Elderberry Lozenges

Elderberry Lozenges

 

1.5 litres of water

Approximately 1.5kg elderberries

3 C sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp butter

1 tsp lemon juice

 

Combine water and berries in a large saucepan.  Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover and let stand for approximately 30 minutes.

 

Strain, discarding berries and reserving the liquid.

 

Combine liquid, sugar and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan.  Slowly bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook, without stirring until mixture reaches 104˚C (220˚F).  Add butter, do not stir.

 

Continue cooking without stirring, until mixture reaches hard crack stage (150˚C - 300˚F).

Add lemon juice (do not stir) and gently shake the pan.

 

Pour syrup into buttered dish.  Allow to cool a little, until you can pinch off a piece without it being too sticky.  Roll into balls or spoon into moulds.  Cool until firm and wrap.

 

 

The original recipe said to mark in 1” squares and cut or break when completely cool.  I tried this the first time and ended up with a solid glass-like mass that would not break apart.  I had spent about an hour running the knife through to mark the squares and then couldn’t lift them out of the dish.  I had to reheat the entire batch and try again.  This is why I shape them into balls (which generally flatten) or pour into moulds.

 

If kept in the fridge, the lozenges do stick together a bit, but are easily pulled apart.  If stored in the pantry, they gradually meld together into a jar shaped mega-lozenge. I still have two jars of horehound candy waiting for me to reheat and reshape them.

 

I wrapped the most recent batch in gladwrap.  It made it a long and painstaking process, but they are magic for a sore throat so I feel it was worth it.

Any herb you may be wanting to use can be substituted in for elderberries.  

February Foragings

 

I had promised myself I would be doing plenty with my usual foraging fare this year.  Three times I made it around the farm picking plums, blackberries and elderberries before the rain hit.  The first two times, I was able to wash, weigh and bag the berries and put them in the fridge to wait for a bigger volume.  After I'd made eight jars of plum jam. The third time I had to throw it all away, I had just started to take the elderberries off the stalks when I got the news about my friend and wasn’t able to come back to them for over a week. 

 

Last weekend, I went for a big forage, hoping that I hadn’t missed too much.  Because of all the rain, the creek is still running, which is pretty much unheard of in February.  So I went out with Hubby’s waders on.  I wasn’t wearing a belt to hook the side straps up to, but I thought since they reached mid-thigh, I should be right.

 

The blackberry pick was impressive.  In two hours, splashing through the creek to reach them, I picked nearly 3kg.  I only stopped when I misjudged a deep part of the creek and filled up one wader.

 

I’d already filled a bucket with elderberries from three young trees that have turned up on the fence line.  There are more berries than leaves on two of them, and the majority are still not quite ripe.

 

I spent a morning sorting, washing and stripping the berries. 3kg of blackberries has turned into something partway between jam and jelly.  I used a jam recipe but ran it through the mouli to remove all the seeds. It’s not set as well as I would like, but it’s set enough and there are 10 jars of blackberry jam in the pantry.

 

I spent a day adapting a horehound candy recipe to make elderberry lozenges.  They haven’t quite set as well as I’d like, but I wrapped them and keep them in the fridge so they’ll do.

 

I’ve started a batch of elderberry wine, with whatever blackberries I had leftover in too.  I have been making elderberry wine for eleven years now, I’m sure this is the first one that started bubbling almost as soon as I put the bubbler into the barrel.

 

All the summer rain has made the mushrooms grow well.  Not that I can find them easily.  After the last few years of drought, I made the decision that we had too many animals and the paddocks needed some resting.  I’m now down to two cows (from five last year) and ten adult sheep (it was more than twenty). With all the rain, the paddocks I’m resting are growing like I’ve never seen before.  I almost have too much feed.  It's more good luck than anything else spotting field mushrooms in knee-high grass.

 

However, the stocks of frozen fried mushrooms are being replenished.

 

So while it feels like the rest of the world has gone mad with a pandemic, protests and potential war in Europe, I feel like my little corner of the world is doing ok.

