[Aidy]

Ok Peeps, monster jam making sesh over the weekend when its raining planned.
We are going to make hedgerow jam, we have about a kilo each of these..
Elderberry
2 flavours of crab apple
rosehips
bramble
damsons
So the question is, has anyone made this before and what sort of a mix would you recommend?
For instance, equal parts, or more of one than the other etc.
Cheers

[Spana]

Well my thoughts for what they're worth are

Elderberries, taste like iron filings to me :blink:

Crab apples, nice, but are you going to peel or pulp them first to remove peel, pips and stalks

Rosehips, will need lots of straining through muslin to remove the fine hairs.

Brambles and damsons, lovely, cant go wrong with them.  I would take the stones from the damsons first  but they will float to the top anyway and can be skimmed off then

Other than that, i would go with what i had and hope for the best

I bet it will be lovely

[Aidy]

Thanks Spana 
We make rosehip syrup so well aware of hairs etc.
I am just trying to get a nice balanced flavour thats fruity and full of the hedgerow. From what I have seen its half the weight of rosehip to berry n apples.

[Spana]

You are obviously much more scientific in your approach then me    I'd just bung it all together  after doing the individual prep.

I think things like damsons and some blackberries have a distinct flavour and will mask the rosehips, and for my taste I'd hold back on the elderberries .   

[Maryann]

Aidy  where you get your crab apples? I thought not ready till October and I also have loads berries - like yours and itching to make hedgerow jelly but no crabbies 

Recipe I am using is taken from the book by lady off of River Cottage. Hugh FW calls her Pam the Jam and reckons she is Queen of jams, preserves and chutneys so thats good enough for me.

Her recipe is:
1kg crab apples
1kg hedgerow berries
and around 900g granulated sugar (see note about sugar at bottom)
Makes approx 7-8 x 225g jars

In her mix of berries she suggests....sloes, bullaces, hips, haws, blackberries, elderberries & rowan. 
But says " Usually I go for about 50% crab apples with a combination of 2 or 3 different berries".

She also says that she prefers to use rowan and rosehips on their own blended with just the crab apples or with following variations....

Rowan jelly: 1kg berries, 1kg crab apples, juice of 1 lemon added before the sugar, add sage or thyme when the fruit is softening for aromatic jelly. Great with game or pork.

Rosehip and apple jelly. Use 500g rosehips first blitzed in a food processor and 1.5kg crab apples - excellent with roast pork.

Spicy crab apple jelly: just use crabbies on their own but add a few cloves and a couple of cinnamon sticks when fruit is being cooked. She reckons lovely on toast or with cold roast pork or turkey.

As for sugar content she uses 450g sugar to each 600ml strained fruit juice.

Hope this helps - I am so envious that you have crab apples already 

[Aidy]

Thanks Maryann
We have a few bits of land round and about that produce loads of elderberry and the like, most peeps only go for the bramble, can never understand why, in fact the other night when we were out gathing one couple asked why were picking the rose buds 
Anyway's, we are preparing the hips tonight and making the jam tomorrow.
Will let you know how it all turns.

[hamstergbert]

I normally wait until a smidgin later to obtain crabs for some of my hedgerow jilly varieties but last week was given by a very kind lady (via freecycle) a bucketful of the pointed yellow-red siberian crabs. 

Never actually used them before but gave it a go at the weekend for a batch of elderberry.  Lovely strong set so appear to be nicely high in pectin and the crabble-only jelly she made has this gorgeous roseate glow to it.   Out blackberrying tomorrow and aiming to use some more of the siberian crabs to do the pectin bit for those.

They are  ripe up here in the moderately North-ish (the lady who gave me the sib crabs is in Burley in Wharfedale) so there should surely be some around in 'sunny Kent', MaryAnn.   I'll grant you not hedgerow crabs but plenty of people seem keen to get rid of them from their gardens.   

