Gaultheria berries, some are good to eat

Gaultheria berries with yogurt

Some G. mucronata berries are quite tasty with some home made yogurt and brown sugar! Or enjoy them as a nice treat when in the garden. It is great to be able to pick a handful of berries and munch them while taking a break from weeding in the garden.

The small, narrow, dark evergreen foliage is densely packed along the stems, each little leaf ending with a short spine.  Masses of small white nodding flowers are produced in May, creating a cloud of soft white over the branches. In winter plump berries replace flowers, decorating pots and borders.

The berries remain on the plant for such a long time, already on show in September they will be looking good right through winter until late spring. Like marbles, they clutter the stems, the colour range from white to mulberry-purple. Named cultivars are sometimes offered for sale but more usually they are just sold incorrectly labelled as pernettya.

Gaultheria mucronata -red

The flowers of P. mucronata are dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers are borne on different plants. This is important to know if you expect to have berries on your plants.

One male plant should be sufficient for a group of  about 8 female plants. A low growing male cultivar called ‘Thymifolia’ is a good choice as a pollinator especially where a neater growth habit is favoured. There is a hermaphrodite plant which produces bright carmine-red berries called ‘Bell’s Seedling’ which is an Irish cultivar. One solitary plant can produce berries without the need for the company of a pollinator.

The edibility of Gaultheria mucronata berries is a subject clouded in confusion, with some texts stating that all members of the genus have poisonous berries.  I have eaten them, enjoyed them, and survived!

It is known that South American natives have valued the berries for their taste and health benefits.  The texture of the flesh is somewhat watery and the skin dryish, but it is not unpleasant at all. Recently I was tasting some of the berries in our garden, a friend was with me and we noticed that berries from one bush in particular had a far stronger and better taste than the others, while another had no taste at all. Selection of individuals for their flavour is something that could be worked on. What is quite amazing is how long the fruits stay and remain good quality onthe plants, from autumn until now in March.

Gaultheria mucronata - deep pink

Let the fruit ripen well so that the flesh is soft when gently squeezed. Be careful though, plants offered for sale are usually grown as ornamentals and not grown as fruit plants. Due to this fact there may be insecticides incorporated with the compost. Whether or not the plants have been treated with pesticides should be confirmed first before tasting the berries.

G. mucronata which hails from Chile and Argentina, was relatively unknown to gardeners from its introduction in the 1830s until plants raised by the Co. Down nurseryman T.Davis of Hillsborough were exhibited in London in 1882 and attracted attention. He showed plants which he had raised and selected over the previous 30 years. Sadly most of these cultivars are probably lost to gardeners of today but there are many others to choose from. They require acid soil, they are ideal for ground cover or can make attractive outdoor pot plants.

This text is an extract from an article (edible ornamental berries)  in the current issue of Organic Matters, the magazine of IOFGA (Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association) available in news agents countrywide.

Gaultheria mucronata -white

“In The Garden With Ciaran Burke” weekly radio feature in CRC FM

 

Ciaran Burke in the CRC FM Studio

Each week I join Johnny Oosten on CRC Fm in Castlebar Co. Mayo to chat about gardening, plants and growing your own food. This week we were talking about gorse bushes, Ulex europeaus, flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum and growing peaches. I also did a quick demonstration for Johnny of making a pot from a sheet of neswpaper. You can listen live each week at about 12.05pm on Fridays online at CRCFM

listen to the podcast by clicking the link below:

In the Garden With Ciaran Burke No.11

Information about growing peaches on The Garden School Website

More about gorse and flowering currants on my other BLOG

Peach Blossom

Sea buckthorn berries make good jam!

Top Fruit, Soft Fruit and Strange Fruit

I was getting ready to do a talk to the North Mayo Garden Club today, and as I was going through my presentation I remembered that I had a few pots of delicious apple and sea buckthorn jam left. Sea buckthorn berries are a super health food; one small berry can have a Vitamin C content equal to that of six oranges, packed with atioxidants and a number of omega oils, it is a wonder fruit. It is also a wondeful tasting berry. Eaten straight from the bush it may be a bit sharp for many peoples’ tastes, but blended with juices or as an ingredient in cooking it is delicious, unique and colourful.

