Apple and Blackberry Jam

Following on nicely from last week's blackberry blogging - here is what happened to the blackberries!

Plenty left  so what better way to pass a wet Saturday afternoon than to make jam out of them?
 

My recipe is very simple:

• 1lb ( 500g) of chopped  peeled and cored apples
• 1lb (500g) of washed blackberries 
• 2lb ( Ikg) of sugar
• 1 small lemon
• 3floz ( 100ml) of water

Place all ingredients except the sugar into a large pan ( must be large, it will boil up a lot) and cook gently for 10-15 minutes or until the apple is soft. I tend to like chunky jam so I don't chop too finely so this stage can take a bit longer.

Whilst the fruit is cooking, prepare and sterilise the jars ( wash in hot soapy water, rinse well and place in oven heated to around 250f or 120 C until dry). Keep them warm until you need them.

Once the fruit has softened, add sugar, stir until dissolved and then boil rapidly until set point reached.*  Start testing after about 10 minutes. This jam cooks quickly.

Once set point is  reached remove from heat, stir and pour into the waiting jars. Seal immediately with a wax disk and tightly cover with a lid. Allow to cool and label ( I tend to skip that bit and can never remember what type of jam it is!)









 * to check for set point, stir jam and place a little on a cold plate. Once it has cooled prod  it gently  with your finger. If it is "done" the surface will wrinkle as you push. If it is still too runny continue to boil for another few minutes and try again.

Now that accounts for another lb of apples - just half a ton to go now!

More on the Four Thieves

Time to bottle the vinegar - well it should have been done a couple of weeks ago really but that's life.

It didn't look very appealing at all, The liquid has gone cloudy ( from the garlic) and is a deeply unattractive colour. The smell has mellowed somewhat but the waft of garlic is unmistakeable.

Once strained I put it back in its original bottle - the volume of vinegar has decreased quite noticeably.

No  I haven't tasted it yet! I'm looking for a volunteer......

Blackberries and Mud - Worlebury Hillfort

Didn't want to venture far today after all the travels lately and after seeing some nice sea pictures on a blog I follow we decided to head to the nearest sea.

Well if you call Weston Super Mare coastal! This is the view over the Estuary - Some nice views of the Welsh coast too.

The tide was in so the bay was looking pretty picturesque  with the mud flats of the Severn Estuary hidden under the water.







 The walk took us over the headland at Woodspring Bay  and down on to Sand Bay. I enjoyed the first part of the walk but I'm afraid Sand Bay is not my kind of place. A long concrete promenade with lines of  retirement bungalows behind.  If I ever mention retiring somewhere like that then please shoot me first. It also brought home just how vulnerable this area of coast is to rising sea levels. If it wasn't protected by a long artificial earth mound then it would take only a small rise to flood acres of land.  To add insult to injury the promised pub was no longer there so that lunch was delayed.

Eventually we "escaped" the interminable prom and up into Weston Woods having spotted somewhere for lunch! The New Castle gave us some excellent cider and pannini which refuelled us. Taking stock we decided to abandon the planned route and  instead head up  into Weston Woods in search of the iron age hillfort. It is a long pull up but beautiful woodland, especially at this time of year with all the berries. A couple of pounds of blackberries just might have found their way into the backpacks ( I always carry foraging bags - just in case!).


At the tip of the headland we found Worlebury hillfort - allegedly one of the most notable ones in Somerset. The hillfort is iron age, on the site of earlier bronze age remains. Stone was extensively used for the fortifications and great heaps remain.

 

An interesting feature are the deep pits ( now partially covered with  blackberry plants) which are believed to have been used for food storage and later on as burial sites.






Having reached the end of the headland there was no option but to retrace our steps. Going back the views were very different. The tide had revealed the infamous mud flats and the sun had vanished behind forbidding grey clouds promising rain which duly arrived with a blustery wind signalling a rapid retreat to the car!

Slow Cooker Chutney

I've been making chutney in the slow cooker ( crock pot) for years. Much much easier than the conventional method as you just throw everything in and forget about it for the day. No standing for ages stirring a large pan of boiling vinegar with streaming eyes and the smell filling the house.

Almost any recipe can be adapted - the secret is to reduce the amount of vinegar to just a 1/2 pint as it doesn't have to evaporate off.







