Saturday, November 08, 2008

Wolfberry aperitif

I picked my first wolfberries (getting the excrement of leaf beetles all over my fingers - yuck), washed them and put them in a jam jar with 35 degree proof alcohol. Since I eat yoghurt daily and it comes with sugar sachets that I don't need and save, I put 3 sachets of sugar in with it. I let it stand for about 2 weeks, and tried it tonight.

It's very drinkable! It tastes like something you might even buy! I'm enormously pleased about this because the fresh berries are frankly horrible.

I'm interested to see how the wolfberries fare over the winter. Their leaves are now almost entirely coated in a kind of white powder which I suppose is probably mould, although there are a lot of red berries too.

The sea buckthorn is also looking different. A lot of the leaves have dropped off, but there are buds all over the stems. I figure these are new leaves and not flowers, but I have no idea when they'll do anything. I was hoping to try the berries this year, but that doesn't look likely.

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