Sea Buckthorn berries - Hippophae rhamnoides

The first of our bushes that we planted gave us a good crop this year, or to be more specific the female plant cropped well. We originally planted two varieties, Rudolph, a male to pollinate, and Raisa a female to fruit, both purchased in Finland while on holidays three years ago. Last year we had a few berries but this year we have lots in the freezer and enough to make jam. We have since planted five more female varieties, we are sure Rudolph will be up to the job, and are looking forward to great crops in the coming years.

To make the flavour of this year’s berries go further, I  mixed the berries with apple to make jam. It turned out great, it is one of my favourite jams, sea buckthorns are one of my favourite berries. Below is the recipe that I used for the jam. I am going to take  a jar with me to my talk tonight so that people can have a taste of sea buckthorn, for most it will probably be their first time. Perhaps some gardeners might be inspired to grow these great plants.

Apple and Sea Buckthorn Jam

Jar of home made Apple and Sea buckthorn Jam

900ml of sea buckthorn berries

3 litres of peeled and chopped desert apples

1 Kg of sugar

300 ml of water

1. Cook the berries, water and apples over a low heat for about fifteen minutes or until the apple is soft.

2. Slowly add the sugar, stirring well to ensure the fruit dissolves.

3. Turn heat up and cook the jam for about fifteen or twenty minutes.

4. Spoon the jam into sterilized glass jars and tighten lids immediately. (Wash used jam jars with soapy water, then dry off and place in cold oven an heat to 100 degrees celcius).

North Mayo Garden Club, talk tonight Tuesday 8th of November- Top Fruit, Soft Fruit and Strange Fruit- a talk by Ciaran Burke. Venue Merry Monk, Killala Road, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Ireland. 8 pm.

Talk will also be given to Claregalway  GIY on Wednesday 23rd November at Arches Hotel, Claregalway, Co. Galway at 8 pm.

Cashel House- The Final Day of the Course

It was raining during the night. When we woke, Hanna pulled back the curtains, the sun light came flooding into the room. Through the branches of the tress in the secret garden it created twisted silhouettes and golden rays. We had just had an excellent night sleep, the quiet of Cashel Bay wraps your sleep in calm. We strolled outside onto the front lawn, the grass was moist and sparkling. The white tulips looked a little dishevelled, as if they had had a hard night, but still beautiful in their white petal gowns.

EMBOTHRIUM COCCINEUM FLOWER

We walked to the Secret Garden, it was an orchard one hundred years ago. A previous owner had a greater desire for botanical curiosity than for home grown apples and now the low walled garden is a small woodland comprised of exotic specimens. We walked along the path, passing floriferous camellias, under the great Chilean flame tree, Embothrium coccineum, which in May is a blaze of red flowers. A great white Japanese cherry flowers above a rustic wooden bench. The big leaves of the American skunk cabbage, Lysichiton americanum, are growing in the wet, still in the infancy of spring they have not yet reached their dramatic summer size. Their yellow spathe flowers fill the air around the pond with a heavy odour. Further along the  lady’s matle, Alchemilla mollis, lies at the path side still dressed with last nights rain drops. We stop to wonder at the size and beauty of the huge Magnolia x soulangeana, the biggest I have ever seen. From Mary’s Garden you can see it mingle with and rise above other trees. We walk the upper path and see the last flowers and big paddle shaped leaves of Rhododendron macabeanum. We admire the large trunks of the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, still undressed, the branches not yet concealed with its unusual shaped leaves nor decorated with yellow tulip-like flowers, not till July will the flowers appear. Just before we exit the garden we have to bow as we pass under a stretched out limb of Persian ironwood, Parrotia persica. Another naked tree, the leaves starting to unfurl. The bareness reveals a wonderful structure of twisted and spreading branches. Soon they will be covered in green foliage that will burn red and orange in autumn.

MAGNOLIA X SOULANGEANA PLANT IN SECRET GARDEN

There is nothing like a walk under botanical wonders to give me an appetite, so in we went for breakfast. After eating I set up for the day’s class. We continued the presentation on vegetable gardening. Some people had questions about some of the plants that we had seen on our walks in the garden. I showed them pictures of the plants, someone was curious about how the Embothrium flowers would look in May. Before the lunch we took a short walk through the gardens and I answered the group’s garden questions, there were many!

