Foraging - Natures Food

boultdj

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Ooh just the sort of thread i was looking for, we went blackberry picking today and i spoted a few trees/maybe bushes with what looked like mini plums or slightly big blueberries i was wondering what they were and if they were edible. I took a pic

does anyone here know what they are? lol sorry to hijack TIA

That is a damson, use any plum recipe.

tulip12

Same here plums and damsons. Made plum jam today.

Waiting now for elderberries to be ready, the wine we made from them
last year we are just drinking now and its really lovely.

skintbint_2

been out looking for brambles (blackberries!) but looks as though will be a couple of weeks yet. for any of you registered with freecycle it may be worth putting an add on for apples and plums etc as there is always somebody who cant use all they produce or for your jars. (you can get just new lids off the jam jar shop).
Has anybody ever made rowan jelly and what like was it - noticed the rowans are in full force just now and lots of them (must be another hard winter due with the amount on the trees just now).
also noyiced poundland have kilner type jars in at the moment

AlwaysAllie

skintbint wrote: »

been out looking for brambles (blackberries!) but looks as though will be a couple of weeks yet. for any of you registered with freecycle it may be worth putting an add on for apples and plums etc as there is always somebody who cant use all they produce or for your jars. (you can get just new lids off the jam jar shop).
Has anybody ever made rowan jelly and what like was it - noticed the rowans are in full force just now and lots of them (must be another hard winter due with the amount on the trees just now).
also noyiced poundland have kilner type jars in at the moment

Funny you should ask that - just seen a rowanberry jelly recipe for the first time and really fancy it - thought they were poisonous!! Really fancy it though....

AA

Eyeore

Lots of blackberries out here, made some apple and blackberry jelly today, really badly as it happens, luckily it was only a small amount! :-) wish I could find some damsons, love damson jelly with a roast. What do rowan berries look like please?

skintbint_2

Eyeore -rowans are also called mountain ash - bunches of red berries with leaves like fingers??? i think they are found more readily in Scotland and Northern England

alwaysallie:- i think they are if they are not cooked


googled this:http://en.heilkraeuter.net/herbs/rowan-berry.htm

ladylouise62

Just blackberries so far - I have yet to check on the damson trees... but I hope to be out tomorrow

Eyeore

Thanks so much skintbint, will do a little search round here!

TravellingAbuela

I love this time of year with nature's supply of free food! We picked 20 lbs of bilberries from the moors mid to end of July, now safely stowed away in the freezer in readiness for making pies and a new stock of jam once last year's supply runs out!

I still have a supply of elderberries in the freezer from last year - why did we pick so many!! Gave some to a friend recently who made some elderberry and apple chutney, which was quite nice. I originally picked them to make cordial but we weren't overly impressed with it so I tried them in Blackberry & Elderberry jam and that was quite nice, although a little bit tart for some tastes. I don't think I'll bother picking any more this time and using up valuable freezer space.

Picked a few blackberries the other day but still another few weeks ripening time needed round these parts, as still an awful lot of green ones. Have my eye on a hazelnut tree and hoping no-one else has spotted it! The sloes are coming along nicely too but we usually leave those till early October. The wild pears are also ripening nicely and as I am on my last jar of Pear & Lemon jam from last year that is good timing! I have never had the good fortune to find any wild damsons but live in hope!

Karmacat

Hello! Haven't been on OS for ages, but I'm really glad I found this thread.

Blackberries been picking those for weeks - just a couple of dozen at first, I currently have about 2kg in the freezer, waiting for the visit from my mum to be over so I can make the jam in peace.

Apples neighbour has a *huge* apple tree in his garden and never uses the produce, I'm hoping to snaffle a couple of carrier bags of apples.

Rowans I read about rowan jelly recently, and I've been out looking for a tree thats far enough away from a road for my liking. Whenever I find one, tho, the berries are mostly gone - not from a forager, it looks like birds, so I'll leave them be.



Lindseykim - thank you for posting that pic - there's a kind of orchard near me, of oak trees and trees that look like that, and they all look planted, they're more or less in rows, though different sizes. I was wondering about it being a damson tho - there's another tree on our recreation ground, which has a fruit thats sized midway between that photo and the plums you get in the shops. I thought it was a damson till now. Is it a wild plum? Are they smaller than cultivated plums? V confused now. Any advice, please?