Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Jeannine on April 06, 2007, 19:26:32
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
young nettle tops for nettle soup, as advised by robk in recipes ;D
-
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
-
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
-
Young dandelion leaves are lovely in mixed green salads.
-
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 :)
-
Young hawthorn shoots - coming out now in our area - are yummy and meant to be very nutritious :P
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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
-
Dandelion roots for 'coffee'?
-
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!
-
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.
-
We're right on the edge of London (even if we are within the M25), so there's a lot of countryside around. So, elderflowers & berries, brambles, crab apples, sloes, rowan berries, cobnuts, chestnuts, damsons. And mushrooms (but I'm not telling you where!). Last year we had a once-in-a-lifetime crop of ceps. Everyone got dried mushrooms for Christmas!
-
A professional forager turned up in one of my classes in botanical illustration. He wades through bogs and streams and fields and woods for hours every day, collecting armfuls of wet weeds, and sells them to specialist restaurants. He brought tons of them into the college and you could tell where he'd been by the trails of green stuff along the corridors.
He wanted to learn to illustrate a book he was writing about foraging, but it turned out to be too timeconsuming for him. What we did discover, together, was that he could photocopy his plants very well, and that the results, in black and grey, made stylish and elegant illustrations. However, the library containing the college photocopier filled up with greenfly and snails and bits of greenery, and people complained.
I am dying to see the book - should be out soon.
-
Yergh? Yes - but King & Country at the time??
-
Hi all, thanks so much for your answers, I do miss my beach foraging a lot and would appreciate any info re coastline foraging. I did look into it and there is none just on the bit I am, it realyy needs a bay,as most clams don't live on the ocean beaches. There are crabs, but a boat would be needed without a bay.
I have had a good search around me but definately no nuts or apples.
We did see a bullace hedgerow a couple of years ago,a great long hedge that was loaded but not ready for picking, but we were just rambling around and we haven't been able to find it since.
Love the story of the photocopy man.
XX Jeannine
-
Talk of the Devil?
-
Well you would have to chuck that one back in BC, it would no way fit the legal measuring tool . Looks like a good read Tim, where does the magazine come from please.XX Jeannine
-
Today's telegraph - will post it on if you want :)
-
Can I buy one somewhere Flossie or is it too late now. I don't want you to have to mail it if I can get one locally. Thank you XX Jeannine
-
Not much lives on open sandy beaches, it's a pretty harsh environment. Razor shells maybe, but you have to be pretty quick to dig them out. Find some sheltered water, and you'll find a lot more.
-
That is my point Robert, there are no suitable bays here for static clam digging and I miss that, we used to get Gapers, Softshells, Cockles, Butter, and Littlenecks in the bays. It was so relaxed as they don't move of course, we even dug Goeducks when we wanted to go 3 feet down !! We chased the Razors on the Oregon ocean coast, such fun too, it wasn't so bad once we had the knack but at first it was hilarious . I did quite a lot of research when we first came back with the fisheries folk and was informed there were clams on the West Coast and cockles on the East but further down.
It played a big part in our lives for so many years I really miss it, we were tourist volunteers for Washington State on the beaches explaining what everything was, kids from the Western States had never seen the sea and it was joy to teach them how to dig. They would very often be tiring themselves out digging furiously till we told them bay clams don't move. We ran the clam bakes in the State Park for the campers for years. Plus there is something very basic about watching the movement of tides etc, and the first clams of the season are like the first tiny spuds, so delish...mmmm
XX Jeannine
-
Very envious!!
-
Not much lives on open sandy beaches, it's a pretty harsh environment. Razor shells maybe, but you have to be pretty quick to dig them out. Find some sheltered water, and you'll find a lot more.
Razors are one of the tastiest shellfish about. To get them out mix a very salty water solution visit them at low tide and squirt the mix into a hole. They surface to expell the salt hold on to them but dont pull they will struggle for a few seconds then give up and come out easy.
-
Hi I hope this comes out, this is a harvest of Razor clams in Oregon
Sorry it is an old picture
-
Not as easy on the eye as reading the newspaper but the 'Daily Telegraph' article can be accessed online at : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YZILHPCDU0AXZQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/wine/2007/04/07/edfront107.xml
-
A food from the wild section of the forum would be nice.
Could be used to help us identify things, find out when things are in season etc
anyone agree?
G
-
A food from the wild section of the forum would be nice.
Could be used to help us identify things, find out when things are in season etc
anyone agree?
G
I think that's a good idea glow!
barkingdog
-
A new section sounds a brilliant idea!
I do brambles, elderberries, sloes, chestnuts... but I'm sure there's more I could find and use. Too scared to do mushrooms!!
Oh, and I sometimes forage for greens for our 4 chooks. The grass long since disappeared in our small garden, but I really think they should have something fresh and green. So they get healthy snacks of dandelions, cleavers, fat hen, chick weed, shepherds purse, clover, grass, plantains... ;D
-
We used to eat a lot of seaweed (my dad had a company selling it dried - "Clokie's Scottish Seavegetables" - before his time!). We had 7 different ones although I can't remember all the names. A couple of them are exposed at low tide, I would've thought Nori would be likely.
