Winterage

“I keep thinking that I feel a bit as though I hadn’t finished with summer yet, that winter came too early. There were a few things with green vegetables that I hadn’t had enough time to figure out, and now it was going to be at least six months before I would be able to work with them again.”

Magnus Nilsson Fäviken




The bright harvest moon has waned and given way to a darker sky, and those of us who prepare a winter store cupboard do so with a measurement of regret as much as one of satisfaction. We too haven’t finished with summer. All we can do now is bottle what’s left of it.

But, perhaps we should refigure our emotions about the end of summer. Next weekend an unusual celebration of the onset of winter takes place in The Burren. It’s the celebration of a “transhumance” - a seasonal movement of livestock between summer and winter pastures. Normally this is celebrated in the spring, with the movement of cattle to summer pastures. But in the Burren, it is a Winterage movement that has been practiced for thousands of years. This year they are turning it into a Festival.

“It is thought that Burren farmers initially adopted this practice in response to the shortage of water in summertime, only to find that the warmth of the limestone and the ample grazing on the rocky winter pastures made the Burren an ideal, low-cost ‘outwintering’ environment for their stock. Winter grazing by cattle, at a time when most flowers are dormant, enables the Burren’s renowned complement of flowers and insects to flourish unhindered in summer. Winter grazing is also critically important to the conservation of the extraordinary array of monuments built by farmers in the past, as it slows down the encroachment of damaging scrub.”

Meanwhile I have discovered a market garden in our local village. Mount Corrin Market Garden is now operated by renaissance man Walter Ryan-Purcell, who is on a mission to provide fabulous vegetables at a reasonable cost to the local community. In the couple of weeks since we heard about it we have bought aubergines, cucumbers, the last of the tomatoes, fennel, squash, white turnip, carrots, rocket and peppers. And quite a few herbs, from which we’ve made pestos, pickles and chutneys. Two that really worked for us were a simple cucumber pickle recipe from the new Fäviken book, and an aubergine pickle that we can hardly wait to try in a month.

The two events have diminished any sense of regret I have over the passing of the season. It is time to celebrate the harvest and store and renew. Before we know it the little green leaves of wild garlic will be popping up and the whole shebang will start again.


Mount Corrin Market Garden produce is available in Centra Supermarket in Schull.

Pickled Aubergine

1kg aubergines, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons sea salt
500ml white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
50ml olive oil
2 chillies, sliced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 cloves of garlic

Place the sliced aubergines in a colander and sprinkle with the salt. Leave for 30 minutes, then pat dry with a paper towel, and discard the juices.

Bring the vinegar and sugar to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the aubergines and simmer for about 5 minutes. Spoon out the aubergines into a bowl, reserving the liquid. Toss the aubergines with the garlic, chillies, oregano and olive oil. Pack into sterilized jars. Tap the jars onto the worktop to release air, and then fill the jars with the reserved cooking liquid, adding as much as you need to fill.

Pickled Cucumber

I've been using white malt vinegar recently for Japanese sauces. That's right - the stuff you normally use for cleaning. It's has a fresh taste and is suitable for things that cider vinegar or wine vinegar would be too rich. I was interested to read Magnus Nilsson saying that the vinegar he uses is a white alcohol vinegar, that is unique to Scandinavia. Our white malt will just have to do here.

This is Nilsson's simple recipe for pressgurka – quick-pickled cucumber.

"Sprinkle 40g salt over 1kg of sliced cucumber and mix carefully with your hands, taking care not to damage the slices. Place the salted slices in a sieve and allow the salt to draw the water out of the cucumber by osmosis. Allow the water to drain away.

"After an hour or so the cucumbers will look almost as if they have been cooked and they will have lost a considerable amount of water. Now rinse away any salt that hasn't yet dissolved and place the cucumber in a ceramic bowl. Cover with 1 litre of pickling syrup [made from 1 part white vinegar; 2 parts sugar; 3 parts water]. The osmotic pressure will now work in the other direction, since the water content is lower inside the cucumber than in the syrup. This will allow the syrup to quickly soak into the cucumber, preserving it effectively. You will see after about one hour how the cucumber will have already recovered its volume.

"Soft vegetables like cucumbers can be eaten the same day but will not keep as long as harder vegetables such as beetroots and carrots: these will take longer to process but will keep for years."

http://www.burrenwinterage.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faviken-Magnus-Nilsson/dp/0714864706/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350564715&sr=1-1