Comments for The Tracing Paper

Comment on Mysterious sheds at the heart of our food supply by Rob

Rob — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:43:58 +0000

After a bit of digging around I’ve worked out that the RDC shown in the BBC clip is:
Wincanton For Somerfield RDC Elton Head Road, Lea Green, ST HELENS, WA9 5AX
You can see it
here.

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by John Collard

John Collard — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:45:43 +0000

Cherry Plum Brandy!
In November I said “I’m about to try making some of the big/dark red ones into cherry plum brandy.”
Well, I tasted the results just over a week ago!
Into a Kilner jar I placed about 250 to 300gms of fruit. To this I added about 200gms of sugar and half a Cinnamon stick and about 400ml of the cheapest Brandy I could get. Every day for about three weeks I turned each jar over several times to mix the fruit, brandy and sugar, until all the sugar was dissolved, and then for a few days more.
I then added a teaspoonful of Ascorbic Acid.
From then on I mixed each jar two or three times a week.
Since we were going away for Christmas, and I wanted to take some with me to show off, I decanted, and then filtered, the resulting liquid on the 21st December, so it had taken about six weeks.
Result?
Wonderful.
Everyone who’s tried it has loved the taste!
Mind you, I only took a small quantity with me so that there was plenty for us when we got home again!

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by Irene

Irene — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:43:40 +0000

In my post above it should have read picking 4 kilos a day (8.8 lbs).
CHERRY PLUM JAM RECIPE
In a large pot put about 4 lbs of washed cherry plum and 1/4 cup water. Bring gently to the boil without burning and skim off skins with slotted spoon as they rise. Use potato masher to speed up softening of plums. When soft add about 1 1/2 lbs of dark brown sugar, a good shake of cinnamon powder and about 1/4 teaspoon of Stevia Powder. Simmer until it gels a little on a cold plate. Pour batches into a large metal strainer with bowl underneath and press flesh through leaving the stones in the strainer. I found this the easiest way to de-stone them. Pour into sterilised jars. I add about 2 tsp of colloidal silver as I’m not too fussy with sterilising everything.

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by Irene

Irene — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:28:09 +0000

In searching for cherry plum recipes I came across this site. Imoved here to Bendigo, Victoria, Australia last year and we are renting a house with 2 cherry plum trees. This year I have been collecting around 4 kilos (2.2lbs) of fruit for the past 10 days from just one tree. The other one is just starting to ripen. I’ve made 10 jars of jam, 3 bottles of cordial and given big bags away to many friends. As no-one has posted a recipe yet I thought I would tell you how I made my jam with trial and error. As I never use white sugar at all it was a challenge but the resulting jam is just delicious. Will do another post below because I’m out of space.

Comment on Alexanders: a forgotten vegetable by Michael Tebbutt

Michael Tebbutt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:11:27 +0000

Somewhere I am sure I recall having read in Shakespeare a reference to Alexanders. I thought it was in Henry V’s rallying speech before Agincourt, but it seems not.

Comment on Mushrooms without fear: 9 steps to avoid poisoning yourself by Hyde

Hyde — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:13:47 +0000

My brother positively identified a non toxic mushroom. He then was severely ill after eating it cooked on toast – I mean diarrahoea, vomiting, blacking over, fever, seizures – nasty stuff. We took him to hospital where they assumed he misidentified it and treated him for amanita phalloides symptoms where we were all extremely scared and worried for him, potentially needing a liver transplant. Finally on day 3 they identified the remaining mushroom in a lab as non poisionous BUT having a very toxic bacterium on it. The moral of the story – there is no way to be 100% safe wild mushroom picking – BEWARE!

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by Miriam Deakin

Miriam Deakin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:00:14 +0000

How do you prune a cherry plum in a garden situation? Or shouldn’t you? Look amazing and last year it gave a lot of fruit and is only four years old!! Thanks.

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by John Collard

John Collard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:20:33 +0000

You say “I’ve enjoyed delectable sweet fruit every summer for more than 10 years – perhaps a consequence of the changing climate.”

Sorry, no.
30 years ago I lived in Maylandsea, in Essex, and had a very prolific hedge of these along our rear boundary. Because of that, when we moved to Norfolk 25 years ago I planted a hedge of them and they are just as prolific, just as edible, as the ones in Essex.
Each tree produces fruit of fairly uniform size and/or colour, smallish/bright red: bigger, darker red: bigger still/ dark red to purple, large/yellow.
None of them carry a mix of size/colour as ripe fruit.
The bright red ones tend to be the smallest, and least sweet. The bigger the ripe fruit the darker and sweeter. However, the yellow ones tend to be the biggest and sweetest of all.
I’m told they make excellent wine, and jam, and chutney.
I’m about to try making some of the big/dark red ones into cherry plum brandy.

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by fiona

fiona — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:23:29 +0000

I discovered a cherry plum tree in my Mother in Laws garden (London) its been there for many, many years & she always thought the fruit poisonous. This year it was groaning with fruit & my Brother in law said he tried one and it tasted really nice & had no ill effects. So we all had one & no problems. We set to and collected pounds of fruit & there is still so much more there. I checked it out in the gardening book & found the species. Today I thought I would see if there was any more information by doing a search on Cherry Plum ‘Prunus cerasifera’ & here I am reading all your wonderful stories bestowing the virtues of Cherry Plums! Thank you. So I am now going to make some Jam & Chutney!
P.S. Yes I also thought a mention would have been made in Roger Phillips ‘Wild Food’. So wake up Roger & do another book about all the lesser known Free Wild Foods!

Comment on Cherry plums: a promise fulfilled by ruth

ruth — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:28:47 +0000

Discovered a laden yellow cherry plum in the local park this September and caught the tail-end of the fruit. What a shame! I’ve passed the tree for over three years! It still yielded over 10lb’s of fruit and made wonderful jam and chutney. Next year I’ll be the first to gather from it. Also disclvered today a greengage tree on our dog walk but sadly only a handful were within reach. never mind, I’ve gathered over 100lb’s of various wild fruit this year and the store cupboard is full thanks to dog walking in the Suffolk countryside. Can’t wait for the sweet chestnuts!