Late February in My Vege Garden

 

After a fairly hellish month, my vege garden is a jungle.  Two weeks of heavy rain, one tropical cyclone, the unexpected passing of my closest friend, a covid scare with isolation and my garden is a place best described as survival of the fittest.

The pumpkins seem to be making a run for the title of ruler of this jungle.  They are smothering most of the competition, all of the paths and also managing to grow some big fat healthy looking pumpkins.

 

The beans don’t think much of this and are climbing the sunflowers to escape.

 

My single courgette plant seems determined to join the uprising and is trying to reach the ground to either take on the pumpkins or join them.

 

The beetroot is still bravely growing under and over the sneaky tendrils, although a rather large pumpkin has managed to jam their transportation.

 

The first lot of peas I planted along the net on the edge of the tunnel house keep trying and frequently show new growth, but they have gotten fairly dismal on the whole. But the second sowing has taken off to be taller than me and growing masses of fat pods with juicy peas.  It’s unclear what they think of the attempted pumpkin coup, but perhaps they haven’t noticed because they’re somewhat removed from it.

 

Most of the tomatoes, cucumber and chillies just don’t seem to care.  The cherry tomatoes are possibly making a run of their own and aiming to close the borders.

 

The carrots in the water trough were drowned in the rain and have surrendered peacefully. Or so it seems, I don’t know if they’re going to just rot or try for a more hydroponic lifestyle. Who can tell?

 

It seems my garden heard my idea of it being a surprise around every corner and took it to heart.

January in My Vege Garden

 Happy New Year everyone. I hope you've had a lovely holiday. 

We never seem to do relaxing. After all the windows and weatherboards were replaced last summer, this year has been about all the preparation and painting. Hubby is determined that we do a very good job so that it will last for years. 

I've been hard at work in my garden. The weeds are an ongoing battle, but not as bad as previous years when I hadn't mulched.

The beans and sunflowers that I'd been lamenting have finally grown. Only three sunflowers, but I'll take it. 

I fixed the drainage problem in the carrot trough. I keep seeing videos showing people putting inverted soft drink bottles with an end cut off into plant pots as a way to water plants. It occurred to me that it could also work the other way.  This bottle has holes drilled in it all around and up and down the length of the bottle. 

The day I put it in, I scooped out the excess water as the bottle filled. I took out at least 5 litres. I also pulled out a lot of rotting carrots. I guess that's one way of thinning them. 

Everything seems to growing rampant. We're starting to pick and eat from the garden. Last night was our first entirely grown at home meal for the year.

Some Success in My Vege Garden

 My garden is still very up and down and the weather has been the same. We alternate between 30+ degrees Celsius and freezing rain and wind. I even had the fire going about a week ago. 

I've just been spending some time in the sun, listening to the bellbirds singing in the oak tree, trying to make a dent in the weeds that have taken off and reflecting on what a lovely and peaceful place it is even so.

I wasn't able to provide fresh peas for Christmas lunch, but I was able to pick four pods yesterday. I did provide some new potatoes. They were carefully exposed and picked without disturbing the rest of the growing potatoes or plants very much.

Unfortunately, all the rain has created a problem with the old water trough I planted carrots and radishes in. I had hoped that the stones I'd filled the bottom with would be sufficient drainage, but they weren't enough for the amount of rain we've had. 

Many of my carrots and radishes have rotted just beneath the surface. I did look at the bung that these troughs have at the bottom. But I don't think this has moved at all since the trough was made however many decades ago and it isn't moving now.

We've discussed drilling it out and drilling holes in the trough itself but no one is prepared to commit to retiring it from possible future use as an actual water trough. 

My tomatoes are doing very well. I've been sticking the laterals I pick off into the ground. They seem to sulk and wilt for a day or so, but the majority look like young, freshly planted tomato plants now. I'm hopeful for a good crop.

Both my cucumber plants (third Lebanese and second apple) are thriving. I have a small maybe 4 inch long Lebanese cucumber on the plant and I can honestly say it's the biggest cucumber I've ever managed to grow. 

I had to take the nets off as the beans were starting to grow through the netting instead of the support strings I've provided. 

