Finally, finally coming to the bottom of the freezer and the last of last years Blackcurrants…so many of them…over 150lbs!
I have eaten Blackcurrants every day since last summer.
I have a very simple meal that I make with them…raw food vegan!
It’s simply putting a handful of sunflower seeds in the blender with 3 or 4 big handfuls of organic oats.
Blend.
Add soya or other vegan milk, or dairy if that’s your choice.
Blend.
Add 1/4 lb of frozen Blackcurrants and some Maple Syrup to taste.
Blend.
The result is a cross between an ice cream and a smoothie…spoon it out and enjoy!
This evening I have made four pound pots of delicious Blackcurrant Chutney. 
The recipe is quite ancient…passed down to me from someone very close.
The taste of this chutney is unique and delicious and not to be compared to any other!
Here’s the recipe…
1 lb Blackcurrants
1 lb moist brown sugar
1/4 lb chopped seedless raisins
1oz crushed mustard seeds
1oz chopped onion
1/2 oz ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon salt
1/2 pint distilled white vinegar
Cover the currants with the vinegar, and cook them gently until they are tender.
Let them cool, then mix in all the other ingredients.
Stir well together, boil up for about ten minutes, and bottle and cover tightly when cold.
Most delicious and you can adjust the ingredients to taste and to suit…not too much though!
This recipe was handed down from my great grandmother, Mary Ann Higgins-Baxter, who grew masses of Blackcurrants on her small farm on the Derry Road in Omagh, County Tyrone.
This was the thatched cottage owned by my great grandmother.
It was recommended by Mary Ann that the Blackcurrant Chutney be served with Goats Cheese, which she made herself from the many goats she kept and milked.
Blessings XXX Colette
I thought chutney would be just the thing for all these black currants I have. And that’s how I came to find your corner of digi-world. I too am a 1-woman show with a farmy place in Wisconsin that needs and receives endless love from me. And bonus points because I also LOVE old recipes! And this one comes with deep roots that will heretofore remind me of the great grandmother I never knew who also came to the U.S. from Ireland. Thanks for sharing it.
I discovered your lovely blog via my friend Richard Dee’s newsletter. What a fantastic recipe from your great grandmother. Many thanks. 🙂
Just wondering today what to do with my glut of blackcurrants. Then I came across your recipe and the lovely story of your great-grandmother. Your blog is a joy and a comfort especially in these strange times. Thank you!
What a lovely compliment! Thank you and Blessings XXX
Is your Great Grandmother’s house a cob cottage? I love the idea of being able to build your own house from the resources on your land 🙂
No, though it was built in the vernacular tradition using local stone.
Thank you for sharing the photo of your great grandmas cottage. And her wonderful recipe. I hope to be able to give that a try next year. It sounds so full a flavor a bit of sweet and tangy at the same time. Yum. These memories and images are priceless. You have come full circle – your great grandma would be so proud of your paradise garden fairy land small holding.
It is delicious!
I was looking for a blackcurrant chutney recipe and came across yours; I have one query about the amount of onion, it says one ounce; can’t believe that this is correct?
Yes…but always to taste!
Thanks for your reply but to me a chutney needs plenty of onion rather than not even a quarter of an onion!
I used 4 whole onions as I followed a gooseberry chutney recipe alongside this one; the result is rather tasty 😋 otherwise it’s a jam with spices added to it.
Thanks for this delicious sounding recipe Colette – also meant to say in this (and last post) we LOVE the ‘snowflakes’ – still a ‘magical’ thing for most of us in OZ. The pic of your grandmother’s cottage is also wonderful !
Thanks for that…I like that little touch too XXX Blessings X
Do you think this chutney can be made using frozen blackberries. The season in Canada is long gone!
I’ve never used frozen Blackberries…but I would give it a go, certainly…and therein lies a new recipe!
Has anyone ever tried it using frozen blackberries? Our blackberry season in Canada is long gone!
Reblogged this on Reiki Dawn and commented:
Sharing Collette’s post from Bealtaine cottage. Living a life many of us dream of.
Reblogged this on Bealtaine Cottage and commented:
A Very Special Recipe…a most unusual chutney!
Recipes look good! I have started picking fruit as well, although nothing like your amount of blackcurrants.
Blackcurrants grow so easily here that it is all I can do to stop them!