what to do with HUGE amount of Redcurrants (also blackcurrants and gooseberries)

[OldLace]

I have an enormous Redcurrant bush in a fruit cage in the garden.
Prolific fruit - what to DO with it all?
(cant be sieving it all to make redcurrant jelly?)

Any ideas please?
Also have quite a lot of blackcurrants and goosberries
I have some freezer space and about 10 empty jam jars

The pick and prune method for blackcurrants works incredibly well.

I freeze the fruit in portions - a 1KG ice cream tub is enough to make about 6 jars of jam.

I make blackcurrant gin. A friend makes redcurrant vodka, I'm not keen but other people like it.

I thought I might make cordial this year.

Straining through a jelly cloth is easy. Just leave overnight as others suggest.

Stew and freeze for topping porridge etc.

Give away to friends willing to PYO.

Oh, BRILLIANT! Loads of ideas here thank you so much.

And freezing in berry clusters then pulling off when frozen rather than getting tired stained hands now sounds perfect - HURRAH!

and YES i am definitely leaving some for the birds and bees.

I have left an enormous thistle which is about 5ft in height and diameter for 'nature' and it is well visited.

Ice cream or sorbet. Both need a ton of sugar, less so with sorbet which makes a really good 'pallet cleanser'.

Pick and prune? Witchcraft! I'm in...

@missclimpson

Why would you sieve it to make jelly? You only need a jelly bag or some muslin. Cook it all up, strain it overnight add sugar to juice and boil until set. Really easy.

This. Boil up and strain, and then you add sugar depending on the amount of juice you have. I once made loads and have to give jars away, but it was so easy.

Jelly is easy
you make up the gloop and then leave it to run through the jelly bag over night
I make apple jelly as its less work than other things as no need to peel

Friend just gave me a jar of runny gooseberry jam...from her garden. It is delicious. To good to put on bread. I may just spoon it from the jar into my mouth...

Does anyone have an easy jam recipe for tomato jam? In case I have a glut?

Green tomato chutney is LUSH for the end of the season
or
freeze the tomatoes whole - into cannon balls - and use them directly into sauces all winter
or
make tomato sauce and freeze it for winter

Freeze some of the redcurrants and blackcurrants and add them to your porridge - delicious with honey.

Send them to me! I love them!!

My black currants have done ok this year, the recurrants are giving up and the gooseberries were poor.

Make ice cream:
200g fruit (can be fresh or frozen) cooked with 25g sugar till mushy- then cool.
350ml double cream whipped into stuff peaks
200ml condensed milk.
Fold condensed milk into whipped cream.
Fold in the cold fruit mush
Add splash lemon juice.
Freeze.

Try not to eat all in one go.

Worth getting out at the beginning of the meal to let it soften a bit.

Apparently you can also add broken meringue pieces but I never have.

You could also sieve the fruit but I don't bother.

(Gooseberries are easier to get the top & tail off when frozen)

Redcurrant and lavender cordial is fabulous and really easy.

Do you live near a Food Share or City Harvest type project that harvests unwanted fruit ?
Or our local hospice kitchen used to be happy to accept donations of excess produce, to use in their kitchens.
I'd have thought various community street kitchen type projects that cook for the homeless might also appreciate excess fruit.

Difficulty being a lot of these projects ten to be local rather than national for us to give you a link, but perhaps ask on your local facebook group ? I know there are a lot of food hubs that have been set up during coronavirus, including some that make meals / puddings rather than just giving sealed produce.

Pavlova! Though gin sounds more interesting.