Foraging - Natures Food

wigginsmum

Pickled ash-keys are very nice - a bit like capers.

Penelope_Penguin

Thanks, Thriftlady. I've found an elder hanging over the fence into my garden. I'm out to nab them, now. Elderflower wine is very nice, too. Elderberry wine in the autumn, if you like full-bodied red. Lot of tannin in it, so needs to be left a few years before drinking.

Wigginsmum - pickled ash keys, never?!?!? Recipe, anyone, I love capers?

Hellfire - love the idea of eating dandelion greens. It's a way to get your own back. I understand, but haven't dared try, that the roots of ground elder are tasty, if that happens to be your invasive weed of choice.

Update, 12 June. Elderflower cordial delicious. Kitchen smells great.

Penny. x

apprentice_tycoon

This is my second year making elderflower cordial using Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls recipe (similar to Thriftlady's recipe) but it really is far too sweet, I have just made some now with half the amount of sugar but it still seems too sweet. I could add more lemon juice I suppose but I don't want the lemon taste to override the elderflower taste - does anyone have any less sweet recipes - I don't need to worry about it keeping because it goes in the freezer, we are just finishing last years off!

[Deleted User]

My late ma-in-law used to make a sloe gin that was absolutely lethal.:rotfl: She also made ginger beer. Sadly when she died her recipe book got thrown out which was a shame as it had recipes from her grandmothers day late 1870s.
My ma-in-law was the old wife that all the tales were written about .If you had something wrong with you she would come up with all sorts of cures .My kids thought she was a witch,:eek: as they usually worked.
But she did bring up three lads on a widows pension during the Depression years of the 1930's so a visit to the Doctors was out of the question, as you had to pay up front in those days .So her remedies were kill or cure. She grew and picked everything that she could from her large garden, and also knew where the best mushrooms were, and we would often be roused out of bed in the early hours to go 'mushrooming' before the sun came up. My eldest thought she was strange as she didn't' go to Sainsburys like Mum did' But there were few shops or supermarkets near where she lived out in the wilds of the countryside to go to anyway
She would have loved this site as she was amazingly frugal, and had all sorts of money-saving things that she used in her house.
I remember for a tickly cough she would boil up homemade lemonade for the kids to drink.

Aril

I'm been into foraging for the last 3 years or so and have to date made nettle soup, elderflower cordial and champagne [the latter was vile so need to find a better recipe methinks], hawthorn chutney, blackberry jam and blackberry whisky, elderberry gin, sloe gin, elderberry jam, rowanberry jelly [good with meat] and my Dad made me crabapple jelly last year. Also had beech nuts and chesnuts last autumn. Haven't been very brave with fungi. Sorrell is good but it is very peppery at the beginning of the season.
One of my friend's makes a very effective cough cure with elderberries.
Please could I have the recipe for pickled ash keys. Many thanks
Aril

wigginsmum

Sadly I don't have a recipe for the pickled ash keys; they were given to me by a friend. I think there is a book about wild food that contains it:

Wild Food

MrsTinks

Any idea where to find a place that does a proper foraging course? Ijust can't justify £120 or £150 (I forget which) that they charge for the River cottage mushroom course...

Not that I mind paying for a skill I will benefit from and which is vital if I want to pick wild mushrooms! But a little less pricey...

ChocClare

This place in Sussex does it for £12 (unless you're a member, in which case it's £8) http://www.sftg.co.uk/coursedetails.html. Scroll down the page and you'll see it. Where are you?

DrBenway

Lots of mushrooms in the New Forest

This link has a pdf showing different types of fungi and contact details for "fungi forays".

Jay-Jay_4

My Mum is to be see in the evening walking over the local golf course with a carrier bag full of field mushrooms. Now is a good time!