Sue Veed
Veteran
...ain't gonna happen this year - sodding squirrels have stolen every fruit from my new little tree, more than 30 of them.
Medlar Jelly...
- Thread starter Sue Veed
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...ain't gonna happen this year - sodding squirrels have stolen every fruit from my new little tree, more than 30 of them.
Oh dear! The pigeons got all my cherries so I empathise.
toddhicks209
Über Member
Maybe you all need to use pesticide.
Sue Veed
Veteran
Pesticide is not really an option - like Trick or Treat and Black Friday, grey (gray?) squirrels are one of those unfortunate imports from the USA that it's proving impossible to eradicate. Next year I'll experiment with several possible deterrents, such as hot chilli paste.
Anyhow, all was not quite lost, as I found a handful of the dog's backside shaped fuits by scrunting around in the undergrowth, and using my near supernatural powers of squirrel mind reading, dug up four more from various hiding places. Having stored these until most were well bletted, I cut them in pieces and boiled them up for about an hour with half an apple (chopped) and about a tablespoonful of lemon juice, to provide pectin. I strained the juice, put it back in the pan with a couple of ounces of white sugar, boiled it for a few minutes and filled a small jar. The result was a beautiful clear dark amber...........liquid. Damn! More pectin needed! Local supermarkets had no powdered pectin, just small overpriced bottles of Certo, which contains about 3% pectin plus a load of other stuff I really don't want, and needs to be used within 14 days of opening. Not much use to me, then - I don't have access to a cheap glut of strawberries to use up the rest of the bottle!
Plan B, considerably cheaper and more effective, was to squeeze half a lemon into a pan, plus the pips and chopped skin, add the chopped skin of a satsuma and a chopped small apple, add water and boil for the best part of an hour, let it cool to hand hot and squeeze through a clean handkerchief (for some unaccountable reason I don't have a jelly bag). Quite possibly too much pectin, but boiling this up with the amber liquid and another ounce or so of sugar for luck did the job - still dark amber, definitely not clear, but most certainly set. It'll probably need to be cut out, rather than spooned out, a bit like membrillo.
Anyhow, all was not quite lost, as I found a handful of the dog's backside shaped fuits by scrunting around in the undergrowth, and using my near supernatural powers of squirrel mind reading, dug up four more from various hiding places. Having stored these until most were well bletted, I cut them in pieces and boiled them up for about an hour with half an apple (chopped) and about a tablespoonful of lemon juice, to provide pectin. I strained the juice, put it back in the pan with a couple of ounces of white sugar, boiled it for a few minutes and filled a small jar. The result was a beautiful clear dark amber...........liquid. Damn! More pectin needed! Local supermarkets had no powdered pectin, just small overpriced bottles of Certo, which contains about 3% pectin plus a load of other stuff I really don't want, and needs to be used within 14 days of opening. Not much use to me, then - I don't have access to a cheap glut of strawberries to use up the rest of the bottle!
Plan B, considerably cheaper and more effective, was to squeeze half a lemon into a pan, plus the pips and chopped skin, add the chopped skin of a satsuma and a chopped small apple, add water and boil for the best part of an hour, let it cool to hand hot and squeeze through a clean handkerchief (for some unaccountable reason I don't have a jelly bag). Quite possibly too much pectin, but boiling this up with the amber liquid and another ounce or so of sugar for luck did the job - still dark amber, definitely not clear, but most certainly set. It'll probably need to be cut out, rather than spooned out, a bit like membrillo.
Elawin
Guru
.... and the mutt got all my hazelnuts up to about 5 ft off the ground, and the squirrels got the rest (well, all except for a couple of handfuls of them)
so I know how you feel too.@ Sue Veed I use jam sugar (has pectin in it), or a mix of ordinary sugar and jam sugar.
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MrsDangermouse
Guru
I Feel your pain....we were looking forward to the very first harvest from our pear trees this year...until the pesky squirrels nabbed all the fruit
What deterrents did you find? I read somewhere about making a paste from cayenne pepper but I didn't save the link.