Waterford is where it`s all happening Sept15 and 16, where the .giygathering2012 is on, it looks like the place to be. I will be leading two forage walks @ 11am each day and will have an information stall in the main hub each afternoon. link www.giyireland.com/pages/giy.gathering2012
So it`s last day of August and feeling like autumn. we went walking and mushrooming yesterday and found Ceps, Decievers, Saffron milk cap, I have been collecting delectible Chantarelles since July 1st, kept a few for drying, mostly just feasted on them.I have been finding a lot of Charcoal burners but it is still very wet and I don`t think the mushroom harvest will be as good as last year when on Sept1st I had collected over 17kgs of ceps, not all in one day. By the time the season finished I had a tally of over 80kg and stopped counting!!
There are still a few late Meadowsweet blossoms about for making cordial or , as my friend Amile does, freezing in cubes. She uses them as pain relief for kids as meadowsweet con tains salacilic acid and so are natural painrelief.
We had a lot of fun with various recipies using Elderflower blossom and the delight remains very popular, but a syllabub was a big hit and easy. Ice-cream also great, but eat it soon.
I met Alex again recently, he loves making wines and is a perfectionist, he gave me a bottle of his Oak leaf wine which was really lovely smooth and mellow, hard to believe it was only made last Oct. I will ask for recipe and will pass it on if i get it.
Speaking of booze, we broke out the Beech leaf noyeau for our last party, it was in bottle since about jun1st and was just lovely, i managed to save a few bottles for later.
Of course this is berry season and the Rowan or Mountain ash is ready for harvest, birds are feasting on it here. Blackberries looking good too, if you can spare any from jam-making they make a really good wine.
