Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for the Easter Lamb

At Nashtown Castle our preserves, jellies and pickles are made seasonally with local seasonal produce where possible. They are home grown and home made. Here is our list of the preserves that are currently available.

Nashtown Castle Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for Easter

• Apple Jelly - made with apples from an old traditional Kilkenny orchard
• Apple & Lavender Jelly - made with our homegrown lavender
• Bitter Orange Marmalade - this is our only preserve that has no locally grown ingredients
• Cucumber Pickle - made with three varieties of cucumber, grown in our garden
• Gooseberry & Apple Jelly - has a subtle gooseberry flavour
• Pickled Red Cabbage - robust old fashioned pickle, made with our own red cabbage
• Pumpkin, Ginger & Orange Marmalade - more like a relish, delicious with cold meat
• Spicy Pumpkin Chutney - perfect with cold beef and a baked potato
• Red Currant and Lavender Jelly - to be eaten with the Easter roast lamb. Fresh mint will be difficult to find as Easter is so early this year, so here is a great alternative

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Pumpkin, Ginger and Orange Marmalade

Pumpkin, Ginger and Orange Marmalade from Nashtown Castle made from our own home grown pumpkins, picked in the autumn, air dried and naturally matured to ensure they are eaten at their best.

Nashtown Castle Pumpkin, Ginger and Orange Marmalade

Made in our traditional country kitchen, the orange and ginger flavours are dominant in this unusual, but delicious marmalade. Use it as a relish with free range pork sausages or on fresh brown soda bread for breakfast.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com 

Nashtown Castle Bitter Orange Marmalade

Orange Marmalade is made from Seville Oranges that are only in season for a few weeks at the start of the year. The bitter oranges, despite their name, originated in China. They are not pleasant to eat raw, but when made into a marmalade, they release their wonderful flavour and perfume, best eaten on hot buttered toast.

Nashtown Castle Bitter Orange Marmalade

Nashtown Castle Bitter Orange Marmalade is created from fresh Seville oranges, handcut and cooked in a preserving pan on an old fashioned Aga cooker, until they are ready to gently set into a special marmalade.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Kilkenny Sloe Gin & Sloe Jam

In Kilkenny, it has been one of the best years in recent times, for Sloes. They started ripening in early September and today, now in late November, the last of them, sweetened by the frost, are still on the blackthorn bushes waiting to be picked.

Sloe Gin, or Sloe Vodka, or if preferred Sloe Poteen, is the simplest of all recipes.

Freshly picked Sloes, ready for the pot.

Just prick the Sloes, pop them into a bottle (as in photo below) and add between a third of their weight and half their weight in sugar. The bottle in the photo is waiting to be topped up with more gin.

If you prefer your Sloe Gin to be sweeter, then just add more sugar. Fill the bottle to the top with your preferred spirit. Shake every day for a couple of weeks. Leave for three months and then strain.

SLOE GIN - Use as a liqueur drink on its own, or in cocktails.

A TART SLOE JAM

Weigh your sloes and then weigh out three quarters of that amount in sugar.

In a large pot or preserving pan, place your sloes with enough water to half cover them. Simmer until the stones are exposed and the flesh is soft.

Then rub the fruit through a coarse sieve or colander to catch the stones. Discard the stones. Add warmed sugar and bring slowly to boil while the sugar dissolves.

Simmer for five minutes and then place the jam into sterilised jars.

SLOE JAM in recycled jars.

The flavour is slightly tart and the colour is a deep colour. Eat with lamb or pork or use in a steam pudding.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Recession Proof Christmas Presents

This Kilkenny Christmas is going to be a thrifty one, no expensive presents, just homemade ones. What better than to make ones own preserves, they are always well received. Instead of bringing a bottle of wine or flowers, try bringing one of your homemade jams, chutneys or pickles when you next go visiting.

Eventually the tomatoes ripened

A glut of cucumbers ensured a plentiful supply of cucumbers for Cucumber Pickles.
The tomatoes were slow to ripen, so lots of green tomato preserves were made. The Green Tomato Jam and Green Tomato Marmalade were successful experiments to be repeated again next year.
A friend, in Toronto, sent a great recipe for green tomato Chow Chow, basically a green tomato pickle, with celery seeds that complimented the tomatoes.

Pickles and Chutneys waiting for Christmas

Still more green tomatoes kept on coming, with no sign of any ripening, so it called for further creativity. This was a Damson and Green Tomato Chutney, making use of a basket of damsons grown by a neighbour and left on the kitchen table.

From L-R: Damson & Green Tomato Chutney, Green Tomato Jam,
Green Tomato Marmalade & Green Tomato Chow Chow.

Eventually, the tomatoes started turning red - much later than usual. Now, was the occasion to make a Red Tomato Relish and a Spicy Red Tomato Relish (spicy, not hot) which will reduce the need to buy a well known brand of tomato ketchup.

From L-R: Wild Plum Jam, Hedgerow Jelly and Sloe Gin & Wild Apple Jelly

Foraging in the deep freeze, revealed some white currants which required attention. These were turned into White Currant and Rosemary Jelly, to be eaten with lamb. It is a beautiful jelly to make, as the white currant juice turns to a surprising, delicate pink colour.
These preserves are all easy to make and the main expense is the sugar and vinegar. Sadly, there is no longer any Irish sugar produced, the factories were closed down. Sugar beet is now grown by my neighbours, only for animal fodder. Instead, we have to buy the more expensive imported cane sugar.
Perhaps, next year, some homemade vinegar will be produced to further reduce the cost.
Don't be too enthusiastic about bringing your glass jars to the recycling centre, instead hold onto them and reuse them, year after year.

These presents are recession proof as they will taste just as good in boom times.