Hawthorn

[Thenihilist]

Took a donder doon by the beach yesterday and found loads of Hawthorn some are hoorin a hoachin with haws.

Whens the best time to pick them? Nobody's scranned them yet.

Also do i just dry the thorns out for making fishhooks or use em fresh?

Cheers

 

[Chasing Rainbows]

Aye the haws should be ripe from the start of October. Now until they rot or fall is good.

I'm not sure about the hooks, as I remember hawthorn hooks are bound for strength anyways. I could be wrong, but I don't think it matters whether they're dry or green.

 

[xylaria]

I picked a large basket of lovely soft haws last week. I stuffed up the kechup a was making with them, but it was turning out a lovely colour. I am goig to pick some more today.

 

[Toddy]

I like the fresh green leaves, but unless loaded with sugar I find the berries a real disappointment
I like haw wafers, but I find the leather just kind of blah. Added some rowans to give them a tang and that was better though.
I keep meaning to try the ketchup stuff.....do they act like the dates in the traditional recipes ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[xylaria]

I like the fresh green leaves, but unless loaded with sugar I find the berries a real disappointment
I like haw wafers, but I find the leather just kind of blah. Added some rowans to give them a tang and that was better though.
I keep meaning to try the ketchup stuff.....do they act like the dates in the traditional recipes ?

cheers,
Toddy

i have made some queer ketchups but never with dates as an ingreadant. The recipe is just haw pulp vinegar and sugar and what ever seasoning you add. Mine was a good red colour and tasted pretty much like thick vegatable ketchup until I was stupid enough to use metal sieve to remove the seeds.

 

[Toddy]

Tamarind and dates make a good basic thickness for brown sauce

You get better reds than I do from the haws; I mind you mentioning the dye. I get russets rather than reds from the ones near me and it's the same for the fruit leathers.

I had wondered about thickening up the sweet rowan and chilli dipping sauce into a kind of ketchup with the haws.
I still have rowans in the freezer, might give it a go when we've finished the last of the sauce

I finally bit the bullet and paid the cash for a stainless steel sieve, I was fed up with them looking like rusty messes and tainting acidic food. The plastic ones ended up so stained they were kind of repulsive and I couldn't get a real push through them when working stuff with the wooden spoon. SS seems to be working so far. I got it from Lakeland's.

cheers,
M

 

[xylaria]

The recipie said "drip through sieve or cloth overnight" . I wanted thick sauce, it was so thick it didnt drip, it just reacted with metal and went black. To red colour I got was from mashed uncooked haws been passed through a cheese cloth, I couldnt replicate a even colour, it was just streaky bright madder stains. If it was cooked or had too much water I just got dull pink. i tried rubbing the haws into cloth and did just looked like dirty cloth not anything that intentionally dyed. I am going to do the next lot through a cloth.