You need to find a rocky beach (I think you've identified this already) for it to grip to, but also it's near impossible to remove all the sand with washing if you get it from somewhere sandy. It sometimes grows best near sewage outlets, so check this first!
We were in the North of Scotland so other than the odd bit of plutonium near Dounreay, not much to worry about.
There should be a book though.
-
Where we used to live, I tapped silver birch in a woodland each year to make birch syrup and birch wine.
-
Near my nanas house in France you can pick hazelnuts from hedges, very special, also quince ( for jelly)
Round here we find a mushroom that my OH calls 'chicken of the woods' I have no idea about it other than from time to time we lurch off road in terrifying manner so we can climb halfway up a tree to pick it. Tastes divine though so totally worth it. He also forages for mussels, cockles and razor shells on the beach (bleugh)
Oh, and blackberries of course. 8)
-
The main man has been asked to consider a new section - heres hoping
G
-
I think that is an excellent idea if Dan can fix it. Thank you. XX Jeannine
-
I have to confess to being a Huge Whirly Fingerstall fan as well - I found his hedgerow section very interesting. Also, there was something on TV last year about a roadkill chef (?) who spent his time walking country lanes and picking up dead animals.
We are just back from hols to Northumberland (from Pompey) - couldn't believe the number of dead pheasants we saw on the roadside the length of the country. Sad confession time - we added to the carnage with one that was just too stupid not to fly straight into us; should we have stopped and picked it up?
-
Sad confession time - we added to the carnage with one that was just too stupid not to fly straight into us; should we have stopped and picked it up?
in the uk (i think) its not legal to pick up birds you have hit but it is legal to pick up birds someone else has hit - silly or what, but i suppose it stops you swerving all over the road to hit them ;D
If its fresh - ie you saw it got hit or accidentally shot it yourself ::) it would be a waste not to eat it.
If its been hit by a car chances are its internal organs will be mushed so probably best just to quickly cut the breasts out - still a nice light meal for two.
Apologies to the vegetarians amongst us
-
out of interest quite a few of HFW's practices are illegal. those that spring to mind are catching crayfish without a license and the river owners permission and shooting animals not classed as vermin with air rifles - still free food is the nicest tasting of all food ;)
-
Is anyone into foraging? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ;D
I've been to Hardwick Hall today and visited the herb garden. There was a huge bed of wild garlic so I 'secretly' stuffed a load of leaves in my handbag.
Unfortunately my car's fan/cooling system packed in when I got there so I had to be towed back home to Notts by a lovely bloke from the AA who 'wondered' what the smell was.
Apparently he's seen wild garlic in the woods that he visits with his kids so I've sent him off with a leaf to identify it and a few recipes!
I used to go foraging as a kid with my dad - hazlenuts, elderberries and flowers, dead pheasants on the derbyshire roads (hung for weeks in the garage) bilberries on the Peak District moors, rosehips and rabbits.
My ultimate dream is to find a puffball! Never ever seen one.
I used to go to the Longshaw estate in Derbyshire that opened the fields during September for the sheepdog trials. I went to see the dogs work, but a substantial amount of people went to harvest magic mushrooms!
You could tell the different people apart:
SHEEPDOG ENTHUSIASTS: Flat cap and wellies driving a Landrover
MAGIC MUSHROOM ENTHUSIASTS: Dreadlocks and crocheted sandals carrying a hessian bag with an all-day travel ticket from South Yorkshire Buses for £1.50
Oh happy days!
-
I once collected a sheep someone had hit. I'd been foraging like mad for several weeks, spending the summer camping with next to no money, and I'd mostly been eating tasteless nasty fungi out of the pinewoods for a bit. So I found the sheep, and ate like a king for a bit.
Some people swear by puffballs, but I've always found them to be tasteless, with no texture at all.
-
GLOW!
Then you need to read 'The Poacher's Handbook' by Ian Niall ;)
-
Robert: I think it's a matter of seasoning with things like puffballs.
Not so good on their own, but mixed with other herbs etc they can be quite palatable?
Anyway, I wouldn't know because I've never found one!
My dad can help with this though. He is the warden of a 'secret wood' near Mexborough so he can get me loads of lovely edible stuff. :)
-
Puffballs would probably be fine if they were well seasoned, I agree.
-
Trixiebelle you make me laugh, I have kicked many a hippy off my acreage when in Canada, John and I went out one day to a crowd of them giving them what for till we heard a voice say Oh Mum lighten up and up stood my son!!. Of course then I was down on my knees getting a lesson in what they looked like, tiny wee things.
I then had to feed all the ruddy crowd of his friends
So how did you manage to hold your hessian bag and your dog lead at the same time??
XX Jeannine..
PS please keep making me laugh.
-
Jeannine!
I have a hessian bag but I would never EVER harvest magic mushrooms! My mind is over-active enough without enhancing it with fungal fun!
I love to see the sheepdogs work!
