Atomic Shrimp - Tag - Winter2023-02-01T12:10:35+00:00urn:md5:c0b98cd55ab1d3c468ecdbd19e8bc1dbDotclearGorse Flowersurn:md5:99196efb8783c4b2aa7e4adadbe8e25c2009-03-15T21:11:00+00:002015-01-23T21:19:21+00:00MikeAutumnFoodForagingSpringSummerWinter<p><img alt="gorsethumb.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/g/gorsethumb.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="gorsethumb.JPG, Mar 2009" />"Kissing's out of season when Gorse is out of flower" - so they say. This is a wild food article about gorse flowers, which can be found at pretty much any time of year...</p> <p class="clearleft"><img alt="gorse1.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/g/gorse1.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="gorse1.JPG, Mar 2009" />Gorse - <i>Ulex spp</i> - also known as Furze or Whin, is a tough, spiny shrub found on heaths, roadsides and waste places.</p>
<p>The bright yellow flowers are mostly produced in early spring, but it's nearly always possible to find a few at any time of the year - even in the depths of winter.</p>
<p>On the bush, they have a smell reminiscent of coconut or ground almonds. When you gather a bunch of them together in a container, a number of more complex, fruity aromas are noticeable.</p>
<p>They're supposedly edible in salads - but I've tried them before and I was quite disappointed - they just taste bitter and uninteresting. So I decided to try using them to make a tisane.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Picking Gorse Flowers</h3>
<p>The plant is armed with such an impressive array of sharp spines that it really isn't possible to pick the flowers without suffering a few jabs and scratches - wearing gloves thick enough to fend off the thorns would probably reduce dexterity enough to make it much harder to pick.</p>
<p>Limiting the picking to only those flowers that are fully open does make it a bit easier - and these are the most worthwhile ones anyway - as they are at the peak of flavour and aroma when fully open.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="gorse2.JPG" class="media" src="http://gurman.co.uk/public/g/gorse2.JPG" style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;" title="gorse2.JPG, Mar 2009" /></p>
<div><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">I picked about half a pint of flowers (at the expense of a few painful jabs from the wicked thorns).</span></div>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="gorse3.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/g/gorse3.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="gorse3.JPG, Mar 2009" />After leaving the flowers open on the plate for a few minutes (to let a few small insects escape), I steeped them in boiling water, covered with a lid, for five minutes.</p>
<p>I strained off the liquid and added a little lemon juice and a half teaspoon of sugar. (The lemon juice changed the colour from deep, vivid yellow to the paler shade in the photo below)</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="gorse4.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/g/gorse4.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="gorse4.JPG, Mar 2009" />The resulting drink is good - slightly astringent, it has a fresh, fruity (almost melon-like) flavour, with a spicy resinous backnote, and a complex herbal aroma all of its own, which is difficult to describe or compare to anything.</p>
<p>It's great as a hot beverage, but it would also work well chilled and served with ice and a sprig of mint, I think</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">The Final Verdict</h3>
<p> </p>
<p>An excellent, refreshing drink. Worth the effort and pain of picking the flowers.</p>Relatives Of Common Hawthorn - And Making Hawthorn Brandyurn:md5:e525d2468f436ee3b74cd4f98e101eba2008-10-24T21:49:00+00:002015-03-08T22:06:01+00:00MikeAutumnFoodForagingWinter<p><b><img alt="hawthorn2thumb.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2thumb.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2thumb.JPG, Oct 2008" />October 2008 -</b> There have been a few frosts now and it's changed the wild food landscape a bit. There are still wild fruits that are now just reaching the right moment to pick - including some of the relatives of common Hawthorn.</p> <h2 class="clearleft">Cockspur Thorn</h2>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_1.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_1.JPG" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="hawthorn2_1.JPG, Oct 2008" /></p>
<h3 class="clearleft">What is Cockspur Thorn?</h3>
<p>Crataegus crus-galli - a small-to-medium sized tree with oval, toothed leaves and bright red fruits about 10mm in diameter. It's native to North America, but is quite frequently planted ornamentally in parks and urban green spaces.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_2.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_2.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2_2.JPG, Oct 2008" />The branches are armed with impressive, needle-sharp thorns up to 50mm long, although there are thornless varieties that are sometimes planted.</p>
<p>The fruits are borne in handful-sized clusters and ripen fully after a little frost</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Roman Hawthorn</h2>
<h3 class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_3.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_3.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2_3.JPG, Oct 2008" />What is Roman Hawthorn?</h3>
