Garden to Table #02 Berrie / 庭から食卓へ #02 ベリー

in Food & Culture4 days ago

Today, the heat has eased a little, but it's still summer in Germany—and it means berry season! We've already been harvesting strawberries and redcurrants from the balcony, but the berries growing directly in the garden soil are definitely more prolific.

The raspberry bush left behind by the previous tenant has quietly grown taller than me, and its fruit has started turning red. At first, I thought it was a blackberry bush, so when I realized it was raspberries, I was thrilled! Blackberries grow almost everywhere in my region—well, maybe not everywhere, but they're common enough that you can even find them by the roadside. That’s why I was especially happy to have the slightly rarer raspberries in my garden.

AEA23786-A5C8-419D-9FE3-9C95E5D7D5B4_1_201_a.jpeg

As the neighbor had some redcurrants spilling over into my side, I took some. I decided to turn them into jam. They looked just like jewels, so I spent a moment admiring them before cooking.

58357159-00E1-49CA-9309-4F18E4F384EC_1_201_a.jpeg

The berries weighed around 130 grams. I added about 40% sugar, plus a slice’s worth of lemon juice to help it thicken, then simmered everything for about 10 minutes.

The result? A hot, fresh jam—perfect spooned over ice cream. So delicious 🍨

E0CD9E8B-090A-4C91-B207-11F2AE10EE81_1_102_o.jpeg

Now I’ve got a few days' worth of jam—what shall I pair it with? The classic toast + butter + jam combo? Yogurt and jam? Cheesecake with jam on top? Just thinking about it makes me smile.

Blackberry season is right around the corner too, so I’m looking forward to harvesting more berries from the garden and enjoying our annual berry hunts!

Have a nice start of the week, everyone ☺️


今日は比較的暑さが落ち着いていますが、ドイツも夏、ベリーのシーズンです。これまでもバルコニーでいちごやヨハネスベリーが取れていましたが、やっぱり庭の地植えのベリーはモリモリなりますね。

以前の借主のラズベリーがいつの間にか私の背丈を超えて、実が赤くなり始めました。最初はブラックベリーだと思っていたら、ラズベリーで、やったー!と。というのもブラックベリーはそこらじゅうに・・・とまでは言わないものの、あちこちに生えていて路上でもゲットできるので、ちょっとレアなラズベリーがうれしいのでした。

AEA23786-A5C8-419D-9FE3-9C95E5D7D5B4_1_201_a.jpeg

お隣さんからはみ出ていたヨハネスベリーをいただいて、ジャムにすることに。なんというかもう宝石のようで、調理前にしばし眺めていたのでした。

58357159-00E1-49CA-9309-4F18E4F384EC_1_201_a.jpeg

ベリーの量を測ってみると130gほど。30-40%ほど砂糖を加えて、とろみが出るようにレモン汁をレモン一切れ分加えて、10分ほど火にかけてできあがり。そしてまだ熱々のジャムをアイスにかけて、ああおいしい。

E0CD9E8B-090A-4C91-B207-11F2AE10EE81_1_102_o.jpeg

向こう数日分のジャムができたのでどうやって楽しもうかな。定番のトースト+バター+ジャム、ヨーグルト+ジャム、チーズケーキとジャム・・・あれこれ考えるとニヤついてしまいます。

これからブラックベリーのシーズンもくるので、しばらくベリーの収穫と、毎年恒例のベリーハントも楽しもうと思います!

Sort:  

Redcurrants and raspberries, two of my favourites.
Warm over ice-cream sounds wonderful.
I mainly have soft fruits with meringue and yoghurt with nuts or seeds on top. You can buy packets of individual meringue nests - perfect.

It's amazing going from staring at plans and willing them to grow to, suddenly, lots of bounty!

Warm over ice-cream sounds wonderful.

I got inspiration from a restaurant that served warm plum compote on vanilla ice cream. It was one of the best desserts I had in my life. I will do it when plum season comes.

With meringue is a nice idea! I remember my good old Berlin days around 10 years ago. One of my cooking friends are into Pavlova. Is it like this?

The image is from [Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%91%E3%83%B4%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A1_(%E3%82%B1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AD)#/media/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Pavlova_garnished_with_cream_and_strawberries.jpg)

So many tasty things are in season! I need few stomachs ... like a cow ?? 🐄 😁

yes, like that, but you can buy individual meringues in packets of eight. I can just take the right number for the number of people eating. Cooked plums are one of my favourite fruits. A childhood favourite was plum pie, made by my aunt next door, with only a thick top crust of very short pastry (almost like shortbread) held up by a little china bird in the middle of the pie so that it didn't sag into the fruit. The bottom of the pastry would be like a dumpling where it was moist, but the middle was melt in the mouth and the top crisp! Perfect!

We would mostly have it with thin cream - we call it single cream here, you can pour it.

I envied you have the small ones but there are in Germany too! It’s called Makronen (like macaron but it looks more like meringue … confusing name!) I try to get some to try your England style 😊