Rosehip Syrup

I popped round to a friend's house today because she has Rosehips growing and I'd never seen them before.  There, I admit it, purely nosey!

rosehip berries and flower

We did a swap, rhubarb for rosehip, both very happy (and one of her girls ran round with one stalk of rhubarb as an umbrella, it was so big!).

I had a look at some recipes and decided that I would save some of the seeds and see if I could get some to grow for us, and make Rosehip Syrup with the rest.  The recipe didn't say to take the seeds out and as it's going through a jelly strainer, I didn't see the point in deseeding all of them anyway.

So the recipe, as per usual, has in itallics what actually happened.

1kg Rosehips (550g)
3 litres of boiling water (1.5 litres)
500g soft dark brown sugar (250g soft light brown sugar)

Bring to the boil 2 litres of the water (1 litre).


Put rosehips in a food processor until it's a pulp, then add to the water. WooHoo, from here I followed the instructions!

     

Bring the water back to the boil, remove from heat and allow to steep for 20 minutes.







Pour all into a scalded jelly bag and allow the juice to drip through. Squeeze the bag to get as much liquid as possible.









Add the pulp back to a saucepan containing 1 litre of water (500 ml) and bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat and steep for another 20 minutes before straining through the jelly bag again.  Not bothering to take these photos..... I'm sure you don't need to see the same pics again (but if you do, just look up a bit!)

Add sugar to the strained rosehip liquid, dissolve, allow to simmer for five minutes, then pour into hot, sterilised bottles.

Makes approximately 2 litres (made 1.4 litres)

Seeds

Just put in a huge order for next years seeds.  Got some really unusual ones too!  Until they arrive, that is all!

25 June 2012 - new growth

Pumpkin (possibly)

My brother very nicely got me some seeds for Christmas, I had planned to have a whole bed of my favourite pumpkins, but so far, all that's come up is the ornamental gourds!  Well, at least I've got something, but how do I get them to be ornamental?  I'm guessing I've got to get the seeds out, but you never see holes in the ones in posh shops.....Time to learn a new dark art!

ornamental gourds

I lost the label, so the plant in the root-trainer pot is possibly a pumpkin, marrow, melon or courgette!  You can see how well the roots grow in these pots (they split in half for easy access and reuse).

before....with weeds

after

Here's the "leaves" bed - at the front is brussel sprouts, then further back (in toilet rolls) is some cauliflower (plants & seeds), brocolli plants, amaranthus calaloo seeds, cos lettuce seeds and rainbow spinach plants.  Between the rows is leeks.
  

Purple brussel sprout

Turnips & Nasturtium

Corn & Jerusalem Artichokes

Globe Artichokes

We've got some fruit coming through - and plans to start making rhubarb wine!

Gooseberries

Cape Gooseberries

Redcurrants

Raspberries

Rhubarb v boot!

Plums

 

resident

relaxing after some hard work

14 Jan 2012 - seed planting time

Well it's time to be digging out the seeds, checking the planting dates and resisting the urge to plant everything right now!

I've sorted them into two lots, plant now and plant later - easy peasy!  The windowsills will be full for a while!  For Claire's benefit, I've taken photo's of the packets in two lots - exotic & reliable.

I'll start with the fun bit first - Exotics ;-)

Khol Rabi (Luna) - the longtails got to this one before I had a chance to harvest, so it's getting a second chance.
Artichoke (Violetto di Romagna) - I've never eaten this, but neighbouring plots had success, I'm just curious.
Aubergine (Viserba) - expensive to buy but I love it, lets see if I can grow it!
Cauliflower (Purple Graffiti) - just to be a bit different
Cucumber (F1 Natsuhikari) - been trying to grow this for 2 years now, it's getting one more chance!
Japanese Spinach Te-suto (Komatsuna) - A Christmas present, other spinach did well, so I'm curious, looks like soft leaves.
Savoy Cabbage (Brussels Winter) - this grew, but only very small, I wonder if a new area might work better for this one, cos this is one of my favourites to cook with.

Here's the reliable ones:

Nasturtium (Jewel mixed) - grows well, looks good, attracts bees and butterflies - this year, I might investigate eating the flowers!
Perpetual Spinach (Leaf beet) - has a bigger dark leaf, strong stalk and more flavour, grows really well.
Perpetual Spinach (Spinach beet) - a soft smaller leaf, smaller plant, watch out for longtails nicking the whole plant tho!
Rainbow Spinach - purple, yellow, white, green, orange!  Grows really well, potluck on the colours in the packet.
Leek (Bandit F1 Hybrid) - I'm going to have a go at getting longer plants this year (using toilet rolls or pipe insulation).  Watch this space!
Brussels Sprouts (Bedford - Fillbasket) - If you don't like sprouts, you haven't tried them when they're fresh picked.
Cos Lettuce (Little Gem) - much nicer than iceberg lettuce!