<p>Crataegus aemula - A tree very much resembling common hawthorn when seen from a distance, however, a closer examination reveals the differences - the leaves are simple ovals in shape and are thick, leathery and creased.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_4.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_4.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2_4.JPG, Oct 2008" />But the most conspicuous difference is the fruit, which is bright scarlet, glossy and <i>big</i> - up to 30mm in diameter and resembling a small apple.</p>
<p>It's not always a great idea to pick wild foods growing right by a roadside, but this is a quiet residential street that receives only occasional traffic, so it's fairly clean.</p>
<p>I tasted one of these raw - they're exactly like ordinary Haws.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Picking And Using These Fruits</h2>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_5.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_5.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2_5.JPG, Oct 2008" />The fruits are large, borne in convenient clusters and separate easily from their stalks - it took me only about fifteen minutes to pick a couple of kilos into my basket. (Cockspur haws on the right, Roman haws on the left)</p>
<p>They're significantly more fleshy than common haws, so they ought to yield a good quantity of fruit pulp.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthorn2_6.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthorn2_6.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthorn2_6.JPG, Oct 2008" />I'll probably use them to make some kind of savoury sauce or ketchup, but I don't have enough time (or empty bottles) at the moment, so I just washed, destalked and picked over the fruits, then bagged and froze them for later.</p>
<p>Freezing will probably help break them down and permit a better extraction of pulp and juice when I get around to cooking them.</p>
<p><b>Update November 2008 -</b> Lots of people have reported a severe shortage of sloes this year - I managed to find enough to make one batch of sloe gin, but many have not been so lucky.</p>
<p>So let's try an alternative liqueur - hawthorn brandy.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Hawthorn Brandy - The Idea</h3>
<p>I had been idly wondering whether haws would be a suitable fruit for this kind of treatment - they do share many common attributes with sloes - being bitter, tannic, but fruity.</p>
<p>I looked in a few of my wild food books and the idea seems confirmed - Roger Phillips book <i>Wild Food</i> describes the liqueur as 'excellent' - so I think it's worth a try.</p>
<h3>Ingredients</h3>
<p>This is an experiment, so I'm not going to commit a full bottle of brandy - only about 300ml or so, measured out into a small bottle (that I'll save for the finished product). To this, I'm adding about three tablespoons of soft brown sugar, a few handfuls of my frozen Rome and Cockspur haws, plus a good bunch of very ripe common haws</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthornbrandy1.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthornbrandy1.JPG" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="hawthornbrandy1.JPG, Nov 2008" /></p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthornbrandy2.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthornbrandy2.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthornbrandy2.JPG, Nov 2008" />I washed the fresh haws and dropped them into a large bottle along with the sugar and the frozen fruits (you always need a larger bottle than the one the liquor came in - because of the added volume of fruit).</p>
<p>The brandy was poured in and the whole lot was gently swilled around to dissolve the sugar.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthornbrandy3.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthornbrandy3.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthornbrandy3.JPG, Nov 2008" />Weird. A couple of days later and the larger haws have turned from red to yellow - the colour has either been leached out into the spirit, or chemically altered somehow.</p>
<p>One thing I did realise - I haven't pricked the fruit like I would have done for sloes - I'll have to improvise with something long and pointy, I think.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="hawthornbrandy4.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/hawthornbrandy4.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="hawthornbrandy4.JPG, Dec 2008" />Late December 2008 - the haws have been steeping in the liquor for about two months now - time to take them out.</p>
<p>I strained the liquor into the bottle, there was more liquid than I started with - presumably a combination of juice from the fruits, plus the volume of the added sugar. It's cloudy at the moment so I will leave it to settle before finally decanting just the clear liqueur.</p>
<h3>That's It For Now</h3>
<p>I'll update the page again when it's completely finished - I did taste a little at this stage though - and it's quite incredible! - the liqueur has an intense, fresh apple/marzipan flavour, with other fruity notes that are difficult to adequately describe - a bit like ripe banana, but different...</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Update - February 2010</h3>
<p>The bottle lurked forgotten at the back of my cupboard for a year and a half - during which time the mealy sediment has settled out of suspension, leaving a brilliant rich amber liqueur.</p>
<p>The flavour has mellowed to a velvety-smooth, yet complex and fruity, warm sweetness. Maybe I should have made more.</p>