| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| nettie |
What to do with loads of whitecurrants?The 20 mystery bushes on my allotment have turned out to be whitecurrants! Besides jelly, any ideas as to what I can do with my imminent glut (BTW I have no winemaking equipment)? |
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| Treacodactyl |
How do you know they are white currants? I thought the flowers looked the same as red and pink currents. | ||||
| nettie |
Because the currants are there already and the same as on my bush in the garden! I have a weekend of wrapping nets around everything ahead of me  I suppose they might turn red, but I think they're all pretty similar in taste 
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| Treacodactyl |
That's what I was going to say.  The only thing I can think is make jelly and sell at a farmers market.
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| jema |
Buy some wine making equipment
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| Bugs |
If the taste is nice, what about a syrup to make a squash from? It won't have quite the same impact as blackcurrants but it might be quite nice (might even be a good mixer ).
We never seem to get more that a handful of currants...the chickens get several beakfuls though 
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
well, you could make a solar dryer and dry them or buy the tchibo dryer if you can handle the not so great customer service. you can have all the dried currants you could use and could rehydrate some later for pies or crumbles etc
or you can add them to chutney as you would sultanas you can make pemicin (biltong) and add them in you could make some lovely sauces for pork or venison use them in mince pies to replace sultanas, or indeed in christmas pudding |
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
i found a recipe site with quite a few recipes using currants
http://www.aaa-recipes.com/currant/curr.html this one has some historical uses, ideas and a few recipes http://mtvernon.wsu.edu/frt_hort/currants01.htm |
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| thos |
I had a bumper crop last year. Every night I ate a huge bowlful of half whitecurrants with strawberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries making up the other half. Gloriously decadent. Mind you, I only had four bushes, not 20. | ||||
| judith |
Freeze them, and then add to the other ingredients for summer pudding as they become available. I loooove summer pudding! | ||||
| cab |
They freeze well, so it's worth keeping some for winter. They make a great jelly (whitecurrant jelly really is superb), they make a stonking wine, they add in well to summer puddings, they contrast red and black fruit in desserts, and they probably won't need to be so carefully netted as the reds; birds seem mostly to miss them. | ||||
| nettie |
Thanks folks! I counted the bushes properly today ....26 of them! Might have to give a few away, after I've had my harvest, of course!
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| cab |
Nettie, surely they're not ripening yet? It'll be really hard to be sure whether they're red or white till they do. They're the same plant, just slightly different varieties. | ||||
| nettie |
Well whatever they are there are loads of them! I figured the uses would be similar whatever they were. They're not ripe yet but some of them have reached full size already.
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| wellington womble |
I bet some of them are other colours - no idea how you'd tell though. The onyl use I know is to make mint jelly (got any mint?!) But redcurrant jelly is fab. Gave too much away this year and had to buy some. Won't bother again, it wilkisons (or a posh one anyway) but really oversweet and insipid compared to mine from the PYO. Yet another convience food bites the dust! | ||||
| ButteryHOLsomeness |
have you considered making a rum pot? especially if they are a variety (white, red, black) you could add in some other fruits as well as you go and have an amazing rum pot
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| Alchemist |
Mmm. Sounds fantastic. We inherited a half-dozen assorted (and enormous) currant bushes in our new garden which look like they're about to produce a tremendous crop. Do you just soak the fruit in rum or do you add spices as well? |
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| wellington womble |
You just layer it up with fruit and sugar and top it up with rum! The idea is you can add things as you've a surplus, but I have made very successfull ones all in one go - apricots and ameretto was good (and highly, highly intoxicating! fab on icecream!) | ||||
| nettie |
So a bit like sloe gin then, without the sloes....or the gin!
Sound like a VERY good idea to me
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| sally_in_wales |
ooh yes, I can also recommend these. You can often pick up proper Rumtopfs at carboot sales cheaply (sort of tall crocks with lids). My mum always used to make a rumtopf in the summer and we'd have spoonfuls on icecream, even the cat used to get tipsy licking the bowls afterwards. Very nice done with assorted red fruits, I think she used to put a bottle of Rum, a little sugar and some spices in the crock then chuck in fruits as they came into season over the course of a few weeks, yummy
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
ohhhhhh you're making my mouth water now!!! i love ameretto mmmmmmmm i think i might get some of lidl's ameretto and their cherry brandy and see which one makes a better 'rumpot' i actually won the bottle of bacardi that we used to get it started. i'm not much of a drinker though and dh doesn't really care much for rum so it seemed like a good use for it. now if i can only figure out a good use for the blue curaco that i won at the same time
alchemist- when i can be bothered getting up (very sore right now) i'll look up the recipe i used for the amounts of sugar to add. you'll need a very large pot to make a good one. the container we have isn't big enough so we're thinking of buying a huge crock and using that. you'll go through quite a few bottles of rum so be sure to buy the cheap stuff 
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| nettie |
D'you know what, i used to have a Rumtopf and I chucked it out years ago, it was ugly! Wish I'd kept it now
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| Guest |
That's great BH. Thanks.
Hope you're not laid up for too long.
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
i've just been on my feet a LOT over the last week with much more kneeling and bending than usual (sadly for work not gardening  ) i had a bad case of SPD which still plays up sometimes and also bad knees both of which are causing some pain.
that plus not getting more than 5 hours sleep a night for more than a week adds up to grumpy and sore me
i get a rest this weekend though, so yay! thanks for your concern though
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
here you go, being ultra lazy and just looked it up on the net
http://www.hopshopuk.com/recipes/rumtopf.html |
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| nettie |
Fantastic recipe, Buttery, thanks for that! | ||||
| ButteryHOLsomeness |
you're welcome ((hic!))
i need to get that larger pot soon, i sliced up loads of nectarines we had that were going to go off if they weren't used and that's what i started our pot with but it took up most of the space in the jar we had so i really need to get a new pot as there will be plenty of fruits to be adding soon come to think of it, i'd better get some cheap rum too!
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| wellington womble |
and some ameretto! | ||||
| Alchemist |
Recipe sounds great. I especially like the part warning against diluting the alcohol.
I may be forced to go and mutter a few words of encouragement to our fruit bushes tonight! |
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
think of what a wonderful homemade gift you could make of the liquor and fruit...great for christmas day
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| cab |
And think how embarassing it is when a maggot you missed on one of the fruit is visible floating on top of the booze when the present is opened. Only happened to me once, and the recipient wasn't the sort to be easily put off
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| wellington womble |
they were very well received - we did it a couple of years ago, but unless you have a source of cheap rum (any mates abroad?) they work out a bit pricy - not that that matters, for people who you love and will appreciate it. |