I've decided to leave the wild part of my garden alone for now. I'm not keeping up with the weeds in the planted parts of the garden as it is and I don't currently have anything to plant in it. 

December in My Vege Garden

 It's been a while since I shared any of the goings on in my garden, I was asked about it recently by a friend who has been following the story.

There hasn't been a lot to tell really. 

I tightened up the nets since the blackbirds were still finding ways in. I planted more beans and sunflowers. Some of them have even started growing. 

Both my cucumber plants suddenly died. I've been told not to plant another cucumber in the same spot as there may be fungus in the soil that attacks cucumbers. I don't know if this is true, but it's easy enough to plant new ones somewhere else. 

The chilli seeds I planted have shown no signs of coming up. So I visited my Happy Place, as I've started calling Woodend Nursery, a local garden centre. The only chilli varieties they had were Jaiwas, a green chilli I'd never heard of before. I bought two and while I was there, I bought two new cucumber plants, one Lebanese and one Apple. I also picked up some red capsicum plants. 

I've since bought some habanero plants and wildfire chillies. 

Something was still eating my plants. It looked like slug damage, so I spread around some slug and snail bait. 

What a difference that made! In a week my beans doubled in size and grew new tendrils. 

Potatoes are still growing beautifully. I've been struggling with finding material to go into the tyres. We ran out of old branches to mulch and my pile of aged, rotted manure has all gone. I could use some of the fresher stuff from the paddocks but there is a fairly high chance of lots of problem seed growing in it too. Grass clippings and leaf mulch have been in use with some mulch from freshly cut branches. 

I haven't done much more clearing of the wild untouched parts. Partly because of the lack of mulch, partly because I don't have much yet to plant in it and partly because the weather has been hideous for the past few weeks. Any fine days are spent weeding and caring for existing plants. 

I have set up a mini greenhouse for raising seedlings. I had plenty started in it when a nasty storm with a lot of wind threw my little greenhouse and all its contents across my deck. I scooped up all the soil and unsprouted seeds into a large tray. We'll see if anything comes up in that. I rescued the sprouting sunflowers and Kumara. 

My plan was to start a few more brassicas every few weeks in successive plantings. They don't really freeze well so fresh is better. 

I haven't spoken about the drive behind this garden. I didn't want to open myself up to judgement if I failed. 

I've given up smoking. Gardening has been my distraction and my reward. Garden art has also played a fairly big part. I'm painting rocks to put around my garden. I've made a 'Welcome to My Garden' sign, although that hasn't made it into the garden yet.

I've also made personalised similar signs as Christmas presents for family, but you don't get to see them until after their new owners do.

War in My Vege Garden

 I'm in a war with vermin. 

Every time I walk into my garden, several blackbirds fly out. They are getting into the netting through small holes and having a field day.

I have had to replant many of my pea plants and three or four tomatoes. I found the husks of my sunflower seeds and no signs of plants. I have had to buy more plants and seeds to replace the damaged and missing ones. 

Over the weekend, my replacement cucumber suddenly died. It had been growing beautifully for two weeks, then overnight went greyish and fell over.

I questioned everything I had done. I thought the previous one had suffered wind damage so this one was well protected from the wind. It got plenty of sun and I was careful to water the soil and not the leaves. I put slug and snail bait around it. Maybe there was something wrong with the soil? But surely that would have shown up straightaway. 

The next day it was gone completely and there was a small hole where it had been. A tomato plant that had been nearly a foot tall and starting to flower was also missing. I picked up the next tomato plant from the path and replanted it in its spot. 

My peas have had their growing tips trimmed off. Where I'd had a 100% hit rate from my seed, I suddenly found gaps. 

I made windchimes and a rough scarecrow and noisemakers. I fixed up the bigger holes in the netting. I tried leaving a patch of soft turned over soil for them to play in. 

Yesterday, I saw a small rabbit running out of my garden as I went in. 

Today I found devastation in my brassica patch. I also found the hole the rabbit had gotten in through and blocked it up.

It's getting hard to stick to the concept I wanted in this garden. I feel like it's going to turn into a fortress rather than a fun peaceful garden.