Blackberry Wine

Recipe
4 lb blackberries
3 lb granulated sugar
1 gallon water
Wine yeast and Nutrient

Method
(1)Pick fully ripe, best quality berries.
Wash thoroughly in colander, then crush in bowl, transfer to primary fermentation vessel, and add gallon of boiling water, mixing thoroughly.

When lukewarn (70 degrees F.), add yeast, cover, and set in warm (70-75 degrees F.) place 4-5 days, stirring daily.

(2)Strain throught very fine nylon sieve or double thickness of muslin onto sugar and nutrient.
Stir well to dissolve sugar and pour into secondary fermentation vessel of dark glass (or wrap clear glass with brown paper) to top of shoulder, and fit airlock.
Ferment excess liquor in appropriately sized bottle fitted with airlock or covered with plastic wrap held by rubber band.

(3)After all foaming has ceased (6-7 days), top up with excess liquor and place in cool (60-65 degrees F.) dark place for three months.

(4)Rack, allow another two months to finish

(5)Rack again and bottle in dark glass. Allow 6 months to age, a year to mature. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry's 130 New Winemaking Recipes]

Notes
This recipe was taken from Jack Keller's page here.
This is my first attempt at making Blackberry wine and the first year of making any wine at all.

Spiced Wild Fruits Chutney

Recipe

1.5kg wild plums

500g cooking apples

2 oranges

200g Sultanas

200g Blackberries

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

300ml red wine vinegar

500g demerara sugar

Method:

Remove stones from plums

Peal, core and dice the apples

Grate the Peel from the oranges and squeeze their juice into a large pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients

Heat and stir until Sugar dissolved

Simmer until thick and syrupy

Place in sterilised preserving jars

Notes
This is a modified recipe from http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipe/1049/spiced-plum-chutney-recipe/
One reservation i have is that it does generate a rather sloppy chutney.
It may be better to add the bigger ingredients like the plums or Blackberries almost at the end so they hold their shape better.
To remove (pit) the stones from the wild plums i simply used brute force and pressed the fruit until it burst then fished out the stone.
You soon realise that if the fruit is not ripe the stone will take half the fruit with it but when ripe the stone will be dinstinctly separate.