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Wednesday 31 August 2022

Linden chocolate - does it work?

 So I've been hearing about this for a long time and usually I dismiss it as fantasy, but that's silly of me without the experience of having tried it, so here it goes..


200g of linden seeds, green and straight from the tree. Destalked and roasted for 40 mins until golden brown, no smell at this stage and having crunched one no noticible taste either..


Finely ground up to as fine a consistency as we could get, still no noticeable scent at this stage and certainly no chocolate flavour , then the experimentation began! Various quantities of oil, coconut oil, sugar, honey, and anything else we're added to the roasted powder all to no avail...



The closest we got was simply sunflower oil and powdered sugar which ended up giving a taste somewhat like well done sweet popcorn but definitely nothing at all like chocolate! I should have went with my first gut instinct! 


 


Sunday 14 August 2022

Cowberry (lingonberry)

 Not a particularly common edible found in Northern Ireland, as a matter of fact I've only found it once before, but this time while buzzard was away on a fishing expedition I came across quite a few of these tasty berries.


I'm sure we've all seen these berries associated with scandinavian countries but they are to be found in Ireland if you know where to look. 

They go by many different names but over here wild cranberry is probably the most common term used. They are sharp and tart tasting, absolutely delicious and if you gether enough make a delicious pudding or jam.


The folklore behind them is that long ago foxes used to have silver fur, but in times of starvation they would resort to eating these berries turning their fur red!

Pick the berries and enjoy, but be careful of the leaves, they are poisonous.