North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>]

Hi Tasty Freezers,
AS things have been quiet, here's a little note of our experiments here in 
Saint 
Albans.
This Spring, we delved into the berries/fruits we froze last summer/fall and 
made 
homemade ice cream. Fruits we tried were:
Mixed berry containing elderberry (canadensis), Highbush Cranberry (V. 
trilobum), 
red chokecherry, and Blackberry. Lesson learned...very unique good flavor, 
and we 
kept the sugar down to taste the flavors. But Blackberry in ice cream 
overpowers 
everything, so subtle fruits like elderberry became more of a shadow than a 
flavor. 
Highbush cranberry is fine because of the sugar. I have never had any 
problems with 
the bitterness not cooking out or going away with sweetener. I have come to a 
hypothesis that an overly strong bitterness is soil reliant. I hear wine/mead 
is 
interesting with this fruit. 

Cranberry ice cream with straight bog cranberry and sugar. This was the 
best!! The 
tart/sweet flavor was the winner at work (FEDCO Seeds) and at home. We did 
not 
squeeje the skins out, and I thought it gave a nice flavor and chewy texture. 
Other 
tasters said great but take out the skins. Everyone was surprized and many 
said it 
was the best fruit ice cream they had ever had. Very recommended!

Strawberry Rhubarb ice cream. We made this especially rich and creamy, but 
found 
that rhubarb got lost easily in the strawberry flavor. We used an half the 
amount 
of rhubarb as strawberries and now theorize that TWICE the rhubarb to 
strawberry 
would be better. As it was, it was great strawberry ice cream but we could 
not 
detect and rhubarb and neither could anyone else.

Black Currant ice cream. Sweetener seemed to bring out the 
sweet/tart/bitter/musky 
flavor (I think we may call this one Funky Monkey as one taster said it 
tasted like 
a dead animal plus sugar), and the first time we ate it, we did not like it. 
But 
oddly my son (who's 4) ate the unsweetened cooked puree readily and liked the 
ice 
cream a lot. He did not mention any off flavor and kept dipping his hand into 
the 
puree and licking it off...over and over for 30 minutes! I myself found I 
began to 
really enjoy the ice cream the third or fourth time I ate it, and actually 
found 
myself really wanting to make it again. Some people may say this was a waste 
of ice 
cream, but others may say it is the best use for such an odd tasting berry. I 
will 
make it again because it was unique and grew on me.

We still have hawthorn fruits and few other oddities to try. We will not mix 
the 
fruits this time because it does not do each flavor justice. 
Let me know about your ice cream experiences. Someday, I want to eat 
persimmon and 
paw paw ice creams. If I can get fruit sent to me I will, but the Meader 
persimmon 
trees I am propagating are a ways from fruiting.
Good to know we are all gardening, grafting, planting, etc. The seasonal 
Nature of 
the list-serv makes me smile!

Heron Breen
zone 4b, Maine