[Maryann]

Hi everyone. I love making jams & chutneys and have just started making jellys. I made apple mint jelly for the first time and used the jelly bag method which was fine. However, whilst researching jelly making I stumbled across a great article about steam juicers and was so impressed i bought one. It is German made and a beautif solid piece of kit. It has 3 parts to it with the centre section being the juice collection pan. A spout at the side with a tube then allows you to siphon off the concentrated juice. You can make fresh fruit or veg juice with it or make jellys and even jams and marmalades ets. It does away with the straining overnight in a  jelly bag part of the process.

Here is the catch - I don't think it has caught on here in the UK yet as I cannot find much on the UK websites about steam juicing. It is very big in the US and Europe and all the recipes and info are therefore related largely to that market.
I can follow those guidelines for all the usual fruit/veg type of recipes etc but I'm keen to try my hand at Rowan jelly and also maybe some hedgerow jelly and tey are not included in these recipes.

I know the rowan berry is made safe to eat once boiled but is it OK when steamed do you think? Also as you are not adding any water to the fruit the juice will be very concentrated - should I add any water to it for jelly and even just for drinking.

I would love to hear from anyone who knows about steam juicers - I believe they are used a lot for winemaking  not saying you are a bunch of alchys but I'm desperate for a bit of back up advice.....anyone?

[arugula]

I don't know about steam juicing, although it sounds very interesting. Just from a scientific perspective, steam is hotter than boiling water, so I should think it is safe. Rowan is a very bitter flavour, we used to get the berries from the tree at the bottom of the garden made into jelly which was best served with meats.

 

[Maryann]

Thanks for reply - I was hoping it might be OK. I was going to use the Rowan berries with apple to sweeten it up a bit, but just a bit concerned about poisoning everyone 

Also have some elderberries in garden and would dearly love to use them - if only to stop the pigeons from pooing them all over my clean washing 
I need to find out when is the right time to pick these things as never used them before....so excited to get going with the steamer 

[Maryann]

Can anyone help me with Rowan Berries please. Is it safe to use them to make jelly and (sounds a very silly question) are they easy to recognise 
A neighbour has a huge tree in her front garden and every year it seems laden with these bright orange berries which just drop onto pavement and get squished so I thought about asking her if I could pick some to make jelly with but I dont want to make any mistakes. Is there anything similar to Rowan that I could pick by mistake?
Sorry to sound such an idiot but when I told my family that the berries are poisonous when eaten raw but safe when cooked they all went off the idea somewhat. But I hate to miss a chance of some free ingredients.

[arugula]

This is a good image of berries on the tree.



I did already mention somewhere that they can be cooked into a jelly, which we used to get at home from the berries off the tree at the bottom of the garden. I don't have a recipe, but I'm sure you could look one up.

 

[joyfull]

Aunt Sally once posted a couple of recipes for Rowan Jelly I'll dig them out  

Here they are:-

http://www.fife.50megs.com/rowan-jelly.htm

and:-

http://www.digitalanachronism.co.uk/491-rowan-and-apple-jelly

To identify the sorbus acuparia tree (mountain ash/rowan) take a look at this and look at the leaves etc:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_aucuparia

[Maryann]

Thanks very much - that looks just like the tree in our avenue - I just need to get owner permission now 
I have been scaring myself a bit by looking at lots of websites about foraging and poisonous berries, but as they all say Berry is better than Buried  so I am trying to be really careful.

We also have haw berries and elder berries at bottom of our garden so was thinking of maybe a hedgerow jelly. The warnings all say to be careful as everyone is different as to tolerance of these berries (I'm assuming they mean raw rather than cooked???) I will be steaming them to extract the juice and then turning that into jelly in the usual way (adding sugar and boling until setting point reached and then bottling).

Will be checking out recipes next - thanks for finding the link for me 

[Maryann]

Well, I now have loads of berries, rowan, elder, haw, sloes and blackberries. Trouble is it's too early for the crab apples growing in garden opposite me. They are falling off the tree and the owner says I can take whatever I want. (he just bags them up and throws them away  ) but when we went to pick some this morning the ones on the tree are rock hard. They are yellow with red patches and I think they may be John Downie but I'm new to all of this and not too sure. If they are JD's then the info says ready in October!

Can I freeze my berries to use when crab apples are available?

I also have rose hips I picked from my roses in the garden. I assume they are ok to use? The roses are the 7 leaf type  almost a wild rose with blue green colour leaves.

All this foraging has got us really excited and my hubby is lucky enough to work in a lovely listed building in Kent which has acres of grounds and a wonderful supply of berries etc.

[Growster...]

How about Elderberry wine?

Possibly the best...

[Maryann]

Thanks Growster - I would make it but I can't drink it! I assume it is alcoholic?
I seem to be getting more and more intollerant to various food and drink as I get older and no one can tell me why this should be but sadly the last one was wine. Exactly 3 years ago I got rushed into hospital with rapid heart beat which took about 6 hours to stabilise. Had loads of tests etc but could find nothing obvious. Was advised to cut out caffeine and alcohol. I had noticed that often when drinking wine I would get very hot and flushed after maybe only a couple of mouthfuls. We used to enjoy a glass in the evenings with our meal but I wouldn't say we over indulged. If I accidentally get a cup of tea or coffee that isn't de-caff then I get palpitations within a couple of hours. Fortunately they are usually mild but the memory of that night in hospital is still very vivid and still very frightening so I haven't risked a drop of wine since then.....I do miss my drop of beaujolais tho 
Other things I have had to eliminate are dairy, chocolate, citrus fruit, tomatoes (I do sneak the odd tom tho as I love them). I'm not too bothered about the dairy as have found that goats milk products are just a nice and was never a big chocolate eater. The other things are ok in moderation but it just puzzles me as to why they started to have an adverse effect on me. My adult children are both intollerant to various raw fruits which cause their lips and mouth to swell up so maybe it is something inherited - such a shame.