A sauce that slots nicely in your cupboard between Tomato Ketchup and Brown Sauce

This ketchup has certainly been very well received by everyone I've offered it to and definitely worth the effort of making it. The sauce is excellent with cheeses and cold meats either on it's own or mixed with Lacto Wild Garlic. It's also a fine competitor of red and brown sauce when it comes to using with fried breakfast items - especially wild mushrooms on toast!  Over the years I've learned of ways to speed up the process of collecting and processing the Haws so it's now not as laborious a task as it was when I first tried making this condiment. When I started I picked fruits individually and then when processing the pulp from the stones I used a sieve and wooden spoon. Today I use a berry collector and food mill and can make much more ketchup in the same amount of time. The only time consuming bit now is to remove the stalks from the fruit.

Finding Hawthorn is one of the easisest tasks for a forager. It's easy to identify and prolific anywhere around fields when hedging is used to create boundaries. In this environment the main hedge species are Blackthorn (Sloe) and Hawthorn. In a 'normal' year you can find your spots with your nose in May as at this time the Hawthorn flowers giving off an almond aroma and is traditionally known as May Blossom.

Soon after the blossom the Haws appear but they are very small and green. Over the coming weeks the fruits will swell (slowly) and start to redden - becoming more and more obvious. It will get to the point where the hedges will appear to turn red where hawthorn is abundant. It is 'not' time to pick the Haws yet to make ketchup - if you do you will most probably make jam and if you have bottled that jam you will struggle to get it out! At this point it's much better to make a fruit leather or indeed a jam. To make the ketchup you need to wait. I like to wait until the berries start to darken and then it's time to get at them...