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Whilst picking Brambles yesterday, I came across something I have not seen for many years....Wild Burnet.

Wild Burnet flower head

I used to pick these en masse for my father to make wine and here it was growing in the grassland near the hedgerow.

The Wild Burnet or Sanguisorba Officinalis grows to around 1m tall in grassland and on hedgerow banks.

It is generally not easy to see the foliage but the tall wiry stems raise themselves above the vegetation and waft their dark burgundy, (almost brown) rounded flower heads in the breeze.

The leaves can be used in salads and taste mildly of cucumber.

Ancient Chinese Medicine saw the root of this plant employed to treat bleeding, such as nosebleeds and dysentry.  And when applied to the skin is used in the treatment of insect bites and burns.

Sanguisorba Officinalis (Wikipedia)

Although the leaves were used in salads and sandwiches, it was only the bitter, peppery flower heads that we used to collect for the wine.  This had the advantage of making the plant grow bushier and therefore more flowers were available the following year.

I will have to ask my dad to hunt out the wine recipe.  The only thing I can remember about making it is fighting hundreds of wasps due to the copious amounts of honey in the mix.  As my husband said, it is probably more of a mead than a wine but the net result was incredibly good.

Perhaps you have different uses for it, if so, please let us know.

Blackberries on the bush

Autumn is approaching rapidly and the hedgerows are starting to yield their harvest.

A sunny day finally arrives, so with the dogs on their leads and pockets loaded with carrier bags, we set off to collect some Blackberries. or Brambles and Blackites as they are known locally.

Compared to last year and especially the year before, the fruits were disappointing. Very small berries and many of them already going mouldy on the branches.  Some fruits are hard and stunted, so it took us over an hour and a good mile covered to gain only about 2Kg of fruit.

In recent years, the same patch has yielded around 10Kg of nice plump juicy berries.

Pondering the reason for this we firstly blamed the weather. This year has seen only four weeks of decent sunshine in May, turning to rain in the second week of June. The ground was incredibly waterlogged and this is the first time we have been slipping around in mud whilst trying to pick the fruit.

The second factor we considered was the proliferation of Himalayan Balsam in the hedgerows. This plant is not native to the UK and has become a real pest in the past three or four years.  Its growth is rampant and no doubt it is sucking vital nutrients away from the native Blackberry bushes.

All of the bushes seemed to be "struggling", with leggy stems reaching for much needed sunlight and bearing rust patches on their leaves.

Anyway, we had enough for a couple of pies or crumbles and maybe even a couple of pots of bramble and apple jelly,

Blackberries should not really be eaten whilst picking as they can contain lots of little maggots and should be soaked in cold salted water for about four hours before use. This will allow all those little beasties to crawl out and drown, leaving you with a bowlful of clean blackberries ready to use. Tip the berries into a strainer and rinse well to remove any traces of salt.

Within hours of picking, the fruits can often start to rot, so they are best used straight after cleaning or frozen. (Always clean the fruit before freezing and remove as much of the water from the berries as you can).

If you are planning to go foraging for wild Blackberries, consider some sturdy shoes and old clothes as you will get prickled and the juice stains. A walking cane (the sort with a hooked end) is very useful for reaching and pulling branches closer. Plastic bags (without holes in) or containers to put your berries in.

If you take the dog(s) along too, be ware that most of the best ripe berries will be in full sun, so be mindful of the time you spend and keep taking your dog into the shade and carry a bottle of water.

Don't pick berries near the ground (dog peeing height) or from the side of a busy road to avoid contamination from vehicle fumes.

let us have your "Brambling" tales and tell us if you are experiencing a poor blackberry harvest, even if you grow your own.

Regularly seen as something to do on a Sunday with the 'olds' the local show or village gathering is well worth a visit.

The day is often the culmination of many weeks of meetings by the organising committee and the highlight of the social calendar for many.

In the UK many such functions often have a theme which has been handed down for generations. It maybe an agricultural show, a County Show or maybe it celebrates produce such as Apples, Pears or Damsons.

One such show we attended recently was a local village show. To the city slicker it would seem rather quaint and a bit old fashioned, but that is just how it is. 

Cows and sheep, up until a few days earlier minding their own on the meadows and pasture, had been brought to the showfield to be paraded for a coloured rosette or maybe a trophy.  

