Foraging - Natures Food

Rummer

The blackberries are not ready here yet but when they are we will be making pies and wine, yum!

morganlefay

ChocClare - have you got a good recipe for rosehip syrup ? I know you have to be careful with the whiskery stuff inside them (we used to use it as itching powder when I was young) but there seem to be so many round here this year I'd like to have a go if it's reasonably easy.

zippychick

ive mrged a couple of foraging threads into our main foraging thread

thanks
Zip

frugaliciousness

yip blackberries this morning. They've been made into some nice blackberry 'pasties'

tugrin

Hello Everyne
Absolutely love this thread and am going blackberrying tomorrow I'm so inspired. I am prticularly interested in the uses of rosehips - can they be used in savoury dishes at all?

zippychick

here's a rosehip thread with a few ideas

skintbint_2

tugrin wrote: »

Hello Everyne
Absolutely love this thread and am going blackberrying tomorrow I'm so inspired. I am prticularly interested in the uses of rosehips - can they be used in savoury dishes at all?

i have done a quick search and cant seem to find any, however i did find that it doesnt have to be dog roses there is also the bigger roses with hips that people use for hedging etc, there are about 60 bushes just up the road from us and i was wondering if they were edible too so now i know and i can go and pick some - so thanks found the answer to my question!


on here tells you a bit more and shows you a picture of the bigger hips (and dont i know about bigger hips!)

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14857&start=15

ceridwen

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that favourite foraging trees have "had the lot taken" by the time I decide to go and take a (fair) share from them. Whilst it may be a case of a lot of people taking a little each - ie it went in a "fair enough" type way - its my suspicion about some of them that it has been one or two people taking the lot.

In fairness the one or two people concerned may not realise that various other people have also decided to take a (fair) share and thought it was all available for them. I certainly noticed the post on MSE somewhere yesterday where someone had taken a HUGE amount and was planning to use it for making wine (ie rather than using it as food). I just hoped they were the only one that ever wants anything from that damson tree - as otherwise they will have taken several peoples share of food they would have wanted...and it is not possible to tell from the post whether this is the case or no.

Anyways - to the point - I have decided to put up polite notices on the trees concerned in future years to the effect of "You're welcome to take fruit - but please bear in mind that other people also wish to do so - and only take a fair share". If they're decent people who didnt realise - then this will work. If they arent - they'll still grab the lot anyway. But its worth a try and a hope that they are decent/fair-minded and just hadnt realised.

Rather than making something pretty amateurish myself I thought - "You never know - there might be some nice professional-looking firmly but humorously worded notices already around somewhere and suitable ties to tie them to trees".

Does anyone know of any I could buy please?

rachbc

I went (invited) to pick wild plums from a tree growing just on the edge of a friends land - when I got their daughter (4) was whisked of for a pony ride whilst friends hubby picked me 3.5kg of wild plums - possibly more than I would have done but he was more than happy for me to have them! I also got a big bag of runner beans that someone had left by their gate with a 'please help yourself' sign and some cultivated plums from my parents orchard. Will take a bottle or 2 of plum sauce back to say thank you for the plums and pony ride next time I am down - hopefully they will let me buy some pork from the 2 little piggies we fed apples to to go with it!

annie-c

ceridwen wrote: »

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that favourite foraging trees have "had the lot taken" by the time I decide to go and take a (fair) share from them. Whilst it may be a case of a lot of people taking a little each - ie it went in a "fair enough" type way - its my suspicion about some of them that it has been one or two people taking the lot.

In fairness the one or two people concerned may not realise that various other people have also decided to take a (fair) share and thought it was all available for them. I certainly noticed the post on MSE somewhere yesterday where someone had taken a HUGE amount and was planning to use it for making wine (ie rather than using it as food). I just hoped they were the only one that ever wants anything from that damson tree - as otherwise they will have taken several peoples share of food they would have wanted...and it is not possible to tell from the post whether this is the case or no.

Anyways - to the point - I have decided to put up polite notices on the trees concerned in future years to the effect of "You're welcome to take fruit - but please bear in mind that other people also wish to do so - and only take a fair share". If they're decent people who didnt realise - then this will work. If they arent - they'll still grab the lot anyway. But its worth a try and a hope that they are decent/fair-minded and just hadnt realised.

Rather than making something pretty amateurish myself I thought - "You never know - there might be some nice professional-looking firmly but humorously worded notices already around somewhere and suitable ties to tie them to trees".

Does anyone know of any I could buy please?

Are you talking about your own trees, on your property, or wild ones?

If they are your own trees I'd be very annoyed, but otherwise, picking wild fruit for wine is fairly common, I don't think there is any point trying to shame folk because they are winemaking with stuff that others would use as food. It's horses for courses and the countryside is ripe with plenty for everyone, if you look hard enough. TBH, I would think that putting up signs would just draw attention to the fact that they are there and might attract even more folk to pick the fruit. I am a fair-share person now, but as a child, a sign like that would have brought out my devillish streak...

Sorry I can't help with the sign, but just wanted to suggest that you might find locations of more trees simply by asking on your local freecycle group. Mine have been great, I've even had people send me edited maps to show where the best fruit is. :T