Blackcurrant Feast. Part 1, making blackcurrant cordial

At the ACRE Project in Celbridge where I teach a FETAC horticulture module every Friday, there is a large fruit area that came into it's own this year. So this Friday, we had a ball harvesting the gi-normous amount of blackcurrants and gooseberries that were hanging off the bushes! I haven't made anything with blackcurrants before other that throw them into a fruit coulis to have with ice cream, so I decided I would try to make some jam but also some cordial, as I'm not actually a big jam eater, so I wanted to make something for me. I have a German friend Tina, whose homemade blackcurrant juice I've had before, she had some amazing German contraption for extracting the juice and let me tell you it knocked the socks off me, taste wise! I always remembered that taste, so I wanted to give it a go myself.

I hunted through my books and as usual, Darina Allen came up trumps with a blackcurrant cordial recipe, I decided to go with this instead of just juice, as it lasts longer with all the sugar preserving it. Also you can just throw the berries straight into the pot with water, without having to de-stalk them, happy days! The recipe is below, I put in a little less sugar, about a 1/6th I would guess, I always do, as sometimes these recipes kill the taste with too much sugar. don't forget to sterilise your jars in the oven, at a 150 degree heat, for about 45mns in advance. It turned out as a not too strong a cordial, so kind of half and half with water or soda water, whatever you prefer, and the taste, I have to say is pretty epic!! Enjoy!

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