By Alice

Autumn is without question my favourite season. As ever, for me, it is all about the colours. Have I ever mentioned that Mr Whistlebare and I got married at the end of October and that my wedding dress was deep red and gold? (Apologies for the terrible photo of a photo!)

Given the above it is not a great surprise that I am almost mystically drawn to elderberries in all their dark red livery, chock a block full of antioxidants and many other goodies. This year berries were gathered, by pony power of course, from local hedgerows and their juice was steam extracted by this fantastic piece of kit.

While the elderberries were steaming I was in the garden raiding this wonderful apple tree. I don’t know the variety but it is prolific every year and fills our freezer with apple goodness.

Once the elderberry juice had been extracted then the apples went into the steamer and very soon we had lashings of both juices.

The juices were mixed in equal amounts and boiled up with unfeasible quantities of sugar until setting point was reached. Now we have a pantry full of delicious elderberry and apple jelly, perfect with cheese or rice pudding or added to hot water for a steaming hot drink that will see off lurking colds.