| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| wellington womble |
This weekend I will be mostlyCombining fruit and alcohol to make things to eat at Christmas! Yum.Anyone else making Christmas cake and pudding on such a wet miserable weekend? (the tradition of making steak and kidney pudding with the leftover stout is an added attraction given the weather!) |
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| mihto |
Re: This weekend I will be mostly
I have never made Christmas pudding. Have only tasted it at a Christmas dinner at an English friend's house. 
I want to try something new. Combining rowan berries with aronia berries for a jelly, maybe adding some brandy sounds like a start of a nice Christmas present for friends. Anyone tried it? |
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| Snowball |
I am not familiar with aronia berries. | ||
| lettucewoman |
nope...this weekend I will be mostly tearing about trying to learn one show, make props for it, find cossies for a different show, make props and cossies for that, clean the house, find the other bedroom so our friend has somewhere to sleep, put whites and blacks through the wash, learn lines, learn changes, write last scene, do flyers, make stock for craft shows, drive to Brum...... 
......Im' not gonna manage all that am I? |
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| gil |
Re: This weekend I will be mostly
Xmas pudding is really easy to make, mihto, and there are recipes in the database. What's aronia, and does it have another name ? Doesn't ring any bells. |
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| mihto |
Latin name is Aronia melanocarpa. Very common garden bush with black berries. Not used in my area but grown for profit in Eastern Europe. Gives a wonderful, black juice that is supposed to be the healthiest thing ever 
After looking at those "poisenous" berries through my office windows for two years I phoned our local gardener. He told me their name. The rest is history. English name is Black Chokeberry. http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Aronia+melanocarpa |
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| bernie-woman |
I am sure my brother has been growing some of these this year, he got them from Suttons or Thompson & Morgan - didn't get chance to taste any of them though - do they taste like anything already in existence mihto? | ||
| mihto |
Eating the berries is not the best way to enjoy them. I have dried some to put in the muesli. They taste a bit like blueberries, but more astingent. The juice is mild and can be combined with black or red currants for more taste. Next year I'll dry some blackcurrant leaves and put them into the cordial. The rowan berries would give the taste, the aronia would give volume and texture. So far I have made 4 litres of cordial jfor a try. Not a single drop is left.
I'll make elderberry cordial over the weekend and plan for mass picking of aronia next year. |
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| vegplot |
If the weather reasonable cutting some ash trees down to make way for a car park 
It's not as bad as it seems, they are weed trees. I will acknowledge their majesty, despite their relatively small size, before taking a chain saw to them. |
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| mihto |
Many years ago there was a branch of thinking among the more herb-oriented partt of society that water made by boiling ash twigs was medicine for just about everything. Likewise in GB? |
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| Bebo |
Minor disaster with the first batch of christmas puds last weekend. I shall be making more this weekend as well as christmas cakes. |