Grazing Kate came across a mass of hedgerow berries on the South West Coast Path near Dawlsih, and decided to take the family foraging for some free food one warm Sunday afternoon. Here’s how she got on…

For hedgerow jelly, you need a combination of blackberries, crab apples (or cooking apples), haws (from hawthorn), elderberries, rosehips (from wild roses), sloes (look like hard blueberries with a bit of a bloom on them) and bullaces (a kind of wild plum). It was a very social occasion as every passer by wanted to know what we were collecting and what we were going to use them for. Several people turned out to be a mine of information about making sloe gin – seems to interest folks more than the hedgerow jelly…

On a quarter-mile stretch of path, we found all that we needed (no bullaces – shame) and filled our pots. The children were fine about the blackberries and apples, but were seriously worried about the potentially poisonous rosehips, haws and sloes. My natural inclination is that they are possibly inedible unless cooked to a high temperature – people have been making rosehip cordial, sloe gin and other autumnal treats for years. (I think it’s part of that worrying tendency that we have in modern days to assume that plasticised shrink-wrapped supermarket food is ‘good’ for us, whereas there might be something wrong with the real thing that’s growing on trees and bushes right under our noses.)

Back at home I put 225g sloe berries in the freezer to be turned into sloe gin or vodka at a later stage. Apparently the berries work much more effectively after the first frost, or to improvise, you can just bung them in the freezer for as long as you want before use.

Onto the serious job of Hedgerow Jelly. I used:
 180g sloe; 
75g elderberries; 
160g rosehips; 
90g haw berries; 
500g blackberries; 
1kg cooking apples.

I put them in a pan with a 1.2 litres of water and simmered them until tender.

We then rigged up a rather dodgy-looking muslin cloth on upturned stool to allow the cooked fruit to drip through. The following day, I measured the deep purple liquid and added 450g granulated sugar per 600ml liquid and boiled it up together until it reaches setting point.

So far so good… only the jelly didn’t set. So, I emptied it all back in to the pan, washed the jam jars again, sterilised them again  and boiled it all again in a big pan until my thermometer read a definite 105 degrees – allegedly the ‘setting point’ for jams and jellies. Doing this whole procedure once is enjoyable – the second time I was cursing.

The jelly still hasn’t set, however, the thick gloopy liquid is delicious, similar to blackberry and apple but with a more intense berry-ish flavour. It spreads wonderfully on toast and is really good on vanilla ice cream.

I would love to know if anyone knows about the toxic qualities of haws, sloes and hips and also any advice on how to get jellies to set.

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Can’t get to Wimbledon but want the ‘quintessential English experience’? Try picking your own strawberries at one of South Devon’s Pick Your Own Fruit farms says Grazing Kate

Neither gifted with a racquet nor having the funds or connections to wangle tickets to Centre Court matches, the best way for me to enjoy the quintessential English summer day is to find a Pick Your Own strawberry farm.

Shute Fruit in Bishopsteigton opened their farm gates for the season on Friday, June 18. They are currently offering Pick Your Own (PYO) strawberries and ready-cut new season broad beans.

The farm is run by Lori Reich and David Lamboll and is situated in a magnificent location, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the banks of the Teign Estuary. Lori is well known on the farmers’ market and food festival circuit for her award-winning jams, chutneys and for her cookery demonstrations. She is a mine of information about other local food producers and passionate about her favourite home-style recipes.

The Shute Fruit website provides useful information on how to make microwave strawberry jam. This is ideal if, like me, you find that once you’ve started picking strawberries, it’s very difficult to stop and you end up with punnet-loads more than you can eat fresh.

You can check the website to see what crops are available – this is updated daily. There are some benches for you to enjoy the sunshine, the passing trains, the wildlife and your fruit feast (after paying at the caravan with makeshift shop counter), perhaps with a punnet of ice cream or clotted cream?

On the opposite side of the River Teign, Netherton PYO will be a prolific soft fruit producer for the next two months or so.

A trip to Netherton can be a great family afternoon out – most kids, parents and grandparents love the thrill of seeking out the largest, weirdest or sweetest fruit – there can certainly be a competitive element. It’s also great to remind children where their food comes from and how lucky we are in Devon to have such bounty on our doorsteps. Netherton also provides a tea shack and picnic benches offering homemade cakes, clotted cream, ice creams, teas and coffees and (rather cleverly) jam sugar to take home for your preserves.

The season is so short, I’m going to make the most of them over the next few months and try to visit them on a weekly basis.  So, whether it’s tennis or football, let’s remember to take a break from all the sport on television and get out in the sunshine, pick fresh berries and enjoy the fruits of the local farmers’ labours – it’s almost as healthy as playing tennis.

Another PYO that I haven’t yet visited in the South Devon area is Boyces Nursery and Fruit Farm at Shillingford St George, nr Exeter – comments welcome.

(an extract of an article first published on Grazing Kate’s site)

(image: courtesy of Grazing Kate)

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