Foraging - Natures Food

Claire_Bear

Just got back from a bramble foraging mission, I got absolutely loads and could have filled my tins about 5 times over. All of that from deepest darkest Middlesbrough - who'd have thought it? :rotfl: I did get some funny looks from the local chav population though, as well as all the buses going past as it's right next to a big road. I'll be the one laughing when I'm eating amazing bramble and apple crumbles and jam though!

Never heard of soaking them in salt water, wouldn't all the juice come out in the water? I've given them a good rinse under the tap, reckon they'll be alright?

gailey_2

I add the salt as gets bugs out as they seem to love blackebberies i wash when put in fridge and freeze some too.

I get few looks from chavs on coucil estate when picking cherries too.
I get impression they think we sad or poor round here.

Hubby wont pick on very main road as says it advertises we poor.
But hes all to happy to eat the crumble.

You would have thourght with rivercottage it be more popular.

even in a city theres tonnes.

katholicos

My daughter just came back from a weekend stay with my Mum and Dad and she came in with two carrier bags full of foraged pears and apples, 2 sweetcorn, a bowl of blackberries and some strawbs (the latter from Morrisons LOL!) I'm going to weigh it all and then i'll post the amount foraged later. I am so thrilled!

Claire_Bear

Heh I was a little worried that it would look like I was poor too but then thought that was daft and I wasn't bothered if people thought that about me at all! And to be honest I am a little poor, but that's not the reason I was foraging. Got a few questions though -

Can you freeze brambles as they are or would I need to cook them with apples and freeze the mixture? I'm sure I read something about freezing making the juice cells burst?

Also I found a recipe for blackberry infused vodka which would make great Christmas pressies, if I made it now would it keep until then or would it go off? Could I make it with frozen berries nearer the time?

dixie_dean_2

Collecting from near very busy roads isn't the best idea (some people think) due to pollution.

dixie_dean_2

sarahsarah wrote: »

Hello :waves: new to this thread!

What is the etiquette when a fruit tree isin someone's garden but branches are overhanging a footpath? Am I supposed to knock and ask? And what if the house looks unoccupied?

If the tree is in someone's garden it's their tree and their fruit. You could knock on and ask if it looks like it's not being used but that would be quite hard to tell as they could be picking them personally over several weeks. If the house is unoccupied it would depend on a few things, like if there were people renovating it, if it was abandoned etc. It's a good idea to ask first though, always, and you'll find a nice present - a jar of jam, a bottle of sloe gin or whatever - will make you welcome back in years to come.

ceridwen

gailey wrote: »

Thats awful theres nothing but dont give up hope im finding new spots all time this year by wnadering down random lanes and paths never been down before even trees on outeredge of large park so one seems to touch.
Maybe if visiting freind or family check out their area.

Blackberries seems to be in abundance everywhere so i take bag/tub wit me all times now as found in church carpark, pub carpark, went to park in different area with kids picked couple there.Round the edge of skate park has tonnes they grow in most unlikly places.



Its weird kids would pick so much as they usually quite fussy and weary of fruit.
I always leave stuff on as always too much plus birds need some too.

I advise to go new areas and start exploring.
If you lived closer you could of had some of mine.

If i was in supermarket with mum I would have rifled through reduced hubby always leaves that honour to me but most of time especially chilled stuff its either hardly any money off or bit worse for wear and sometimes you have to fight your way to it.

I imagine the kids were told to do so by their parents - and are probably being brought up to "elbow their way through everything/everybody" - rather than to be mindful of "What is my turn? What is my share of whatever-it-is?". Some people arent taught to think "Theres one cake and 6 people wanting a bit of it" and instantly mentally divide the cake in 6 equal pieces - they just take however much they want of it regardless...:cool::mad:

Awww...thanks for your thought on sharing though - 'twas nice of you:)

I guess my mother knows that I dont like the idea of "fighting for something" any more than she does. If I feel I have to "fight" - then I tend to leave it...as I don't want to do that. Being someone who is vegetarian and likes my food prepared from scratch there is very very rarely anything I would want in the reduced section anyway. I just wanted a look out of "academic interest" - as I thought the way people were hanging around and hanging around near the section must mean that supermarket reduced their prices to the rockbottom level I see other posters mentioning sometimes - and that I never see in this area.

Nope - I'm just well used by now to the fact that the food I want to buy almost never comes up as a BOGOF or reduced.

rachbc

ceridwen wrote: »

I imagine the kids were told to do so by their parents - and are probably being brought up to "elbow their way through everything/everybody" - rather than to be mindful of "What is my turn? What is my share of whatever-it-is?". Some people arent taught to think "Theres one cake and 6 people wanting a bit of it" and instantly mentally divide the cake in 6 equal pieces - they just take however much they want of it regardless...:cool::mad:

Awww...thanks for your thought on sharing though - 'twas nice of you:)

I guess my mother knows that I dont like the idea of "fighting for something" any more than she does. If I feel I have to "fight" - then I tend to leave it...as I don't want to do that. Being someone who is vegetarian and likes my food prepared from scratch there is very very rarely anything I would want in the reduced section anyway. I just wanted a look out of "academic interest" - as I thought the way people were hanging around and hanging around near the section must mean that supermarket reduced their prices to the rockbottom level I see other posters mentioning sometimes - and that I never see in this area.

Nope - I'm just well used by now to the fact that the food I want to buy almost never comes up as a BOGOF or reduced.

Goodness me we are jumping to lots of judgmental conclusions on no evidence - who's to say 4 different people haven't come along and picked them, or how needy they were...

Jeez this place bugs me sometimes!

ceridwen

dixie_dean wrote: »

Collecting from near very busy roads isn't the best idea (some people think) due to pollution.

I have the feeling myself that the books that mention not collecting stuff by busy roads are probably fairly old books (ie written in the era in which there was lead in petrol). There hasnt been lead in petrol for some years now - so I imagine that its now okay to do so.

I think - from what I can see - that there are two basic differences between "older" foraging books and the more "recent" ones.

I think the older ones were more conscious of telling people not to forage by busy roads (because petrol had lead in it in those days).

The more modern books don't tend to mention that - but the writers of them are conscious that Britain is WAY overpopulated and more and more of our countryside and green spaces in urban areas are being built on. The combination of those two factors means more people after foraged food on the one hand and less forageable food available on the other hand. Modern foraging writers often make comments about "You cant have 60 million people all out foraging - theres nothing like enough wild food for that number of people to even have 'tasters' of it". Some people won't see where those sort of remarks are coming from (as they live in rural/low population parts of Britain) - but those of us living in the overpopulated urban areas of Britain nod ruefully in agreement when we read comments like that.

ceridwen

rachbc wrote: »

Goodness me we are jumping to lots of judgmental conclusions on no evidence - who's to say 4 different people haven't come along and picked them, or how needy they were...

Jeez this place bugs me sometimes!

The other forager was the one who told me that he knew that group of kids were the ones that took ALL the plums last year - because he had seen them do it and he was the one who thought they were taking everything this year too.

"Neediness" does not negate the need for manners and fair shares for other households or give people the right to go against the "foragers code".