and countryside has to offer - and this year is certainly no exception. Karen kicked off by making this amazing Spiced Blackberry and Brandy Liqueur. |
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| The finished bottles of delicious liqueur. |
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| I pinched the left-over pulp from Karen's liqueur and added it to my Blackberry and Elderberry wine. It filled two demijohns (9 litres or 16 pints). |
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| This is also the time of year when Karen passes the bowl of Christmas Pudding mix around for everyone to give a stir. As you can see, Anna enjoyed it and I loved being a good stirrer too! The aromatic smell from the bowl was fantastic!! |
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| Finishing touches... |
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| One Christmas Pudding for this year and one for next year. |
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| Not wishing to be outdone by Karen I set too with this Sloe Gin. The recipe is simple: 1kg Sloes - or in this case I used the very similar Bullaces picked from 'our' loke in Norfolk. |
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| 200kg sugar (it may need a little more at a later date but I don't want to add too much). |
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| Then I filled this 3 litre Kilner jar with 2 litres Gin - you can see it instantly starting to take on some of the wonderful colour of the Bullaces. This is now shaken once a day for two weeks then once a week for a couple of months. Later I may add some almond essence, a stick of cinnamon and one tsp. cloves. Yummy!! |
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| We then turned our attention to making Cider - first we cleaned and sterilised all the equipment... |
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| then cleaned and chopped up the apples ... |
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| crushed them to a pulp... |
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| and pressed out the juice. With the addition of cider yeast, we now have four gallons (18 litres or 32 pints) of Cider bubbling away in the fermenting bin. It should just about be ready for Christmas. |
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| Karen finished off by making some bottles of chilli oil and tarragon oil. |
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| Here is a hint to our next project, plus of course the Pickled Onions, Christmas Cake etc...!! |