LUNCH MENU

LAMB FOR LUNCH

SPINACH ROULADE

We sat in the bar which over looks the garden. In comfortable laid back seats we ordered lunch. Once more we were spoilt for choice and the food as always was excellent. I had the lamb for main course while Hanna had the spinach roulade. Once we all had finished our dessert and coffee, we went back outside into the sunshine and walked up through the vegetable garden, pausing on the way to explain the origins of the Irish yew, Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’ Our class had been joined by two American guests staying at the hotel, gardeners from Washington D.C. When reaching the vegetable garden I demonstrated pruning, and then we pruned one of the apple trees. I explained the reasons and the method, demonstrating how it was done. The everybody had a go, each member of the party also pruning some branches of the apple trees.

When the day and the course was over we gathered for farewell tea and scones in the drawing room. I had enjoyed the weekend, talking about plants and gardening fills me with enthusiasm. Especially when I meet other people with an eagerness to learn. The weekends of our Cashel House Hotel courses always fly so fast. Its not just the fun of doing the course, the beautiful gardens and the delicious food. We feel that we always make new friends and as somebody from the garden class said, Cashel House is perfect for a gardening course; the garden, the company, the food and the atmosphere.

JAPANESE CHERRY FLOWERING OVER RUSTIC WOODEN SEAT

See more information about Cashel House Hotel courses with Ciaran

Book a Course at Cashel House Hotel

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Bergamots

Lovely Bergamots and limes

“Can I photograph your bergamots?” I innocently enquired. “I have never been asked that before” the lady replied. Her husband enquired if I wanted to photograph his, I declined. It was all quite innocent, I was asking the friendly couple who run Kinnedan Organic Farm stall if I could photograph their strange and bitter sweet fruit.

Kinnedan Organic Farm stall at Boyle Farmers' market

It looks a bit like a lemon, but its not. It has segments like a grapefruit, but its small and yellow. It is a citrus fruit, Citrus bergamia, and its best known use is for flavouring Earl Grey tea.It is often confused with the herb bergamont which is Monarda didyma, an unrelated herbaceous perennial plant. My first taste of bergamot was in Italy, where it is known as chinoto. A soft drink is sold using the name Chinoto, it looks like cola but has a totally different taste, not as sweet, more aromatic. That was many years ago.

Bergamot Fruit cut in half with grated rind

My more recent encounter with bergamot fruit was at Kinnedan Organic farm stall at the Origin farmers market in Bolye, Co. Roscommon. In a basket the plump yellow fruits shared the space with ripe green limes. I mistook them for lemons but once you smell them you are left in in no doubt that this is something different. Citrus-ey and aromatic, the oily tanginess fills your nostrils, you know this is going to be something special.

Most of the world’s bergamot production seems to take place in Reggio-Calabria in the south of Italy, although they are also grown in Ivory Coast. The trees can grow up to 3 metres and have a bossom typical of citrus, white and fragrant. Bergamot fruits are mostly available in winter.

When I got home my mind was racing, my tummy was rumbling and mouth was watering. The possibilities were endless. First thing I tried was chicken marinated in bergamot juice, grated rind with chili and salt. Thinly sliced chicken breast left to marinade for about twenty minutes then fried and served with stir fried vegetables and brown basmati rice (all organic). It was simply delicious.

After having a savory dish I wanted to have something sweet, so I made both lime curd and bergamot curd. Both are equally delicious, super spread on fresh brown spelt bread or try adding some to natural yogurt, delish!

BERGAMOT CURD

(substitute limes for bergamots for lime curd)

Ingredients:

320g Organic Raw Cane Sugar

Juice of 2 Bergamot (or lime) fruit

2 table Spoons of Bergamot (or lime) grated rind

4 eggs

230gm unsalted butter

Method:

1. Wash jam jars, dry well and place in cold oven. Heat to 100 degrees Celcius.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until mixture smooth
3. Add the bergamot rind and juice.
4. Transfer to sauce pan and heat the mixture on medium setting, stirring constantly until mixture is thick, about 7 – 10 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter, a small amount at a time.
6. Transfer to sterilized jars and cover with lids straight away.

Store the curd in a cool place or refrigerate, use within 3 weeks.

Make sure to clean outside of jars with a clean damp cloth and apply labels with date.

Ingredients for making curd

Adding the butter, a little at a time, stirring constantly

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