I know lots of people that think the 'magic mushrooms' are magic! Not for me though
Trixie XX
-
Nor me, you know I was just teasing XX Jeannine
-
GLOW!
Then you need to read 'The Poacher's Handbook' by Ian Niall ;)
will look it up on ebay cheers- BTW where are you now are you not in Derbyshire anymore? Lots of puffballs round here in the Peak District but non of the giant variety (have only seen them near Glastonbury on holiday)
-
I had one experience of foraging and that was for sloe berries, picked a few of them to try and make sloe gin, then was told you had to wait until after a frost so put the lot in the compost bin! I used to pick blackberries and then spotted little worms in them and not done it since
PS - Hippy thing - anyone wear budgie bells on their shoes, pet shop man thought I was a raving lunatic when I bought six for each foot ;D ;D
-
Didn't know about the bells, but a lot of the Washington hippies from the communes wore flea collars around their necks, I always thought that odd, chemicals and all !!
-
GLOW!
Then you need to read 'The Poacher's Handbook' by Ian Niall ;)
I am now £4.50 worse off - thanks Trixiebelle (and amazon), but at least I have a book to read on holiday
-
Sorry about the Amazon Bill Glow!
I'm not in Derbyshire any more. Was born and brought up in the Peak District though. My dad was a mountaineer so I spent all my spare moments waiting for him to drop off a crag at the weekends and in the meantime I went foraging - bilberries usually!
-
billberries - we get them from Goyt Valley - invented by the devil how can you pick for so long for so little
-
'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!
-
Haven't had bilberries in years! My nana used to make bilberry pie, love the purple tongue!
-
'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
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
-
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
-
I got so excited when I saw you had been cockling them my heart fell...Dorset,
Boo Hoo XX Jeannine
-
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!
-
didn't know baby seals have teeth, trixie, great mind picture ;D
-
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
(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
-
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.
-
ilove elder blossom with boiled water poured on it the fresher the better
marg
-
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... :'(
-
... 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
-
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
-
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
-
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.
-
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
-
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.
-
Mirabelles and myrobalans, well, not totally sure but was told that the round yellow ones are the mirabelles, and the reddish round ones are the myrobalans. I pick them every year down Colchester way. There are also small black plums too, not damsons or anything like that, but quite black in colour. Sometimes I find yellow oval shaped ones that are a bit like an apricot, they have a fuzz on them, no-one has been able to tell me what they are called, I guess a cross of some sort.
-
Mirabelles are different from myrobalans and need a slighter warmer climate to thrive. In the UK, we're far more likely to see myrobalans (aka cherry plums) fruiting. Mirabelles are greenish, ripening to yellowish, whereas myrobalans are yellow or red/dark red. In practice, they're all lovely!
Here's a link to the National Fruit Collection record of the yellow cherry plum. Bottled eight jars of these, yesterday, and yes, they were foraged from the hedgerow.
http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full.php?id=8376&&fruit=Plum (http://www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full.php?id=8376&&fruit=Plum)
There are masses of cherry plums ripe around this time, so everyone PLEASE enjoy them, before they go to waste! :) The blackberries in my area are ripening earlier than usual, despite the late start to the season, so I'm going to pick lots and cook them with the red cherry plums I've already picked.
The crab apples, elderberries, bullaces and sloes can be left for a few more weeks! ;D
-
yep, that is rhe one we found just about three weeks ago tried ti ID it in earlier thread,it is on out lottie hedgerows mixed in withn the nuts. XX Jeannine
-
They look delicious - I've never seen any of those big yellow ones.
But I went for a walk with my daughter on my day off yesterday and I noticed that the various little plum-like fruits were very varied - in shape, colour and shape of leaves. I brought home 5 different examples, to see if I could identify them.
But I have no idea really what they are - they might be sloes, might be something else!
-
Pigeon seed I feel bad, I bumped this one up after reading it from your link as it had some good info in it but I think in doing so I scuppered your post.. can you put a link on here to yours as you did the other way so we can get all the info.. I am sorry it was thoughtless of me..notm meant as mean..
XX Jeannine
-
Most cherry plums are quite small; the ones in the National Fruit Collection pics are slightly larger than you might find growing wild - about 3 cms. The size depends on growing conditions, to an extent.
In a hedgerow that has lots of cherry plums growing, you'll find a range of different sizes and colours. Cuttings of red and yellow ones would have been planted originally, but as the trees mature, they set seed and these young trees fill any gaps in the hedgerow. Most of their fruits are round, but I've seen slightly oval ones, presumably the result of crossing with some other plum, or perhaps a natural variation.
All good to eat - that's the main thing!
Pigeonseed, you might find you've picked a black bullace or two - like sloes, but larger fruit when fully ripe in October. Great for making sloe gin or bullace and apple jelly - very high pectin content.
Some hedgerows have damsons or other seedling plums, just to vary things further. Many will have no names and probably aren't worthwhile in the greater scheme of things, although if you love them, you could give them a name, just for fun.
Enjoy them all! ;D
-
Yes I think they'll have no names unless I name them!
Jeannine - no worries - just a slightly different train of thought on the same topic. I'm happy to see both going!