Do You Forage?
Just got back from a dog walk, and as usual, didn’t come home empty handed. Kindling sticks for the fire today, we collect, let them dry fully for a few weeks, then they are used to start up our stove. We only pick up a bag at a time, and only what is lying around in our lovely bit of ancient woodland.
I have foraged since I was a child. Used to go out with Grandad and Dad, who regularly took wheelbarrows into woods to dig up leaf mould to trench potatoes in gardens and allotments, and then of course there were lovely blackberries to look forward to, and elderflower champagne to be made. Sloes, wild strawberries and raspberries, sometimes apples.
We still do it now if we come across something delicious. Blackberries are superb this year, most got too parched in last year’s heatwave. I look for decorative stuff as well, especially around Christmas. Currently watching a couple of hazelnut trees, it’s a fine line between them being ripe enough to pick, and at that point beating the pesky squirrels who can strip a tree overnight! We never take all though, need to share with wildlife.
The one thing I just haven’t had the courage to do, is to pick fungi. I have got identification books, sat and stared at examples of what should be safe, but just haven’t dared to risk it. I know I am so missing out.....
Anyone else like to partake of nature’s bounty?😁
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TTDA we always book a CS near Middle Rasen (used to be a CL) around September / October time as it's located next to bridleways lined with sloe bushes. We started making sloe gin but have since found (by experimenting 😉) that sloe white rum and sloe spiced rum is much nicer.🍷
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Made sloe gin last year but not many sloes here this year due to hot weather , although have seen quite a few blackberries so must get them before the birds do. We get a lot of mushrooms about but so many are not edible do have different books to look at and you can get identification at the local pharmacies here.
Went with a friend to her local market in Carjac and one stall have some greens free to take and we were not sure and then when we got back to her place I said you have those plants in our garden anyway I got back home looked them up to find they were Purslane plants and you eat all of the plant flowers as well only they are small yellow ones apparently Purslane are better for you than Spinach very interesting hope she has not pulled them all out as I will try them the next time I am up there as we have none around here. There is a lot of Mirabelle plums about and folk just let them rot such shame, just for anybody's information the club site at Cirencester has them on site unless they have been chopped down.
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I pick blackberries, just to mix with our apples for pies and crumbles. I freeze small bags, a few in each. I've made small amounts of sloe gin in some years. OH picks Horse mushrooms which grow in a nearby cattle field, have to be quick a few locals also know they're there.
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We often come across watercress. The cottage we rent on Dartmoor has lots of small streams coming off the Moors, some of these have watercress in them. Not tried any though.
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Years ago I used to make blackberry wine plus added to apples for pies. Haven't done it for a fair few years though. The bathroom scales prohibit puddings and the winemaking is a bit of a fag.
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My grandparents used to brew lots of wine. I can recall cupboards full of Demi john’s bubbling, then the bottling. There was a cupboard that had elderflower champagne in it we were never to open. Back in those days it was in glass bottles and they occasionally would explode. It was delicious though, OH makes it occasionally.
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Oh !! Wild strawberries ,,such an intense flavour,,as are wild cherry plums .,wild spinach too !! YES i forage too.
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Nice isn’t it😁 we have found some lovely apple trees in our local wood, look like Braeburn. I am guessing they have grown from discarded cobs, as both are close to well used paths.
Golden rule of course is never pick anything and eat before washing if it’s lower than above knee height!😂
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We like to forage to, blackberries are the easiest as we live near fields that used to be a berry farm
Last year on our way back through France we collected a nice bag of walnuts and another one of chestnuts.
Grandad on Mum side always came home with something, watercress, mushrooms by the pocketful he knew what was ok and what wasn't.
TTDA, you mentioned Hazelnuts dad used to collect them but also liked them early on when he called them 'new nuts' have you tried them? I remember them as being nice and juicey.
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Will give them a go TG. You’ve just reminded me of a wonderful bounty we found in the grounds of Much Wenlock Priory......Almonds! Few years ago now. Yummy😁
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Mirabelles are available right now, I picked a few lb yesterday, I leave them for a few days to soften & sweeten then treat them like cherries(stone fruit) small & sweet.
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A neighbour has a really old & established Victoria plum Tree, right now they’re at the stage you bite the end off & just pull the stone out clean & eat the rest. I can’t believe there is a better plum than Victoria, originally discovered in Alderton, Sussex UK👍🏻😊
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I was at a talk last night about British Growers and apparently a few years back when there was a failed plum harvest the buyers went abroad and we've never done well since then.
So if you want your own plums in the UK grow them or forage for them. (Perhaps the French market went kaput too?)0 -
No idea Brue, I do wonder if it’s a generation thing. When I was a boy all the fruit trees were stripped bear and the fruit bottled, made into jam etc.. When blackberries were in season it wasn’t unusual to see lots of the villages picking now it’s a rarity. Perhaps it’s just the post war rationing era that form my thinking
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Each generation is trained by the previous one, so if the current generation are not ‘traditional’ then it’s our generation’s fault. I am in the process of training my grandkids, we conkered last year & they've both been eating plums from local Trees they collected this year. I am glad they don’t have to forage to supplement their diet as they had to in the past👍🏻
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I think seasonal products were available so we ate was available. I can't remember the incredible tonnage of strawberries we eat during two weeks in June but it certainly outstrips the demand for plums later on! (Heard all this last night.)
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I think it’s a handed down thing OP, certainly is for us. All our family forage for nature’s goodies. We love finding stuff for decorating at Xmas as well. Pine cones up here in Scotland at the moment.
I am hoping to forage for wool while up here. Bits left on barbed wire etc... fancy having a go at washing it and then felting it. 😁
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My { used to be ] local pub had blackberriies on fence plum tree .apple tree , grapes .New owner stripped them all out ,made it a gastro pub .Lost all his locals . upped the price of food . No customers ,what a shame .Hollybush inn .Gorcutt hill near reditch
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Everywhere I go now, I'm surrounded by calories 
