Topic: Is anyone into foraging

[emmy1978]

Haven't had bilberries in years! My nana used to make bilberry pie, love the purple tongue!

[glow777]

'How can you pick for so long for so little'?

I think it's Mother Nature's way of keeping us all off the internet and out into the moors to pick berries  ;D

Bill Gates Versus Bilberries!

very good ;D ;D ;D ;D
always have an argument with my wife about what they are actually called - she says winberries I say billberries

[bennettsleg]

I've got "Food For Free", too - marvellous book!

Fat Hen grows on my plot and is actively encouraged as we eat it like a mini spinach or toss it in as a herb. Even scattered some of the seeds along our parking space to encourage home-growth!
Elderberries/flowers
nettle tops
dandylions

and most amazing of all: two freshly shot wood pigeons from a plot neighbour this weekend!  And they were fantastic!

[fluffygrue]

Just to add my 2p - yes, foraging is a good hobby. Yesterday we were tucking into Japanese Knotweed crumble. Tasty stuff! Also fond of mushrooms, various fruits and herbs.. Would like to know more about seaweeds etc, though. The River Cottage forum is particularly good for foraging info.

Although I'm a little lazy, as we've got a lot of elder/hawthorn/nettles/dandelions kicking around in the garden, so I don't have to go too far. I'm really trying to get mushrooms established too, as that would be very handy.

[vegging out]

I like a good foraging session,mainly on the shore though for me.Was cockling and razorfish gathering last weekend,great fun.Also get winkles,the odd clam and pollard (when cockling).Seaweed for the plot;dig lug and ragworm for bait;occasionally find samphire;prawns in the harbour from August to October with a drag net.

[glow777]

I like a good foraging session,mainly on the shore though for me.Was cockling and razorfish gathering last weekend,great fun.Also get winkles,the odd clam and pollard (when cockling).Seaweed for the plot;dig lug and ragworm for bait;occasionally find samphire;prawns in the harbour from August to October with a drag net.

soooo jealous - spent a lot of time around Weymouth, lovely part of the world but the traffic jams would drive me mad

[carolinej]

It's not picking the billberries/whinberries that drives me mad.It's dropping the tub just before finishing time.......argh!!!

cj :)

Not to mention the gnats :o

[Jeannine]

I got so excited when I saw you had been cockling them my heart fell...Dorset,

Boo Hoo XX Jeannine

[Trixiebelle]

I'd love to forage at the seaside. Never done it  :)

But my (late and lovely) uncle used to live in Shetland Islands (Unst) and told me a hilarious tale about harvesting razor shells.

They used to go onto the beaches, find the razor-shell holes and then walk away so the razors thought they'd gone! Then they ran BACK again when the razors were poking out of the sand and nabbed 'em!

Very time consuming, but on Unst there is very little to do otherwise (unless you're a member of the Govt. army/navy)

Whilst he was 'razor shelling' one day he met a baby seal on the beach and thought it had been abandoned. He went over to the ickle wickle baby thing to see if it was ok and it locked on to his Doc Martin Boots with its enormous teeth!

He took his DM's off and legged it!

[manicscousers]

didn't know baby seals have teeth, trixie, great mind picture  ;D

[barkingdog]

Hi All,

I found this info on the Guardian website, thought you may find it useful!

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/01/02/foraging.pdf

Hopefully I've added the link okay, not done that before!!!

barkingdog

[Emagggie]

Just to add my 2p - yes, foraging is a good hobby. Yesterday we were tucking into Japanese Knotweed crumble. Tasty stuff!.

Is this really true? This evil weed which has toppled our garden wall and is now just showing it's ugly head again despite my poisoning efforts of last year can be eaten?
Talking of poisons, I foraged plums and damsons by the bucketload last season, BUT one particular tree had nice cherry plum type fruits which gave me galloping gut rot twice.(I tried it again to be sure it was that fruit)
I shall think about putting a note on the tree next season.