Washed and brushed and smelling so clean that even the flies stayed away, the animals were trouped in front of fellow farmers awarded the position of Judges for the day.

Sheep

In the old days this would have been an excuse for the selling and buying of stock and the Judges decisions may have added the odd few shillings to the price but now, it is just for pride and a job well done.

It is interesting to walk the rows of sheep pens or wait by the animals and just listen and watch. 

From the farmers you get the conversations about machinery and feed prices.  These are often mixed with memories of the good old days and stories about the family. Memories and money ... the British farmers lot.

From the visitor comes a totally different view of the world, some arrive at the showfield, after parking their Chelsea tractors on real dirt, dressed as if they were going to a London restaurant or in to town shopping.  

It is always amazing watching the ladies avoiding the 'cow pancakes' and walking around on tiptoes over the soft ground trying not to snap off a heel.

Some visitors, who are 'rural aware' seem to think they need a uniform for coming to the country. Full length coats, in brown, Dubarry Field Boots, and the obligatory waxed hat seems to be the current vogue.  If warm, then a blue checked shirt, red tie and light tan trousers are the order of the day, topped off with a straw hat.

The fun for the locals comes when the city meets the village. Farmers know their beasts and visitors know the supermarkets, so when faced with a 500kg beast the shopper can learn much about the link between the grass munching dairy cow and the box of milk.

Bargains to be had

The experience of visiting a show is well worth it and along the way you may pick up a few good purchases. 

Most shows have trade stands selling locally produced goods. Don't dismiss the quality either, just because it is not packed like you would find in a major store.

The backroom producers are experts at getting good value.  Jars are usually recycled, the travelled miles are very much reduced and the tastes are fantastic, due to being made from fresh local produce to ancient family recipies.  

Fresh beetroot

One example of a bargain we made was that of fresh beetroot.  With the recent wet weather many root vegetables have rotted before they can be harvested. This is pushing up the prices in the supermarkets to around £1 per 300g of cooked beetroot.  

We picked up this bag, of ten fresh, or 4kg of beetroot for the same £1. 

Cooking beetroot

This is possibly one of the easiest items to cook.  Just lightly scrub and wash any earth off the flesh under a tap of slow running water. Leave on the root and about 2-3cm of stem (to avoid the beetroot bleeding and losing colour whilst cooking).

Pop them into a pan of water and put on the stove on a low heat and bring the water to a slow boil. I would keep a lid on the pan as the bubbling water can stain.

Peeling beetroot

Keep them cooking until the flesh, when gently skewered  with a knife is soft. This may take a few hours.

Take them off the heat and remove them from the pan placing them on a non staining plate.  Allow to cool.

You can now peel the outer skin away and chop of the top and bottom of the beetroot and it is ready to eat.

Sliced as part of a salad it is a fantastic source of vitamin C, fibre, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and folic acid.

Useful Links

Seasonal eating: beetroot
The plant's aphrodisiac qualities have been attributed to high levels of the mineral boron, which is thought to play a key role in the production of human sex hormones. So forget your oysters and your ginseng, beetroot is the true food of Aphrodite.

Beetroot juice 'can tame blood pressure'
A daily glass of beetroot juice can help to beat high blood pressure, scientists have claimed.
They found that drinking 500 millilitres of the juice led to significant reductions in blood pressure within hours.
The effect was traced to nitrate in the vegetable which reacted with bacteria in the mouth. This led to chemical changes which resulted in blood vessels dilating to increase blood flow.

Love Beetroot
Fresh beetroot is enjoying a revival as people are discovering there’s more to this great British vegetable than they thought – and we don’t mean the pickled kind. And it’s good for you too.

Gluten free chocolate beetroot muffins
The problem with gluten free muffins, I often find, is that they are dry. Not usually when fresh out of the oven, but often the next day, and almost always on day 2.
When considering this dessicated dilemma, I remembered seeing some TV program or other where they added beetroot for moisture

July brings warm sunny days and balmy nights, ideal for going for a walk and having a look to see what is ripening in your local hedgerows.

Wild apple trees can often be found alongside park embankments and hedges.  Quite simply the result of somebody's discarded apple core whilst out walking or thrown from car windows on roadside verges.

