Jam of the Week: “Through the Night” by Grum

The more I’ve been cooking, the more new things I’ve tried. However, most of those things have been picked up at the grocery store.

With that in mind, it was a very cool experience to go with Mike Krebill and several workshop attendees out into Briggs Woods Park looking for things to eat on the trees and bushes around us.

I can’t say I was opposed to eating found foods outdoors before the workshop. I guess I always figured if I tried it by myself, even with plenty of research and colorful books with me, I’d end up eating something that would send me to the hospital for a week.

Having Mike as a guide pushed those concerns aside. Still, I didn’t know what to expect when one of the group members found a tiny wild strawberry and Mike asked if I’d like it. The strawberry was about the size of the fingernail on my little finger. Everyone watched in anticipation of my reaction as I tossed it into my mouth.

It was absolutely fantastic. I was shocked that such a small piece of fruit could have such flavor.

Later, Mike pulled out some sweets for us to try. He gave the group some of his mulberry ice cream topped with fresh mulberries. Again, the flavor blew me away. Mike said he’s still working on the recipe, so I won’t divulge his secrets yet.

After visiting the workshop, I have to say that I’m a bit of a convert. Any concerns I might have had were totally washed away by those flavors.

Mike did hand out a few recipes. One of them includes wild black raspberries in ice cream, and I can’t leave you, the reader, completely hanging on just my description of that mulberry ice cream.

Wild Black Raspberry Ice Cream

2 14 oz. cans of sweetened condensed milk.

5 cups milk.

2 cups heavy cream.

2 tablespoons vanilla extract.

1/2 teaspoon salt.

3 cups wild black raspberry juice and seedless pulp.

Combine all of the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate them for 30 minutes.

Then, pour the mix into the chilled cylinder of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.

The recipe makes four quarts of ice cream. Mike notes that the base for the recipe used three cups of strawberries instead of raspberries. I’ll be experimenting with those as soon as I can find some ingredients and a good ice cream maker.