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

I find if you're struggling to find crab apples, cooking apples make a good alternative if you are fortunate to have a tree or know someone who'll donate some 

I do prefer hedgerow jelly to jam - it may be a bit more faffy but the lack of pips and lovely clear jelly make it worth it!  My Elderberry Jelly (from Hamster GB's recipe) last year was probably the biggest (surprise) hit from all my jams, jellies and preserves with friends and family alike.

[Maryann]

Well I never thought of Freecycle for apples - I might give it a go - thanks for tip.
I also thought that here in Kent we should have some by now altho I should perhaps update my avatar to Decidedly Wet & Windy Kent  
I can buy some cookers but it seems such a shame as all other fruit has come from hedge or tree free of charge and in the spirit of true foraging feels a bit like cheating. However I dont want my precious bounty to go to waste so might have to.

I made my first raspberry & blackbery jelly last night from juice extracted by steam juicer and it looks lovely. I only had about 2lbs fruit which produced just over 2 pints juice which in turn made up to 3 and a half jars (10oz). This is all new ground for me - making jelly with my new gadget but the juice was very concentrated so will try the jelly later to see if too strong - if it is then might have to dilute the juice. Also I'm not quite sure what to do with the remaining pulp but might try sieving it and making jam cheese (it's in the fridge at the moment).
Any recipes or tips would be most welcome  

[Aidy]

Hedgerow Jam made, is it good?
I am afraid I would be banned from the site if I use the words I did, but let's say I have have now discovered the king of jams.
The ratios are as follows......
400g Blackberry
200g elderberry
200g rosehips
200g crab apples
6 damsons
to this I used 1kg of jam sugar and a knob of butter. It has been tasted by severel people (nearly a jar gone already) and everyone can not believe how good it tastes.
Success

[Maryann]

Oh well done - isn't it great when it turns out so well. 

Still looking for some crabbies - nothing on Freecycle in my area (think we prize our apple here in Kent) but I'm still hopeful someone will have too many for their own use.

What have you done with the pulp left over? I'm trying to find a recipe to use up the rasps/blackberries pulp from yesterday.

[Spana]

Aidy, did you make jam or jelly

Sounds good what ever, just interested in how you went about it.

[Aidy]

Jam Spana as follows...
400g Blackberry
200g elderberry, crab apples, rosehips
6 damsons
knob of butter
1kg jam sugar
we did the rosehips the night before, cut the bud end off with scissors and then minced them in a mincer machine straight into a pan of boiling water (half a pint), simmered them for about 45 mins topping up every so often then put them into a straining bag and left over night.
The other ingredients went into a pan this morning and simmered down, gave them a quick blitz (removing the damson stones) and ran through the strainer, added the sugar and stirred until dissolved, brought to a rolling boil, around 3 mins checked for set and then pop into the jars (steralised of course)

[Spana]

Sounds really good, I wondered how you get over the rosehip hairs in jam.

I love the jam sugar.  I think it makes such a difference to the end result if you haven't had to boil the fruit and sugar for ages to get a set, and if you take into account the fact that you dont need to buy lemons and the savings on fuel its hardly more expensive than using granulated

Bet you dont have it on the self for long

[Maryann]

My first batch of raspberry/blackberry jelly made from juice extracted from steamer hasn't set as well as I would have liked. I did the saucer test twice and the 2nd test looked fine - it didn't move on the saucer and wrinkled when I pushed it with my finger but in the jar it looks a little bit loose - not runny but I was expecting it to be slightly firmer.

Now - do I reboil or not?

I used ordinary sugar as I was told my a lovely lady who is something of an expert in jams/jellys that she never uses jam sugar - doesn't believe in it and thinks it can alter the taste of the jam. However I did use it in my early days of jam making as I thought it was best for strawbs and rasps. Now I wonder if I should have used it when making jelly. I wasn't sure if you could or if it would make the jelly cloudy?
It did make other jams I made that year set way too much especially the gooseberry, cherry and damson so I gave up on it and went back to ordinary sugar.

I also wondered if I sieved the pulp left over and added that back to the jelly and reboiled briefly if that would help.

Any thoughts?