Foraging - Natures Food

westcoastscot

I'm curious as to why you don't want to preserve them with sugar? if you only have a few, and plan to eat them as part of a balanced diet which is largely gleaned from seasonal produce supplemented with over-harvest (which is largely how I live) i'm always glad of a sweet healthy treat in the midst of winter (and when i use the term healthy, I don't mean in the sense of low calorie/unrefined - I mean healthy in terms of serving both body and soul with calories to support outdoor work in the midst of winter and soul food of a tasty something after a hard days work.

ceridwen

westcoastscot wrote: »

I'm curious as to why you don't want to preserve them with sugar? if you only have a few, and plan to eat them as part of a balanced diet which is largely gleaned from seasonal produce supplemented with over-harvest (which is largely how I live) i'm always glad of a sweet healthy treat in the midst of winter (and when i use the term healthy, I don't mean in the sense of low calorie/unrefined - I mean healthy in terms of serving both body and soul with calories to support outdoor work in the midst of winter and soul food of a tasty something after a hard days work.

I see what you are getting at - but the thing is that sugar contributes absolutely nothing to a diet - no vitamins, no minerals, nothing and I've got the info stored aways somewhere about all the bad health affects it has (the type of stuff in the book "Pure, White and Deadly" - cant remember author). It convinced me to absolutely minimise sugar consumption I do remember. Of course the calories as well are a problem - RATHER a lot of calories. Its not really something that I actually even encounter normally - I make any homemade bread I do with honey and sugar is something that is tucked away somewhere in a jar in case I have any workmen doing a job on my house and wont be required here at all once I've finished all the work on my house, as no-one I know takes sugar in their drinks.

pelirocco

ceridwen wrote: »

I see what you are getting at - but the thing is that sugar contributes absolutely nothing to a diet - no vitamins, no minerals, nothing and I've got the info stored aways somewhere about all the bad health affects it has (the type of stuff in the book "Pure, White and Deadly" - cant remember author). It convinced me to absolutely minimise sugar consumption I do remember. Of course the calories as well are a problem - RATHER a lot of calories. Its not really something that I actually even encounter normally - I make any homemade bread I do with honey and sugar is something that is tucked away somewhere in a jar in case I have any workmen doing a job on my house and wont be required here at all once I've finished all the work on my house, as no-one I know takes sugar in their drinks.

Honey is still sugar , ( to all intense and purpose ) , neither should be eaten in any great amount .

westcoastscot

Hi cerwiden, yes i've read that book - its really interesting - i use very little sugar in my baking - plus its vegan but if we're looking to a future without the use of freezers we may have to return to the traditional ways of food preservation, water-baths, salting (not a good idea these days with what we know of salt) and preserving with sugar - otherwise our diet will be restricted to what we can purchase/harvest seasonably - a return to shopping daily for small amounts of seasonable food.
For me the calories aren't really a problem - I eat very little sugar, but do live a very active lifestyle. I think the answer is to utilise the freezer while we have it, if we wish to avoid sugar, but to appreciate that in days to come then the extra work involved in shopping daily, on foot, and mostly eating seasonal fresh food will negate the few extra calories from the sugar in our preserves? For now, if we wish to save freezer space, it may be better to bottle/can things like veggies and use the freezer space for fruit if we wish to avoid sugar.

Meadows

tandraig wrote: »

as to the concept value per pound - i try to squeeze out as much as I can!! the butternut squash at 68 P well - a quarter of it went into my garlic roast veg - along with some remnants in fridge. half of it was baked - covered in black pepper and a little olive oil to accompany chops - the other quarter went in stew. not sure what i could have done with skins - but they went into composter!!!!

When roasting the squash leave the skin on, it becomes soft and very tasty (also saves messing about peeling it).

zippychick

PasturesNew wrote: »

Or you could get a part-time job at the local chinese and get paid minimum wage and all the chinese food you can eat.

I know somebody who used to deliver them - and for each shift he got a full meal for 2, which would have done a single person for 4 meals at least.

Take away chinese isn't really nutritionally sound though, is it?

maltesers_2

ceridwen wrote: »

I see what you are getting at - but the thing is that sugar contributes absolutely nothing to a diet - no vitamins, no minerals, nothing and I've got the info stored aways somewhere about all the bad health affects it has (the type of stuff in the book "Pure, White and Deadly" - cant remember author). It convinced me to absolutely minimise sugar consumption I do remember.

The author was John Yudkin and he was one of the first to come up with a low carb diet. I agree that sugar adds nothing to a diet and in fact it can be an anti nutrient but it seems essential in preserving.

Today I made 5 jars of rose hip syrup from 1 1/2 pts of rosehip juice and 1 lb sugar. Apart from oodles of vit c rosehips have so many goodies in them that they deserve to be recognised as a superfood. The sugar is necessary to preserve them so in this case I think it is acceptable. Shop bought rose hip syrup cost over £3 for a small jar and if you buy dried rosehips you can't be sure what you are getting. I will use it like honey on natural yoghurt and possibly as a hot 'summery' drink for midwinter.

I also make hedgerow jelly at around this time of year (an equinox ritual) crammed with everything available. Again this needs sugar but we don't use much - one jar is enough and the rest go as presents. Sugar has its place in the world if treated as a luxury item and is far better that the evil HFCS used in most drinks and ready made stuff these days.

allydowd

ceridwen wrote: »

1. How can I be sure I am correct in thinking that these red berries are definitely guelder rose - to describe them: they hang in clusters just like elderberries and I would think they were elderberries if they were black and the quantity of berries was greater per cluster - ie they are the same size/softness/etc. Does that sound like they ARE guelder rose? have I got that correct?

GUELDER ROSE BERRIES AND BARK ARE POISONOUS and only become edible when PROPERLY cooked.

Here is some information about them from Cambridge University department of plant sciences:

http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/guelder.htm

ceridwen

Thanks for that - I'm definitely NOT planning on trying them out raw - thats for sure......

Penelope_Penguin

Interesting thread - I've never thougth of cooking with Guelder Rose before

As it's fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the current thread on foraging, to keep ideas together.

Penny. x