Autumn Gifts ~The Pantry is Always Full.

Autumn has already begun as we feel the morning chill. Here in the last days of September in the UK we have had record rainfall as a months worth of rain fell in one day. My heart goes out to all those whose homes were flooded yet again in this unpredictable weather of 2012. 

But today the sun is shining as it once again lifts our spirits to the beauty of an autumn day, as the blue skies and golden leaves start to form upon the trees.

I’m just recovering from a virus infection which knocked me sideways for a while, but I am back to feeling better again and wanted to share with you some of the beauties of Autumn as I took a walk on the 12th of September.. seems an age ago now as I walked among my favourite Trees.. I snapped a few pictures along my walk.  

Here are some of my all time favourite bramble fruits the Blackberry, I like nothing better than making a Blackberry Pie with a few Apples mixed in with either custard or cream..

Here is a Pie I baked a while back as we have lots of Blackberries in our allotments, which I freeze..This one is one I made earlier ..I hope to add the recipe on my Recipe page shortly for those interested.

 I just love Wild Roses and here are the Rosehips which are a very good source of vitamin C. Did you know that you can dry Rosehips, making a herb tea? ( which often get added to commercially produced herbal teas ) Also if you like a Winter Tipple  how about Sloe Gin? I personally cannot stand either the taste or the smell of Gin. But to make Sloe Gin go to my Recipe page I have added a simple recipe there which you can find Here if you scroll down far enough..

Hawthorn grows in abundance in our hedgerows here, They delight us in the spring with their white blossoms and are full again this year of the Haws the red berries, a sure sign that the birds will have plenty to eat as Winter approaches. I didn’t know until I read in my Tree Book that you can eat the flesh of the Haws if you get rid of the stones, you can make a jelly by simmering the fruit with a few crab apples..

Elderberry is another hedgerow fruit well known for making Elderberry Wine. I well remember an Aunt of mine who made both Elderflower Wine and Elderberry Wine another good source of vitamins.

In my childhood and when my children were small We would often go Hazelnut picking, My Dad never went anywhere in late September without nutcrackers in his pocket .. I loved picking the nuts and couldn’t wait until they had turned from their green to brown in their husks. And my childhood treat was to painstakingly shell these sweet nuts often immature to sprinkle with salt on a saucer and demolish in a matter of seconds.. I so love the memory of nutting with my Dad.. Along with collecting Chestnuts and walking in the early morning mists to find the Field Mushrooms… here is a nice link to the kind we used to find.

Dad was something of an expert in collecting Wild Mushrooms and he would provide many a villager with a heavy bag of field mushrooms, and I have known them to be as big as the frying pan . ( Note when eating wild Mushrooms you must be experienced in identifying them as there are many poisonous fungi which unless you know can be wrongly identified )

Lastly I took a few pictures of the Acorns.. From young Oak trees which lined the walk you see in the first picture, we noted that many had a fungal disease and seemed to be dying an many had these peculiar malformed Acorns on them and they were not like anything I have seen on trees here before.

Here are the growths on the Acorns in this Picture , I Googled Deformed Acorns and apparently its  known as a ‘Knopper Gall’ caused by a tiny gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis. it is a recent colonist to Britain in the last 30 yrs or so, and was first spotted in Northamptonshire in 1961. You learn something new every day!..

I hope you enjoyed a little walk with me today… Its great that the Rain has stopped at last and its promising to be a good day tomorrow Saturday so I’m making the most of it and intent to go out in the Fresh Air again to blow the last of this Virus away before more Rain on Sunday.. 

Take care and Have a great weekend all of you ~Sue