Foraging, Baking, and Slowing Down

I have been foraging more.

Discovering the Elderberries in our barn set me on a journey to discover what other plants we have that are edible. To my delight, there are many! If you’d like to see all of the things I foraged this week, you can watch below. All of the recipes in that video will be in this post if I can share them. If not, the cookbooks will be linked.

Elderberry Syrup

First I made a simple elderberry syrup from The Garden Apothecary. This particular recipe combines elderberries, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger boiled down and then added to honey for a quick and easy syrup that will last in the refrigerator for a few weeks. It’s so simple to make, and I highly recommend checking out that book. However, here is the link to another recipe I’ve used that had similar results.

It is a very easy process, boiling the elderberries and spices in a pot until the liquid has reduced and the berries are soft, then straining it into however much honey you’d like to mix. Next year, I hope to forage more elderberries and perhaps try drying them!

Next I made the Apple Blackberry Cake from this Tolkien Cookbook. These apples and blackberries were foraged straight out of our yard and this was SUCH a good recipe. I will definitely be keeping it for future Saturday mornings!

With the apple scraps, I made the start of vinegar.

You will need a half jar of apple scraps (the more the merrier, but you don’t have to fill the entire jar!), sugar, and water. Add as many tablespoons of sugar as you add water (ie, I used 11 cups of water in my container, so 11 tablespoons sugar), and if you like you can also add a glug of organic Apple Cider Vinegar to help with the process but that’s not necessary. Stir well, and cover with a loose muslin or cotton towel.

For the first week you will need to stir your cider every day to keep the mixture from molding on top. After a week, the fermentation should be well under way, and in a few weeks you’ll have apple cider vinegar! Once it’s ready you can strain the apples out of it, store, and use as you would any other vinegar from the store.

Here’s a quick post on how to make it from someone a bit more knowledgeable than me!
My favorite recipe this week was definitely the mushroom and leek hand pies from the Tolkien Cookbook. I did add two links of sausage squeezed out and mashed up, and below is the pie crust I made. But overall, these were so easy to make and SO delicious!

For the pie crust you will need:

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) of cold butter cut into cubes

1 tsp salt

italian seasoning to taste

6-8tbsp cold water

Combine the flour, salt, seasoning, and butter with a pie cutter until the butter is about the size of peas and incorporated in the dough. Then, slowly add water until a dough forms. ITt can be a bit shaggy, but not sticky or it won’t hold well in the pies. Roll out to about 1/4″-1/8″ thickness and cut into your desired shape. Fill with your pie filling, top with another crust, and press the edges firmly together. prick the tops with a fork. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

If you try any of the recipes I would LOVE to know. I’m sorry this post is a bit rushed, I’m still getting the hang of creating multiple streams of content, but as time goes on I’m sure I’ll figure it out 😉