Making wine from foraged berries

Pan of foraged berries, gathered last autumn and stored in the freezer until we planned what to use them in

Last Autumn we had great fun gathering berries from all over the place ... blackberries, elderberries and sloes all foraged from the wild and redcurrants and blackcurrants grown at our allotment. We were quite snowed under with produce at the time so we washed them, bunged them in tubs and buried them in the freezer ready to use when we had a good use planned for them.


Last year we made a wonderful blackberry wine which was enjoyed on many a dark winter night. It's by far the best wine I've made so far so we decided to use the same recipe again but with the mixed foraged berries instead of all blackberries. 

Straining the berries after they had infused in the vat for a week

 The amount of berries we had made three times the recipe! It's ever-so easy to follow and I like the way it's not fussy with adding this additive and that additive ... just simple ingredients and great wine :~) If you've never tried making wine before, I'd recommend this recipe.

Garnet ... my favourite colour!

Mixed berry pulp

The strained liquid, ready to continue fermenting

Very much a working kitchen ... it's always busy and never completely tidy!

Filling the demijohn

At the moment, our demijohns have finished their bubbling and just need to sit and settle. Then they'll be racked off which is just syphoning the wine off into clean demijohns, leaving the sediment behind. Then, they'll settle some more until clear and then ... it will be ready :~)