So I kind of apologize for my recent fascination with “how to” posts, especially because many of you will never actually see a real breadfruit so what’s the use?? But while many of you read this from the frosty north, it is also available for other PC Jamaica volunteers and staff to read. My close family and friends know that I love to be…instructional…and I like to write. So I guess this is how those two personality traits have manifested themselves.
Tomorrow, I leave for Kingston for an All Volunteer Conference, and I will be sharing Thanksgiving with PCJ staff and other volunteers. Friday we are having a potluck, and with the amount of sorrel coming from the demonstration plot lately, I took the advice of a friend and made Sorrel Juice.
Fun Facts About Sorrel
- Sorrel will grow in the US during the summer!
- It’s really really good for you, super high in antioxidants and other lovely things.
- You can eat it raw, but it’s very bitter (Jamaicans make funny faces when I do it)
- It’s super easy to grow organically! Sorrel must be “plucked” of it’s seed pods, which are then dried and replanted- people here never buy sorrel seeds from the feed store. Wasps love sorrel plants and deter most dangerous insects and smaller birds from getting too friendly with it.
- Sorrel can make juice, tea, jam, liquor, candy and other things not massively produced yet.
Preparing Sorrel
I know I post lots of pictures of sorrel, but I think it’s a really awesome and pretty looking plant. So in case you forgot, this is a sorrel bud- the edible part:
That dense part in the middle is the seed pod. That needs to be “plucked”. Methods vary: You have the “pull apart” method where you simply tear the pod out from the center of the bud, some use a knife and cut a hole in the bottom of the bud to force the pod out and some, like my supervisor, find old umbrella poles and use them to pop the pods out of the sorrel. I prefer option 1 and 3… I’ve cut myself with option 2.
Seed pods look like this:
Sorrel without the pod looks like this:
To get the seeds from the pod just lay them out in the sun and the pod will open, expelling the seeds. The pods are heavier than the sorrel so always weigh sorrel after they’ve been plucked if you’re going to sell them.
Extracting the Juice
Like most other things here, I have no exact measurements, but 3-5 lbs of sorrel makes a whole lot of juice.
Rinse the sorrel first and then put it in a large pot of water, cover it and heat it to boil. Once it boils, turn off the heat and make it sit for a few hours. Basically it steeps just like a tea, the longer it seeps the darker the tea… and the stronger (more bitter) the juice. I let mine sit about 2 hours.
When it has steeped long enough, strain the sorrel out however is easiest. I started with a spoon and decided a large strainer would go faster.
Traditional sorrel juice is flavored with sugar and ginger. The ginger is grated and seeped in the warm juice- I don’t know the proportions. I made my sorrel with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon to add a more American Thanksgiving flavor to it. Also sometimes the ginger is a bit overwhelming.
In Jamaica it’s easy to find whole nutmeg so I ground up 3 of them and then doused the pot with ground cinnamon since I didn’t have sticks.
Add about 4 or 5 big spoons of sugar to the pot. It does a lot to alleviate the bitterness.
Whole nutmeg looks like this, I think it looks cool. Take off the light part and then crack the shell- the nutmeg is inside.
Finally warm up the pot again to dissolve everything into the juice and stir- strain it again and refrigerate!