 
So for my apple chutney you need the following:

• 3 lb cooking apples prepared weight
• 1 lb onions prepared weight
• 1 ½ lb brown sugar ( I use a dark one for the flavour and colour)
• ½ pint malt vinegar
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tsp dried ginger
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper or fresh/dried chillies
• 1 tsp cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 4 tsp sea salt

The recipe couldn't be easier.
Preheat the slow cooker for 20 minutes. I usually add the vinegar and sugar at this stage to let them warm through and melt the brown sugar as mine is usually rock hard!

Whilst the slow cooker is heating peel and chop the onions and apples. I use a food processor for the chopping bit.

Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, stir well and cook on high for 10 hours or so or even overnight.

You may find that there is still a little too much liquid especially if the apples were juicy. Just boil off any excess for a few miutes in the conventional way.Put into warm jars whilst still warm and cover and seal. It is ready to use after a couple of months.

The slow cooker method allows the flavours to mingle during cooking for far longer than the conventional way and makes a delicious full flavoured chutney.

Other than the apples, onions, vinegar and sugar, all the other ingredients are optional and you can add, increase or leave out altogether depending on your own taste. I usually add more chilli  as we like it spicier.

Nuisance Neighbours are not a modern thing....

Still in South Wales, this was the intended subject  until the barrow and cave intruded so an extra one this week.

Near Cowbridge is the old Elizabethan manor house rather confusingly known as  Old Beaupre Castle. The house was originally built around 1300CE and extended  before final completion in the late 16C.

The Bassets who lived there were apparently on very bad terms with most of the neighbours and built a large sturdy gatehouse to protect themselves.

This is very imposing building indeed, even if the current inhabitants are the local sheep.

 Eventually and I guess much to the relief of the neighbours, the Bassets over extended themselves financially and were ruined.

Just down the road is what remains of St Quentin's Castle. Just a gate house really left and some traces of a wall or two. This date from mid 14CE and was possibly not even ever fully completed.

Not a lot left now but still a lovely setting and very sheltered from the usual howling gales.

An unexpected Cat Hole

IT housekeeping all done - so plenty of space for lots more pictures! This week's blog was intended to be a couple of castles but a trip out on Monday led to Parc Cwm in the Gower and on to  the Cathole cave.

 The cave is well hidden but some kind soul left a clue..... The (fairly well trodden) earth path leaves the main tarmac park through Parc Cwm and disappears into the trees and undergrowth.






A second leaf arrow indicated the even more well hidden path to the right which leads to the cave. The cave entrance forms a narrow cleft, wider at the base, which goes deep into the rock.

It is (of course) pitch dark in there and not having planned this find I was lacking a torch. However the camera flash came to the rescue, disclosing an intriguing interior with some dark passages leading even further back. There were a couple of bays, both seem to have passages.

The cave is well known for Late Glacial finds ( approx 10,000BCE). Some finds may be even earlier - 26000BCE. The cave appears to have been inhabited by  a variety of creatures, red fox, arctic fox and brown bear.  Other animal finds include   mammoth, woolly rhino, red deer and giant deer.

Later in it's history the cave was used by Mesolithic hunters and later still by Bronze Age peoples who left remains of burial urns. Personally I'd have found those dark passageways behind me very unnerving!

As I mentioned, the visit to the cave was unplanned ( didn't even know it was there) but it overshadowed the intended objective - the Parc le Breos  long barrow which was rather an anti- climax. Heavily restored it is a chambered long barrow dating from around 3800BCE.

Some 40 human remains were found within, some of which appeared to be excarnated, some not. It does seem possible that the rituals surrounding the burials may have incorporated the use of the cave. This theory is strengthened by the discovery of late  ice age animal bones - gathered up with the exposed human remains from the cave perhaps?

It's a bank holiday here in the UK and time to take advantage of family ties in South Wales. I was planning on a cornucopia of castles, caves and barrows for this blog entry - unfortunately I seem to have run out of hard drive space. It's full. Completely full. So full that I daren't store any more pictures on it!

Major computer housekeeping is needed ( obviously long overdue) so I'll settle for a nice view for the moment with a lot more to come later this week!

This is from Bracelet Bay in the Gower. Although you can't see them you'll need to take my word for it that there were indeed grey seals in the bay this morning.