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Does anyone know what these berries are? Also need a butter alternative for pastry.

71 replies

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:35

Mumsnet has always been helpful and the collective knowledge great, so there's some field near is which used to be allotments. Loads of fruit trees grow there. We have an abundance of blackberries and figs, sadly now out of season, so we have made loads of jams and pies.

DH went over earlier to see of there were any figs left but they're all gone now, but he did see these.

We don't know what they are. They look a bit like blueberries, but are on trees not bushes. My dad thinks they look like sloe berries. Obviously we don't want to pick and cook with any until we know they are safe.

I thought the MN collective would probably know.

Also while I'm here asking questions. Does anyone know a good alternative to butter in pastry? We did our last cook off almost vegan cheaptastyandeasy.wordpress.com/cook-off-almost-vegan/ but the problem we had was the pastry in the pastry pie. We use butter and an egg in it, obviously if we're doing it vegan then those are out, so does anyone have a good pastry recipe without butter and egg?
We're doing our next cook off next Friday and it was lovely so we're going to do it veggie again but would like the pastry vegan.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

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DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:36

Duh, pictures would help!

Does anyone know what these berries are? Also need a butter alternative for pastry.
Does anyone know what these berries are? Also need a butter alternative for pastry.
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PickAChew · 04/11/2018 12:38

They look like they might be damsons. What are they like inside?

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:39

Oh and with the pastry, we're in Spain and our shops are a lot smaller and the choices a lot smaller than in the UK. Here you go into a restaurant and still often see chicken and ham are part of the vegetarian option.

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AlpacaLypse · 04/11/2018 12:40

I'm not sure either - they look like sloes, how big are they? Leaves aren't quite the right shape. Could they be bullaces or even damsons?

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:41

Bugger he didn't bring one home. I'll ask him to go over later and get a couple so we can see what they're like inside.

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Gatekeeper · 04/11/2018 12:41

hmm...berries look like sloes but the leaves are more cherry laurel or buckthorn in shape and appearance

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:43

He said about the size of blueberries.

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CherryValance · 04/11/2018 12:43

This might be a daft question but they're not olives are they? Either way the leaves don't look the same as sloes I've picked here.

Can you get just-rol ready made pastry? That tends to be vegan

Gatekeeper · 04/11/2018 12:44

I see you are in Spain...not quite the right shape for the fruit but leaves look olive-like

SoupDragon · 04/11/2018 12:44

I think sloes come from something with thorns on and there don't look to be thorns on that.

Utini · 04/11/2018 12:45

Are they olives? Leaves look about right for an olive tree and I've just seen you're in Spain.

Gatekeeper · 04/11/2018 12:45

use oil for your pastry instead of butter

veganlovlie.com/oil-based-vegan-shortcrust-pastry/

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:45

We're just about to have dinner but then he's going to go over and get a few and a sprig with leaves so I can take better photos. Will be about half and hour.

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CrispbuttyNo1 · 04/11/2018 12:48

Olives

SoupDragon · 04/11/2018 12:48

I think they look like olives too. The leaves certainly do anyway.

MorningsEleven · 04/11/2018 12:48

Nice plug for your blog. Neither sloes nor damsons - wrong leaf shape.

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:50

There are loads of olive trees over there. I don't know what to do with them though, I thought they had to be in salt water for a long time before they were edible? Sure I saw that on one of those food unwrapped programmes.

Can you get just-rol ready made pastry?
Our supermarkets are the size of a large co-op. No ready anything unfortunately. Everything has to be made.

Gatekeeper
Nice, thanks. Have you tried that pastry, what's it like?

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DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:52

MorningsEleven Not a blog. What do you think they are?

DH is going over to get some in a bit so I'll cut one in half then.

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AdaColeman · 04/11/2018 12:53

Another vote for olives.

Is Trex available there? That's vegan/vegetarian and fine for pastry.

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 12:55

I've never heard of Trex.

Aren't olives green though? These are definitely blue colour.

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HunkyDory69 · 04/11/2018 13:02

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Chewbecca · 04/11/2018 13:03

You can make vegan pastry by subbing the butter for sunflower or olive oil spreads. Instead of egg wash, use any milk substitute, almond, soya etc. Or leave out altogether if you don't want to buy any just for that, it will just lack glaze. I usually get a milk sub in anyway to use in vegan guests' hot drinks.

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 13:31

HunkyDory69
Usually we see a lot of locals over there picking figs and blackberries, but as they are out of season no-one was over there today.

How do you do your olives? I will pick some if I know what to do with them. There's so many over there.

Chewbecca
We always use oat or rice milk anyway, as I don't like cow milk.
I stopped eating dairy years ago because I went on the endo diet to get rid of very painful endometriosis (it worked) and have never gone back.
I will have a look at the spreads next week when I'm in the shop. We're in Spain so there must be and olive oil one!

I'm definitely going to try making pastry with olive oil.I'll probably try a different pastry a few cook offs and see which we like best. It's difficult googling, so many options, but I prefer recommendations.

DH is just finishing off his coffee and going over to get a sprig. I'm trying to hurry him up! Grin

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FrogsPornPuddle · 04/11/2018 13:37

Olive

DiggertyDamn · 04/11/2018 15:00

He's not back yet. I've asked him to also take some photos of the olive trees to show the difference because I really don't think they're olives.

Gatekeeper
I've had a good look at that pastry recipe. I think that could work well. It also uses the bean juice and we use jarred lentils and beans so we could use that.

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