Wild apple found on park boundary

Apples do not grow true from seed, so a thrown away a Cox's orange Pippin core is unlikely to result in a tree bearing the same fruit, but will have been cross polinated with other species to form a different variety.
It is estimated that there are hundreds of these types of "wild" trees and the fruits are very edible.

We found our apple trees at the edge of a public park, maybe planted on purpose or they maybe just grew from a discarded core.

Wild apple ripening

When picking this type of fruit, always be aware that it may belong to somebody or be on their land, in which case you will need to obtain permission before taking the fruit. Take care not to pick fruit too close to a roadside, as apples will have been polluted by exhaust gasses from passing vehicles.

The correct way to pick an apple is to cup it gently with your hand and a slight twist should free it from the branch.  Do not pull the stalk and leaves from the branch as this is next year's fruiting spur.

Generally, "wild apples" are best used for cooking and making jellies.  One of the reasons for this is that the fruit can be quite acidic and sometimes too tart to be used as an eating apple.  They do lend themselves well to being included in crumbles, pies and jellies and are well worth looking out for.

Many larger or older gardens may also contain an apple tree or two, sometimes a wonderful heritage variety.  The owners of such trees very rarely use all the fruit themselves and may be willing to offer you some in return for a jar of the finished product or a small fee.

Using organic and biodynamic growing techniques the La Vialla Estate produces some beautiful wines which are one of the mainstays of our stock.

The Sangiovese
Is a 100% single Sangiovese grape red 2007 I.G.T.

Sangiovese wine

These healthy firm grapes were picked towards the end of September.  The favourable climatic conditions of 2007 favoured an early harvest and a high quality grape.

With a colour of deep ruby and dry to taste, tannins are evident but already harmonic and well structured.
Flavours of cherry and violet are prevalent.

Casa Conforto 2007 D.O.C

Made from 70% Trebbiano Toscano and 20% Malvasia del Chianti grapes.

Casa Conforto white wine

A straw yellow colour with delicate gold/green veining.  The intense and fruited fragrance speaks of white flowers, acacia and hawthorn with fruity hints of pear and grapefruit and a final scent of hazelnut.

The palate is fresh and round at the same time with a solid and balanced structure and the fruit well highlighted. A wine that 'on paper' is simple and rustic, but regularly offering a surprising pleasantness and solid aromatic richness.

A rare wine to find, produced in the same territories as Chianti but producers are few and small.

Torbolone 2007.  White table wine.

Made from 30% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon and 20% Vermentino.

The Torbolone vino do tavola

The Sangiovese with its natural acidity serves as the backbone and the Chardonnay guaruntees the "meat" necessary for the customary roundness.
A deep and luminous, straw yellow with soft gold hues.  The aromatic spectrum is wide and enveloping with evident pleasant notes of tropical fruit, united with inklings of apricot and orange peel.
The palate is weighted, well balanced with great character.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano, 2006 D.O.C.G

100% Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

vernaccia di San Gimignano

The most prestigious white wine of Tuscany, the first Italian wine to obtain the D.O.C and since 1993, one of the six Tuscan wines of D.O.C.G.  Produced exclusively in the hills of San Gimignano from the indigenous Vernaccia and San Gimignano grape that is clearly distinguished from other Italian "vernaccia".

Straw yellow with golden reflections it wraps the nose with complex and delicate perfumes, recalling flavours of yellow peach, flowers and citrus fruit, next to light nuances of honey.  The palate is smooth with with a thick structure, a good progression and avery long savoury finish.

Of course our Italian collection would not be complete without the famous Vin Santo del Chianti.
This 2004 version D.O.C is made from 60% Malvasia del Chianti and 40% Trebbiano Toscano grapes.

vin santo del chianti

The colour is a beautiful amber with golden highlights, the olfactory is intense, wide and enveloping corresponding perfectly with the taste.  The pleasant aromatic notes of dried fruit, date, apricot and acicia honey are recognisable with an intense palate, properly sweet with a good acidity, consistency and softness.

As the description of a wine can be a purely personal experience, we have used the producer's notes to try to bring you the true characters and flavours.

La Vialla only supply direct to the consumer, so you will not find these wines on your local wine merchants shelf.