Gratitude Sunday

Joining Taryn in this heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect and be grateful.

Phew, it's been a busy week for me. Getting the last of the plums and tomatoes in prepped and stored away.

I ran out of jars so I resorted to stewing the plums down and putting them in freezer bags. 

I also made another batch of spiced crab apple and ginger jelly. This one had more ginger in it so has a bit more of a yummy kick. 

But here is my gratitude list:

I have been thankful this week for:

                   ... the lovely weather we have had this week although it's a little chilly.

                   ... I have finally made my yeast-less sourdough bread rise. (YAY!)

                   ... The glut of produce I have harvested.

                   ... The smell of autumn in the air

                   ... Having reduced hours at work which meant more time for baking and knitting

                   ... Spending time with family - something I haven't done in a while and I should do more

                   ... My peas sprouting

                   ... The grass seed also sprouting, almost got a front lawn! I shall write a post about that.

Foraging

I love stuff for free, I mean who doesn't?! I especially love free food and that's why I love foraging so much. As a child I used to go blackberrying and scrimping on my own and with the grandparents. On my old walk back from college I often bought home apples and blackberries which meant only one thing for desert... Crumble. One of my favourites. Yum.

If you need any more inspiration for foraging I suggest watching this video: http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/soulseekers, The video gets across the pashion for wild food Robin
 has, I love Robin's blog, it had loads of great recipes for wild food and hints and tips about what
 to find at what type of year.

There's a local park near me which is fab for foraging so I set out with my equipment...

A good selection of plastic containers, set out and two hours later came back with this:

Blackberries in the top container, rosehips under that and raspberries at the front. I also found sloes, which

 are not ready yet and lots of new stinging nettle growth, I didn't bring any gloves with me so I couldn't pick them :(

 I made stinging nettle soup once and it was very tasty. I also read on Robin's blog nettles make very good pesto so I shall try that one day.

What is your favourite forage and the recipes which go with it?

My new food dehydrator

I brought myself a present... A food dehydrator! Ta-dah!

I bought it so I could process my produce in a healthy way. It's been running non-stop since I got it.

Here it is in action, making sweet potato and potato crisps. If you head over to pintrest I started a board collecting recipes.

Here are some dehydrated tomatoes which I am storing in olive oil with garlic, oregano and basil. Mmmm makes me hungry just thinking about them.

Here are some "cookies". They are basically mashed bananas, cocoa, vanilla paste and oat flour. Very tasty.

Here is fruit leather. Again very easy to do, just cook two apples down until soft, add in some blueberries and blitz with the food processor until it looks like baby food. Spread it out thin on some baking parchment and dehydrate until it is leathery. About 12 hours. 

I have also made jerky. It is very tasty.

Let me know your favourite recipes so I can give them a go.