[theothermarg]

ilove elder blossom with boiled water poured on it the fresher the better
marg

[antipodes]

As I am an Aussie living in France and hubby is a city boy, I don't know what can be eaten and what can't sometimes. Anyone know a web site that could help that?
I do know some...
We have already found little shellfish on our Atlantic coast.
Usually on hols, you find things in the countryside, often blackberries or raspeberries, wild plums (absolutely delicious), sometimes hazelnuts if you are lucky. There is quite a lot of elderberries round where I live but I dunno what you are supposed to do with them? And what about sloes? Are they those round dark blue berries, kind of hard? Grow on a little tree or hedge?
In August there is a place near here where we go with the kids and several containers and spend about 2 hours picking the most plump juicy blackberries that I then make into 12-15 pots of jam. All for free tee hee!
Two years ago the holiday house we had had a Mirabelle Plum tree and they told us to take any that fell off. (we shook the tree a bit ha ha). Beaut. I brought home a big bag and made 4 jars of jam.
Wouldn't forage in Australia, too many creepy crawlies and things wanting to cause you a fast but agonizing death. But I believe in the UK you got to see "Bush Tucker Man" on the TV?? Best thing in Oz is that you will always know someone with a mango tree and they give so much fruit, people beg you to take it away!!! Kinda miss that... :'(

[jennym]

... And what about sloes? Are they those round dark blue berries, kind of hard? Grow on a little tree or hedge?

Yes they are and they taste sour raw, but they make good jam or sloe gin.

...Best thing in Oz is that you will always know someone with a mango tree and they give so much fruit, people beg you to take it away!!! Kinda miss that... :'(

Lovely to hear that, my son is in Oz and I've sworn to disown him if he doesn't get a mango for his garden  ;D

[Jeannine]

Bumping this one, re read ot on my own link and thought it was worth bringing up. I wonder if Sam could do one as a stcky for us as Dan never got us the actual foraging section..maybe not this one but some other one maybe

Are you there Sam??

XX Jeannine

[kypfer]

I'm quite keen on a bit of forage  ;)

I collected about 7lb of damsons (or something very similar ... little reddish plums) yesterday, the storm on the weekend had knocked them all out of the tree in the corner of a school playing field near my workplace. Mum was over the moon with half of them, she likes them stewed and will share them with her sister, I stoned and quartered the other half this evening and they'll find their way into jam very soon. I made chutney with some last year, but decided although the chutney itself was very nice, I could do something similar with produce more readily available than good fruit, which rellly deserved a jam or jelly to show itself off.

I'll also collect blackberries, chestnuts and what few mushrooms I recognise and do a very tasty line in Danish-style Sloe Vodka (as opposed to sloe gin), though this is very dependant on the sloe crop, which can be virtually nil some years. There's not a lot else readily available locally ... a few walnuts occaisionally, some watercress, a small patch of "New Zealand Spinach" ... mustn't forget the shellfish on the beach ... cockles, winkles, razorfish (razor clams) and the odd mussel or oyster that's "escaped" from the commercial beds out in the bay ... on second thoughts, there's quite a lot really  ;D

[artichoke]

Our village at one time planted a number of fruit trees a little back from the main road - little yellow plums, damsons, two sorts of apple, cherries, about 8 trees altogether - which most people seem to ignore. I am certainly out there with the plastic bags as soon as they are ripe. One pavement is currently yellow with fallen plums.

I also take sloes, elderflowers, elderberries, blackberries. I upended some black pots over well established dandelions and put the blanched leaves into salads - garlic mustard is good chopped into salads - chestnuts and cobnuts (if I can get to them before the squirrels and after they have ripened, a very small window) - used to give my children chickweed and cottage cheese (own cow, then) sandwiches.

http://provenancesupply.co.uk/2009/09/miles-irving-the-forager-handbook/

This is a link to the book published by a former illustration student. I mentioned him at the beginning of this thread (the man who discovered he could photocopy leaves more easily than draw them, and left greenfly and spiders all over the college photocopier) and the book is now published, though not very cheap.

[Jeannine]

Tis great, in just the link you provided I identified the plum like fruit I put on here last month. good eh!

Thank you I will be looking for this one

XX Jeannine

[Digeroo]

It links to an interesting bit about cherry plums, also called myrobalan.  I am interested to know how this links with Mirabelles.  Presume they are one and the same thing.