Yesterday I told you about Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), and my desire to make it into a jelly.
Well last night I finished the recipe.
As the jars where cooling down, I wondered whether I would simply end up with a syrup rather than a jelly.
Then this morning when I pottered into the kitchen, it was to my delight that said jelly had not only set, but it was also a delightful pinkish colour.
Slicing off a square piece of rye bread, and popping it into my square toaster, I waited for it to ‘toast’, while at the same time shaving off lashings of delicious creamy butter and prodding the opened jar of Guelder rose jelly.
Boing, boing… prod… boing…
It had certainly seemed to set well.
As an aside, when it comes to dairy products I always buy the best quality I can afford, and always organic.
Someone once said that a block of non-organic butter is the equivalent of eating 3 months worth of pesticide sprayed vegetables.
That’s most probably a wee bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly puts the point over in quite a graphic way.
A recent article in Prevention magazine states “… the fat in dairy products poses a high risk for contamination by pesticides. Animals concentrate pesticides and chemicals in their milk and meat. Growth hormones and antibiotics are also serious concerns and are invariably found in commercial milk, cheese, and butter.”
=== Sound of toaster popping up ===
As I slathered the butter onto the toast, and smeared the first of the jelly on top. I paused for a moment, smelling the aroma rising from this exquisite combination.
Then… crunch.
“Mmmppfffpphhh… gwoood.” I muttered.
As you can hopefully tell, I was having a bit of a ‘gluttony moment’.
Boy was that one fine piece of toast, and everything else aside it was the heavenly taste of the Guelder rose jelly that made the experience quite simply divine!
I don’t normally big up my recipes, but this one is now in my Top 3 of Robin’s favourites… I hope you’ll agree to.
You can grab the Guelder rose recipe here.
Happy foraging, and I hope you manage to find some Guelder locally, because it will be well worth your time.