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Foraging - Natures Food

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Comments

  • Jaggers_2
    Jaggers_2 Posts: 42 Forumite
    Thanks! I'm a big fan of HFW but didn't realise that his next book was on the sea shore. Excellent! His Fish book has been great for ideas (as have his other books). I try to practice his eating snout to tail ethos but am still not able to get my head round tripe!!
  • HariboJunkie
    HariboJunkie Posts: 7,740 Forumite
    Try asking on freecycle or wanted add for lobster pots or creels. Where I live there are always some for sale in the paper and they should be easy to get hold of if you live by the coast.

    We have trapped crabs in the past off our old boat but lately my creels are more of a garden ornament. :o
  • Penelope_Penguin
    Penelope_Penguin Posts: 17,288 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
    Jaggers wrote: »
    I'd be grateful if anyone can offer any help on this or indeed on any other foraging activities.

    We have an exisitng thread, so now that this has fallen from the front page of Old Style, I'll add it to that one :D

    Penny. x
    :rudolf: Sheep, pigs, hens and bees on our Teesdale smallholding :rudolf:
  • kunekune
    kunekune Posts: 1,909 Forumite
    To clarify what someone said about theft earlier, the relevant provision is in s4 of the Theft Act 1968:
    (3) A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers,
    fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession
    of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial
    purpose.
    For purposes of this subsection ‘mushroom’ includes any fungus, and ‘plant’ includes any
    shrub or tree.

    What this means is that it isn't theft to forage, even from private land, provided you don't do it for a commercial purpose (eg, sell your jam). However, if would be theft if the food wasn't growing wild and you can only pick flowers, etc, not uproot them. Of course, the owner of the land might not know it isn't theft and they might be irate about trespass, so you could still end up in a bit of trouble.

    With animals, it all depends on whether they are wild or tamed, and there's some complicated stuff about being reduced into possession. If you find a dead rabbit (or kill a rabbit) you're ok using it, BUT if someone else had shot it first, and was on their way to pick it up or had lost track of it, then it could be theft, depending on whether you were 'dishonest'.
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  • ceridwen
    ceridwen Posts: 11,547 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    hmmm....but commonsense dictates that if one takes foraged food from private land that you ARE in fact stealing - whatever the law says. If I were the owner of that land then I could well be (indeed - definitely WOULD be) planning to pick the foraged food myself. I think there might just be a few penalties of my own I would be thinking of if I spotted someone picking a mushroom on my land before I had the chance to pick it myself.....;) :D

    I might be thinking of giving away any surplus forageable food I had - but I would definitely not "allow" someone just helping themselves without my say-so.
  • tiff
    tiff Posts: 6,608 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Savvy Shopper!
    Regarding rabbits, farmers have to cull them anyway so worth asking permission first.
    “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” - Dave Ramsey
  • kunekune
    kunekune Posts: 1,909 Forumite
    The law isn't always logical - if it was my students wouldn't find it so difficult! The protection you want comes from the fact that you can prevent people from going onto your land.
    Mortgage started on 22.5.09 : £129,600
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  • Penelope_Penguin
    Penelope_Penguin Posts: 17,288 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker I've been Money Tipped!
    ceridwen wrote: »
    hmmm....but commonsense dictates that if one takes foraged food from private land that you ARE in fact stealing - whatever the law says.

    In a court of law, I think a judge would side with the law rather than common sense though ;)

    Who said that the law had to follow common sense :confused:

    Penny. x
    :rudolf: Sheep, pigs, hens and bees on our Teesdale smallholding :rudolf:
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 33,823 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I think there a a difference between taking produce off a hedge that is accessible from the road and marching across someone's land to harvest their carefully nurtured fruit or mushrooms, even if the variety is "wild".

    Anyway, things to eat.

    i like corn salad, hairy bittercress, both of which are great winter salads. And ramsons are lovely, I like them wilted and mixed into scrambled egg.

    If you look at the recent Farm for the Future programme, the Agroforesty section had lime leaves, hawthorns etc.

    I certainly have made excellent jelllies with hawthorn (nicer mixed, I think) rowan (lovely) and a sort of autumn medley of rowan, hawthorn, elder and a few sloes.

    Elder is the most amazing cough medicine by which I have sworn since being given it by a friend's dad thirty years ago. There is a commercial produce which is £8 a bottle and I will pay that rather than use anything else if I have no home made cordial.
    The person who has not made a mistake, has made nothing
  • You can get a very good little pocket guide called 'Free Food' by Richard Mabey. Available second hand on Amazon for a couple of pounds. It has colour pics of most of the main foraging foods including seafood and has recipes as well.
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