summertime

[asakiyume]

Today I didn't have to go to work, so I picked red currants. My bushes are full, bowed down.

branch bowed down


underneath


And the berries glow.


There was life everywhere all around while I was picking--tiny life, little spiders, a daddy longlegs, tiny caterpillars, mother mosquitoes hoping I had a meal for them, and also bigger life, orioles singing up high in trees, invisible, and robins and bluejays, and next door, the neighbors' grandkids, splashing in a pool, and under my feet and knees as I alternately squat and kneel, there's soft green moss, and it's so gloriously, softly hot--heat woven on moisture and full of scents--the grass, the flowers, the dirt, my shampoo, my deodorant, a whiff of the laundry detergent--the humid heat holds these scents. (It's the time of year that edible chestnuts are in bloom--oh the scent of those as you pass them). I never, ever feel more alive or happy than on a summer day like this, life pressing against me. Each moment is bliss.

... Here is the same branch, no longer bowed down.



And here are the pickings from just this one bush:



This will become red currant jelly. The berries on the two other bushes may be just for eating out of hand and for things like fruit in scones. We'll see.

Comments

[amaebi]

Jelly? I wondered as I read.

These days when I see the complicated interweaving of small lives around me, I find myself thinking, "Poor things. They know what we've done to them, but not what's in store."

[asakiyume]

Beautiful, delicious jelly.

Do they know what we've done to them? I felt that they were as blissfully lost in the now as I was--but that was probably just me reading my mood onto them. They're in their own known-to-them-but-not-to-me state. I hope a good one.

[osprey_archer]

Oh! Just reading this post reminds me of the red current scones that we made when I visited - do you remember? And ate with blood orange marmalade.

[asakiyume]

I *do* remember! That's what gave me the idea!

[sovay]

And the berries glow.

That's beautiful.

I'm glad you have days to be so alive.

[asakiyume]

I'm glad you have days to be so alive --Me too, and I wholeheartedly wish them for everyone.

[minoanmiss]

You are so full of beauty and transmit it so well.

I want to trade you something for a jar of that jelly.

[asakiyume]

It's a deal!

[kore]

This is gorgeous!

[asakiyume]

Currants are so beautiful!

[genarti]

Oh marvelous! Now you've got me craving fresh-picked currants, but as I've got strawberries and blueberries in the fridge I'll just have to content myself with that.

Such beautiful pictures, too! I love how red currants glow in the sunlight, and you've really captured that.

[asakiyume]

My brother-in-law was talking about summer puddings, which have bunches of different berries in them. With strawberries and blueberries, you're already on your way there! Now just add in raspberries or currants and you'll be all set ;-)

[genarti]

That sounds delightful! What do summer puddings entail besides berries?

What I've used these ones for so far is dumping on top of angel food cake with some maple whipped cream, and I gotta say, I have no complaints.

[asakiyume]

Summer pudding is all about layering berries and bread, then letting that sit so the bread gets all nice and soggy and berry flavored. (I bet you could do similar with layers of angel food cake for a truly deluxe experience.) For instance, just taking a peek online, I find this. Another recipe from the BBC didn't have the orange, but added cassis (blackcurrant juice), and a fancier recipe from the BBC required you to use brioche for your bread. But basically, you're letting the nice berries give their flavor to the bread, and then you're eating all that together ... is my take on it.

[genarti]

Ooh, that does sound good! As well as easy, which is always a nice benefit. :D

[shewhomust]

I was thinking 'summer pudding' as you picked your currants! (Red currants are so pretty on the bush...)

[asakiyume]

They really are!

[cgbookcat1]

Beautiful currants! Any recommendations for a jelly recipe? We just planted currants this summer and I'm already researching recipes.

[asakiyume]

I use a recipe from a 1970s paperback, Putting Food By, that I picked up at a book sale somewhere: 4 cups of currant juice + 3 1/2 cups of sugar. You get the currant juice thusly:

An alternative method for preparing the juice is to cursh firs a shallow layer of currants in the bottom of the kettle [I use a plain old saucepan] to start the juice, then pile on the rest of hte currants. Heat slowly over low temperature setting for 5 minutes, then increase to medium heat and boil gently until currants are soft and translucent, stirring as needed. Strain.

And then of course you boil the juice and add in the sugar, and keep boiling it until it jells, or as the book says "until the jelly sheets from a cold spoon or the temperature reaches 8 degrees F above the boiling point of water in your kitchen." ... But this recipe is for red currants. Black currants I think are a little more naturally sweet and might not need as much sugar.

[cgbookcat1]

Thank you!

[wayfaringwordhack]

OH what a vision! All of our currants are but young bushes or starts from cuttings that a kind friend gave me. I long for the years when we will have such bounty!

[asakiyume]

One day you'll be making big harvests like this!

[cmcmck]

That's quite a crop! :o)

[asakiyume]

I'm happy with the haul!

[pameladean]

As everyone has said, how lovely. I also own a copy of Putting Food By. I found it too daunting to actually make anything out of, but was comforted by the feeling that, should I absolutely have to, the book would make sure nobody died if I just followed the directions carefully.

I'm now wondering if I culled it in the last round of downsizing the cookbook collection, but I don't think so. Strictly practical volumes mostly made the cut.

P.

[asakiyume]

Wouldn't it have been funny if you culled it years ago, and somehow I purchased it (unlikely given that we're in far-apart states, but let's pretend)--then we'd have this tangible connection.

But as it is, how great to know that you own it too! I *have* made stuff from it--well, one thing: pickled cucumbers--which worked out fine. But that's the extent of it. Still, as you say, it's fun, and comforting, just to have it as a reference.

[e_d_young]

Lovely! The photos and the experience of picking berries...

[pjthompson]

Oh, lovely.

[asakiyume]

^_^

and tasty

[pjthompson]

I bet!