Topic: Is anyone into foraging

[Jeannine]

I bought a book last year called Food For Free, we used to forage in Canada, berries, mushrooms and on the beach for clams, crabs and oysters. Here we get the cloes, brambles, no crab apples around me and I am nervous of the mushrooms as the species are different,also East Coast where I am there is nothing on the beaches that I know of.

Does anyone else forage for wild food, I would be interested in what and which areas,not your secrets, just geography.

XX Jeannine

[Tinkie_Bear]

Hi Jeannine,

Hubby and I like a good forage, we always get blackberries, sloes, damsons, sweet chestnuts, filberts and mushrooms - lovely big field ones.  All from within a short walk of home.

If you google "Rogers Mushrooms" you will find the most brilliant fungus identification site, that might make you feel better about hunting shrooms.

Helen

[Jeannine]

Helen I have afew good books on mushrooms but there is nothing so sure as having amushroom buddy,I shall enjoy looking at the site though, there doesn't seem to be much in my area which is dissapointing, Thank you for the help

Huntin' and Gatherin' my favourite things.

XX Jeannine

[flossie]

Hi Jeannine
You may already have it...Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's book "The River Cottage Cookbook" has a sections on Hedgerow food...each includes recipes

wild meat - not for you now you are veggie - including rooks and SNAILS  yuck

hedgerow greens- where to forage, favourite hedgerow greens, herbs and  edible flowers

hedgerow fruit and nuts and fungi of course.

[saddad]

The Jack by the Hedge (Garlic Mustard) is out and up on the lotties at the moment, I cannot get it to transplant or grow from seeds so I am reduced to nibbling bits as I go by...
 ;D

[mikey]

Foraging, Oh yes

Brambles since childhood and the ones round these parts are the sweetest (not the biggest) we have ever picked.

Elderberry fruit, made some mean wine in the past but in recent years have made Jam and Jelly only, our hedgerows full of mature shrubs / trees, second only to Hawthorne.  

Also a first for us ... Apples growing wild (not wild apples or Crabs) but several varieties of eater and at least two cookers, all at the side of the country lanes (single track) which surround us.
Funny thing ... we noticed one tree, then started driving slower and looking more carefully whenever we used a new route, and discovered lots more. Marked them on large scale map and told no one  ;) ;D

Mushrooms we have never been 'into' due to lack of knowledge and confidence in trusting the books.

Mikey

[Hyacinth]

Nettle tops ;D (had to come back to modify cos I first wrote 'dandelion'......sure tho that dandelion leaves are tender? Tell you what, Jeannine....try them & tell me if I was right ;D

[manicscousers]

young nettle tops for nettle soup, as advised by robk in recipes  ;D

[triffid]

Another forager here... :)

wild plums (bullace) and sloes
crab apples
elderflowers (for cordial)
blackberries, of course!
puffball mushrooms although the patch nearby that I used to haunt seems to have died off...
and samphire (when I visit the outlaws on the Suffolk coast)  :P

[Jeannine]

I hav e few recipes for nettles , I have never had dandelion but I had a neighbour in Canada who always came  round our acreage to pick them, he was Italian.XX Jeannine

[triffid]

Young dandelion leaves are lovely in mixed green salads.

[carolinej]

We have a lot of countryside nearby. At different times through the year we pick, whinberries, wild strawberries, elderflower, (cob?)nuts, blackberries, raspberries, crab apples, apples from a tree that used to be in an allotment but is now on the edge of a recreation ground, and plums which overhang my friends garden (not really foraging, but free fruit anyway)

cj :)

[simon404]

Young hawthorn shoots - coming out now in our area - are yummy and meant to be very nutritious  :P

[Mrs Ava]

Me!  ;D  I don't touch mushrooms as I have no idea about any of them, but do enjoy elderflowers and their berries, brambles, crabapples, wild plums, sloes, gages, rosehips, pears (there are a couple in the woods on the common), cobnuts, young nettle shoots and young dandelion leaves.

[STHLMgreen]

We love wild mushrooms and my husband knows all about them. I'm learning. Any apples that aren't on someone's property, wild strawberries, berries, and now I'm going to try dandelions!

[jennym]

Good grief, my foraging list includes:
Apples, both dessert & crab
Pears, mainly wild but one or 2 dessert types
Sloes, plums, damson and bullace
Blackberry and elderberry
Walnuts and hazelnuts (cobnuts)
Horseradish
Cherries
Rosehips
Have yet to find true quince but am searching  :)
Must admit I do get sad when I hear people say (in the local area anyway) oh, none of that grows around here, and the truth of the matter is that they don't actually take the time to look. I pick as much as I can, and still loads goes to waste.

[barkingdog]

I too am into foraging!

I avoid mushrooms because like others I'm not sure about identifying them correctly.

I do get sloes, damsons, blackberries, crab apples, wild plums, other apples, chestnuts and elderflowers.

I haven't yet tried nettles but I'm considering it!

barkingdog

[tim]

Dandelion roots for 'coffee'?

[jennym]

Yergh Tim, have you ever tried dandelion roots for coffee? I did once - followed a wartime recipe thing, drying and grinding etc, but it was disgusting  ;D
Mind you, prefer a cup of tea to coffee any day!

[glow777]

Yep me too

favourite hobbies shooting, fishing, gardening and being a "freegan". Hugh Fernley Whittingstall can do no wrong in my book (apart from the prices he charges for things on his website). I live on the edge of a small(ish) town 3 minutes walk gets me in the town centre or open countryside so best of both worlds but would like to be near the sea.

I have a veggie friend who is a mushroom expert who I go shrooming with - best so far are Meadow Wax Caps which are quite rare outside the Peak District.