Forget traffic jams and paper jams - make hedgerow jams

As I said last week, everything seems to be coming in a bit early this year and many blackberries have already ripened and gone over. The trees are absolutely loaded with acorns and rowan berries and apple tree branches are being weighed down almost to the ground with all the fruit they're bearing. It's going to be a good wild harvest this year. 

What should you look out for? 

Well, the elderberries are just ripening now. Admittedly, the flowers are the tastiest part of the tree and make amazing wine, 'champagne', cordials and fritters (dipped in a light batter and deep fried - yum!) but they're gone now. The berries aren't quite as nice but they do make a good country wine and are a great flavour to add to a hedgerow jam or jelly. Do note, however, that they do contain a mild toxin so don't eat too many uncooked berries as they can cause tummy upsets. Cooking kills the toxins. They're easy to identify as they grow in clusters at the end of a twig and they don't really look like anything else. But, if in doubt, check the leaves - they are blade-like with a slightly serrated edge and they grow in pairs with a single leaf at the end of each set.

But, as always, if you're not 100% sure of your identification don't eat it.   

The haws will soon be ripe too. These are the fruit (actually pomes rather than berries) of the hawthorn tree and they're a member of the apple family. Once the berries are deep red and ripe they taste of apple and have a bread-like texture (for some reason, when I was a boy, people called them bread and cheese). Again, they are easy to identify as each berry has a dark coloured dimple at the tip which is surrounded by a five pointed star-shaped collar. They each contain a single seed. Another great addition to jam, and you can use them to make a tasty syrup or to flavour brandy.

Sloes are starting to appear among the spiky blackthorn hedges. As they get ripe, they go a beautiful dusty blue/purple colour. Tradition says you shouldn't pick them until they've 'bletted' i.e. the first frosts have split their skins and taken away some of their bitterness. But they ripen so early these days that the birds will have had them all long before the frosts arrive. My advice is to pick them when they're big and plump and freeze them to blet them. Then you can add them to your hedgerow jam or, as I do, use them to make sloe gin. It couldn't be easier - just split or prick the skin of each sloe and add a good handful to your gin. Over the course of a few days, the gin will turn a beautiful rich red. Then strain it into another bottle and enjoy. It's especially nice warmed - just the thing when you've come home after a long cold walk.

Rosehips contain more Vitamin C than oranges and make a tasty syrup. Collect about 1kg, wash them and roughly chop them. Put into a saucepan with 1.4l of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15-10mins then strain them through a muslin or tea towel several times to remove the pulp, seeds and the irritating itchy hairs (did you put the hairy seeds down people's backs as itching powder when you were a kid?). Return the liquid to a clean pan and add sugar - around 60g for every 100ml of juice. Heat it until the sugar as dissolved and then decant into bottles. Rosehip syrup is delicious on porridge, ice cream, yoghurt, mixed with fizzy water as a cordial, or with vodka as a mixer.

Also be on the lookout for wild damsons and crab apples (a useful source of pectin to set jams). I'm also increasingly finding escapees from people's gardens - just recently I've found feral raspberries, cherries and redcurrants growing wild. 

You can't beat a delicious apple and blackberry crumble (with custard, of course) and bramble jelly is one of my favourite jams. But I always like to make the most of the wild Autumn harvest with a fantastic hedgerow jelly using blackberries, rowan berries, damsons, haws and sloes. It's a delicious sweet and jammy treat that sees me through the Winter and Spring. In fact, I usually forage so many fruits and berries during late Summer and Autumn that I have enough to make jam for the whole of the following year, plus some syrups and cordials.

It's organic, the only preservative is sugar, and it's free!