Hedgerow Gin

My dl and sil put some on order every year - and it is famous in some circles in Surrey and London, lol. Also make quince- excellent. I was taught by my dad from a very young age to forage for wild mushrooms and all the goodies nature offer us - and it's never left us. In fact our lunch included St Georges mushrooms found in our field at the back. Weirdest thin is that in our property in the East Midlands we had a big circle of them in the north-east corner of our garden - and here we have a bigger one in the north-east corner too!

From Wiki....

44 is a Happy Number

A happy number is defined by the following process. Starting with any positive integer, replace the number by the sum of the squares of its digits, and repeat the process until the number equals 1 (where it will stay), or it loops endlessly in a cycle which does not include 1. Those numbers for which this process ends in 1 are happy numbers, while those that do not end in 1 are unhappy numbers (or sad numbers[1]).



I don't understand that sober, much less after a glass of the liqueur. Still, if drinking it makes you happy, they must be right.

Ooh, I think it's all part of notso's witchcraft, gracesmum! Best not to ask.

Sounds heavenly!
What is the significance of the 44 cuts? It sounds like NHS vodka

I can feel a party coming on.

We may need more.....!

Two batches I think.......

notso I am coming to visit in 44 days get a batch on

Me too! Snifter on June 30th it is then.

Will do!

Start it tomorrow and it'll be ready on 30th June nag.

Three of my very favourite things, Notsogrand! Sounds absolutely delicious....

I strained and blitzed the blackberries left over from making blackberry vodka, and poured over ice cream at Christmas a family gathering. Very lovely

Coffee & Orange Liqueur is a favourite. Make 44 cuts in a very large orange, put a coffee bean in each cut and place in a jar. Add 44 tsp of white sugar and half a bottle of vodka and secure lid of jar. Stir daily for 44 days. Strain, but do not squeeze the orange. Add 1 tsp glycerine. (From experience, I'd say making only one batch at a time is pointless )

You have to be careful if you are using blackberries and strain the liquor off after about 8-10 weeks. Any longer and there is a danger that it will taste "woody".

The liqueur you get from the rumtoph fruit is delicious but very sweet. I have made sloe gin for a few years now - the longer you can leave it all before straining the fruit off etc the better it is. If you rinse the sloes and pop them into the freezer for a couple of days the skins crack so you do not need to do all the pricking with a fork.

Here's something to do with horrible red wine:
Soak prunes in it in a jam jar. Put at back of cupboard and forget about them for a while. They have to be proper prunes with the stone in otherwise they sort of disintegrate.
Rises the humble prune to status of treat.

Someone gave me a large rumtoft pot some years ago, when we lived abroad; I think it was an unwanted gift they wanted to get rid of! I gave it a go, but even with spiritous liquors being a ridiculously low price in our duty-free Forces NAAFI shop, it was a rather expensive exercise. Basically, you use any ripe soft fruit (strawberries, raspberries, peaches, etc) in season, layer it up with its weight in sugar, and top up with rum or brandy! You keep layering it up, as and when you get hold of the fruit until you get to the top, basically. Then you leave it to mature (if you have the will power), and then eat the rum soaked fruit with lots of cream (and go and lie down in a darkened room for a week!) DH thought it was a scandalous way to use good rum. I thought it was a wonderful way to get a monumental hangover! When we came home to UK, I gave it to a charity shop!

Yip! Hic!

Am I detecting a common thread here? [hic emoticon]

Coffee vodka is delicious!

No way limoncello! It's horrible!

Or lemonchello vodka, Christmas pudding vodka, the choice is endless but you could be legless

jeni we made sloe gin and Blackberry vodka for Christmas its was very nice

Now that does sound good! Recipe please