Preserves From Ornamentals...

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 8

Preserves From Ornamentals...

The description of autumn fruiting ornamentals last week has stimulated one reader to send me two recipes for using fruit from one of the plants I mentioned—the strawberry tree, or Arbutus Unedo. This evergreen is unusual, for it takes a year to ripen its fruit. Flowers present now will produce red. strawberry - looking fruits next autumn, when “ext year's crop of flower is on the tree. Mature trees will grow 20ft or more in height, but they are slow-growing, and are also excellent plants for sandy soils. They do not object to salt winds of the coast. My correspondent tells me she has not tried these recipes. Neither have I, but here they are for what they are worth:— Irish Strawberry Tree Custard Bake the ripe fruit on an oven tray until they begin to burst open. Mash them, and to 1 pint add 3 beaten eggs, grated rind and juice of one orange and one lemon Add one teaspoon of ground ginger and cinnamon, and two to three dessertspoonfuls of brown sugar. Add a little milk, yet keeping it all rather dry. Place in a pie dish in a moderate oven until set and browned. Irish Strawberry Tree Jam Fruit needs to be just under-ripe. Steam a few minutes till tender. To one pint of pulp allow one dessertspoonful ground ginger and lib of sugar. Put all in a pan and boil, stirring often until it is an even thick paste and sets well. Bottle and cover hot. The juice and grated rind of one lemon to each four pints of pulp is an improvement.