Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
It’s late summer on the farm and when the sun decides to bless us with its presence we make sure to head out into our expanding food forests to gather in some of the season’s abundance. It’s an activity that all the family is eager to partake in.
Today we’re using a simple but decedent recipe from a wonderful book called Preserving Food without freezing or canning… an alcoholic tipple called Officers Jam or bachelors liqueur.
We’ve made fruit liqueurs before with brambles or sloes but never as opulent as using multiple types of fruit as we are here.
Using a large airtight container we’re placing alternate layers of our redcurrant, blackcurrant, gooseberry and some strawberries that we picked a few weeks ago to start the process, with a layer of sugar before submerging each layer of fruit and sugar with a liberal amount of brandy.
The recipe in the book suggests using a pound of sugar to every pound of fruit but we’ve decided to use less sugar feeling confident that the alcohol will preserve the berries well.
And that’s it, pretty simple.
While berry season is beginning to slow down we know that in not too long there will be plums, aronia berry, damson and apples that can all be added to this medley of food forest fruits. It’s a lovely way of charting the years fruit offerings, starting with the strawberries of midsummer and ending with the apples of late autumn.
And in the meantime, while we wait for the other fruits to ripen, we can leave this boozy concoction to rest in a dark corner of our pantry. We’ll wait at least six months before we try a tipple of this sweet, fruity and warming treat in the depth of winter when summers berry abundance is but a tempting memory.
About Tap o' Noth Food Forest Farm:
Hi, we're James and Rosa! Welcome to Tap o' Noth Farm, an 8 acre permaculture designed food forest farm/homestead in Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland. We practice home scale to small farm scale agroforestry and regenerative agriculture methods to produce organic fruit and vegetables, raise dairy goats for all our raw milk needs, geese to graze our silvopasture and coppice systems and laying hens, moved around in a Chickshaw, for an abundance of eggs.
Our videos aren't 'how to's' - more videos to give a glimpse into our lifestyle and hopefully inspire you to bring aspects of what you see into your own life.
HEDGE + FURROW
Come and stay on the farm in our traditional shepherds hut, complete with pizza oven, wood fired outdoor bath and sauna, set amongst fields, trees and beside a beautiful pond.
You can book through AirBnB here - airbnb.com/h/hedgefurrow
Social Media links:
INSTAGRAM - instagram.com/tapfarm
FACEBOOK - facebook.com/taponothfarm
TAP CHAT FB GROUP - https://www.facebook.com/groups/tapch...
WEBSITE - hedgeandfurrow.co.uk
#foodforest #preservingfruit #fruitliqueur
It’s late summer on the farm and when the sun decides to bless us with its presence we make sure to head out into our expanding food forests to gather in some of the season’s abundance. It’s an activity that all the family is eager to partake in.
Today we’re using a simple but decedent recipe from a wonderful book called Preserving Food without freezing or canning… an alcoholic tipple called Officers Jam or bachelors liqueur.
We’ve made fruit liqueurs before with brambles or sloes but never as opulent as using multiple types of fruit as we are here.
Using a large airtight container we’re placing alternate layers of our redcurrant, blackcurrant, gooseberry and some strawberries that we picked a few weeks ago to start the process, with a layer of sugar before submerging each layer of fruit and sugar with a liberal amount of brandy.
The recipe in the book suggests using a pound of sugar to every pound of fruit but we’ve decided to use less sugar feeling confident that the alcohol will preserve the berries well.
And that’s it, pretty simple.
While berry season is beginning to slow down we know that in not too long there will be plums, aronia berry, damson and apples that can all be added to this medley of food forest fruits. It’s a lovely way of charting the years fruit offerings, starting with the strawberries of midsummer and ending with the apples of late autumn.
And in the meantime, while we wait for the other fruits to ripen, we can leave this boozy concoction to rest in a dark corner of our pantry. We’ll wait at least six months before we try a tipple of this sweet, fruity and warming treat in the depth of winter when summers berry abundance is but a tempting memory.
About Tap o' Noth Food Forest Farm:
Hi, we're James and Rosa! Welcome to Tap o' Noth Farm, an 8 acre permaculture designed food forest farm/homestead in Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland. We practice home scale to small farm scale agroforestry and regenerative agriculture methods to produce organic fruit and vegetables, raise dairy goats for all our raw milk needs, geese to graze our silvopasture and coppice systems and laying hens, moved around in a Chickshaw, for an abundance of eggs.
Our videos aren't 'how to's' - more videos to give a glimpse into our lifestyle and hopefully inspire you to bring aspects of what you see into your own life.
HEDGE + FURROW
Come and stay on the farm in our traditional shepherds hut, complete with pizza oven, wood fired outdoor bath and sauna, set amongst fields, trees and beside a beautiful pond.
You can book through AirBnB here - airbnb.com/h/hedgefurrow
Social Media links:
INSTAGRAM - instagram.com/tapfarm
FACEBOOK - facebook.com/taponothfarm
TAP CHAT FB GROUP - https://www.facebook.com/groups/tapch...
WEBSITE - hedgeandfurrow.co.uk
#foodforest #preservingfruit #fruitliqueur
