Foraging

[bunn]

I saw a random tweet from @NFUCountryside, asking about foraging, and which wild foods people collected.  I think this is worth more than a tweet, so here is a post.

Things that I usually pick in quantity every year:

- blackberries of course

- Rowan berries (for jelly)

- Crab apples (for jelly)

- hazelnuts

Although the internet is for some reason full of proclamations that 2013 is a good apple year, I'm not convinced.  Only three of my usual crab apple trees have any apples this year, and two of my own trees are practically apple-free. Only the late apple has decent numbers of fruit. I think there was too much wet in parts of the spring, and the very dry hot spell was a bit TOO dry for some trees.

Then there are the things I sometimes pick, if it's a good year for them:

- Whortleberries (not this year though, too dry)

- sweet chestnuts  (not often a good year, but worth a try when, eventually, it is.)

- eating apples (I know a couple of eating apple seedlings that I assume have grown from pips.)

Things I might pick a few of in passing for a snack from time to time, don't gather in quantity:

- wild strawberries

- woodsorrel leaves
- pheasantberry
- beechnuts (when its actually a good year for them, which is rare.  And they are so tiny and need so much getting into!)

Things I always mean to pick but rarely get round to, or just don't like very much

- elderflowers (I have made elderflower cordial, and it's delicious, but just so much of a faff)

- sloes (I can't be bothered with sloe gin, and am yet to be convinced by any other sloe product.)

Things I once found and were brilliant, but don't find around here

- cherries.  I once found myself for some reason having to wait several hours at a very dull shopping centre near Manchester.  So I went out for a walk around it, as I found there was a small park and some footpaths tucked away behind it. And to my delight, they had planted up the park and all the footpath margins with wild cherry trees, which were all in perfectly ripe fruit!  I couldn't reach most of them, but I still ate a lot of cherries that day.  Oddly, I seemed to be the only one eating them.

- mushrooms.  I'm not good enough at mushrooms to be sure of anything but field and horse mushrooms, and for some reason we don't seem to get those coming up around here, I'm not sure why. Soil too stony and acidic maybe?

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The in-flight magazine on the ferry has recipes for freshly foraged seaweed, if you want to add to your repertoire next time you're on a beach.

I wouldn't have eaten the cherries. I would have assumed that Somebody had planted them deliberately and that eating them was Not Allowed.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There is a plum tree by a pavement near us, which I suspect dates from the time when Field Farm Close was just Field Farm.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They weren't planted in an orchard-like manner - they were dotted randomly along paths and spaces with their trunks often made inaccessible by sprawling brambles, were not netted, and had obviously not been pruned - they were tall and rambling in form too so they were either 'old fashioned' varieties or (I suspect) the rootstock types that are sold as 'wild cherries' for amenity planting.

It was really strange that there were so many cherries on them, normally birds have the cherries before the people get a lookin unless the trees are netted.

Lava bread is... OK but I've never felt the urge to make my own!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose "woodpigeon" counts ...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Only if you foraged it yourself!

I would be tempted to include 'rabbit' if either of the hounds were fit for purpose, since bunnies seem to be a real pest so the landowners would be delighted, and I am sure that death by lurcher is kinder than myxomatosis. But as neither of them have ever managed to catch one* (despite hours and hours of trying) I have never had the opportunity. Kjetil used to catch baby bunnies, but cat-mangled tragic tiny baby bunny I am happy to leave to the cats.

* we did once successfully hunt a squirrel when Mollydog was alive, which Az claimed a part-share of, but to be honest, I think the success was down to Molls, not him.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I foraged it without immediate aid from any other human or canine, but with the one-time aid of the gunsmith who made ths shotgun I used. Similar comments apply to rabbit.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

In that case it definitely counts!