Foraging - Natures Food

katholicos

We managed to find another apple tree in the countryside today so we foraged some apples. These will probably be used for jam as i have loads of chutney stored up now!

hannahO_2

You people are so lucky to live in a country. There is not much, if any, to forage in the city but I did have a good day of free food and drink as it goes today. 1) Free ice cream from Metro Bank (I think they've just opened), 2) Sample of a venison and bluberry burger followed by a pork and apple sausage 3) some nice tangy cheese 4)Free Smirnoff vodka and coke (voucher)

Seakay

Quinces can be used for jelly, cheese, pickle, flavouring vodka (ratafia), bottling in syrup, adding to any apple recipe.

Rowan berrys can be used to add flavour and colour to an apple jelly, and the resulting preserve used with game or on bread or toast.

Seakay

hannahO wrote: »

You people are so lucky to live in a country. There is not much, if any, to forage in the city but I did have a good day of free food and drink as it goes today. 1) Free ice cream from Metro Bank (I think they've just opened), 2) Sample of a venison and bluberry burger followed by a pork and apple sausage 3) some nice tangy cheese 4)Free Smirnoff vodka and coke (voucher)

Think laterally in the city, you'd be suprised what can be foraged!

A local park has lots of specimen trees (it was designed in Victorian/Edwardian times) so I have collected walnuts, bay leaves, ginko leaves from there, plus pine cones to start up my woodburning stove.
Unused allotment spaces often have brambles all over them. Elderberries grow in a local churchyard.
Rowan trees are planted along the edge of a school playing field, sometimes they are planted in suburban streets.

tiff

I found an apple tree hidden in the cemetery but my Mum said she didnt fancy anything made with them lol

Butterfly_Brain

Got another kilo of blackberries today - there are a lot that are not ripe yet so we are going again next week. Also got a load of rose hips to make syrup and jam.

Damsons are not ready yet, but we have had loads of cherries, plums and filberts (not many the squirrels got a lot but at least we managed to get some and they got all of the walnuts :(Here is a great site for foraging recipes

http://www.overthegardengate.net/garden/herbs/reci_hedge.asp

silligilli

blackberries in profusion here, along with rosehips and rowan berries. I've gathered loads of pine cones for fire ( i asked if it was ok from fellow o.s.) Celyn90 did you say you can make infused vodka with rowan berries - how do you do it please?

hannahO_2

silligilli wrote: »

blackberries in profusion here, along with rosehips and rowan berries. I've gathered loads of pine cones for fire ( i asked if it was ok from fellow o.s.) Celyn90 did you say you can make infused vodka with rowan berries - how do you do it please?

Thing about anything to do with pine is that they spits like a wild fire due to high oil content (?) It's ok if you don't have an open fire.

ASC

Very excited yesterday, on the way to an apple tree I'd spotted in the distance I found what I believe to be a mulberry. At first I thought there was a blackberry rambling up a tree, but the large, blackbery-like fruit was actually growing on the tree. There don't seem to be many recipes but I'm guessing I can use them in a similar way to a blackberry. Anyone have any experience of mulberries?

I also found what looks like a spindleberry and it's such a shame they're not edible 'cos they're so pretty!


A x

floyd

Perry pears, has anyone seen them before and what do they taste like?

My mum had spotted what she thought might be a quince tree, cue much excited whooping from me and running out with carrier bags ready to collect the fallen ones. However when I got there, they looked like very small (6-7cm), yellowy-green slightly rounded pears. I bit one and it was slightly sharp but tasted much like a normal dessert pear.

Could it be a dessert pear that just doesn't get very big or are they more likely to be perry pears? They were in an area that was originally the garden of a mansion and surrounded by apple trees.