Foraging - Natures Food

andygb

M.E. wrote: »

You've described MAHONIA.

It is edible, slightly astringent and rather pippy. Use like rowan berries.

Blimey, for a moment I thought they were highly toxic or something.
That is quite a scary font size you are packing there.:rotfl:

M.E.

Ooops, sorry...for the large font...

Mahonia is edible!!! Pippy but edible.

ceridwen

SusanC wrote: »

We usually go with a ladder to our local plum trees and take the ones everyone else leaves because they can't reach them.

Having just started reading latest entries - 10 kg of walnuts = 24 lbs of walnuts!!!! - (though not by your good self) and stuck head in hands - I promptly needed a "positive" take on foraging.

Thank you for providing it:T:)

andygb

ceridwen wrote: »

Having just started reading latest entries - 10 kg of walnuts = 24 lbs of walnuts!!!! - (though not by your good self) and stuck head in hands - I promptly needed a "positive" take on foraging.

Thank you for providing it:T:)

The 10kg of walnuts is them in their natural state, without the outer green husk(??) and the inner kernel removed. There are still loads left for others (if they are interested, which I doubt).
Walnuts are hard work though, because you have to remove the outer husk with a sharp paring knife, the leave them to dry for a couple of weeks.
You then have to crack the kernel open to get at the nut, and then peel away the pith.
I leave all this to the missus, and stick to cobnuts and chestnuts - far easier.

chrissiethechippy

I would love to find a walnut tree locally, but I have never seen one! Does anyone know of any in Southampton? Ir maybe of a web site that can help you locate good places to forage?

I have lots of plum trees in the garden waiting to be picked and turned into jam.

We also have a lot of blackberries and apple trees locally. Just the one pear tree, but the pears are too high sadly!

Tempted to have a go at making cider, but I don't really drink, they would be for gifts or for cooking with.... maybe I would like it more if it was homemade!

I'm not 100% sure what other berries are edible and to look out for to be honest!

I did read about a chestnut jam that you can make, chestnuts are something we have lots of locally. I wish I knew how to store them whole without boiling them!

Method_in_the_Magners

hello, loving all the recipes xxxx I am fortunate to live near wild garlic in abundance when it's about but tbh get fed up of wild garlic pesto! You are all so fantastic in what you are doing!
Going back to the 1st page & post about the mortgage free in 2 yrs - I remember the nettle lady (and her pretending to feed the kids cat food lol) - does anyone know if they made it?

ceridwen

Hi

I cant recall the web address of the coupla things I came across of foraging sites. I checked them out and found very very little on them. The reason why I suspect these sites wont "take off" is because foragers tend to fall into two groups:
- greedy grabbers
- fair sharers

I dont know how many people that have been foraging since they were born (ie their parents did so before them) are "fair sharers". I guess it boils down to how well their parents taught them (ie whether they taught them to be a "fair sharer" or taught them to be a "greedy grabber").

Those of us who have learnt foraging of ourselves more recently are most likely to be "fair sharers" and of an agegroup that takes access to the Internet for granted - as we were taught by professional foragers (who tend to be universally horrified at people being "greedy grabbers" and one is barely allowed to pick a sprig of anything in case you've taken too much) and in an era of huge overpopulation/overdevelopment of this country - so its necessary for us to be taught not to be greedy as part of these courses.

My point being - its more likely to be "fair sharers" who have learnt this and I would imagine they have already seen so much of "greedy grabbers" that they are unlikely to put any sites they know of up on such websites. So the people most likely to have automatic Internet skills are those most likely to be aware of the risk of "greedy grabbers" taking advantage of their freely given information and therefore wont put it up there.

The reason I hesitate to say anything myself is because I cant tell which of these two will be reading anything I put - and dont wish to take the risk of "greedy grabbers" learning anything useful (ie as well as the "fair sharers" I am prepared to help).

rachbc

Personally I think people who keep info to themselves are just as guilty as being greedy as people who take 'too much'. Generally in life I've found you get back what you give out and in my experience everyone I have met in relation to food, foraging and growing stuff has been generous, kind and helpful

ceridwen

Personally - I stick to what other foragers I know do - ie we will tell people we know IF we've sussed them out as "fair sharers".

So - if I know someone is a "fair sharer" type of personality/will be gathering the amount required for a small household/using it for food (not booze) purposes - then I share. I know I've been told what I have personally in the first place because I've been assessed as a "fair sharer"/small household/only uses it for food purposes (not wine).

I just spotted a post on a blog yesterday where someone had commented that they had told just one person about a tree they knew of (ie in the spirit of sharing) and found that they had misjudged the character of the person. Reason - when they went to forage from the tree - it was completely bare (the so-called friend had turned out to be a "greedy grabber" and had taken the lot).

rachbc

I just spotted a post on a blog yesterday where someone had commented that they had told just one person about a tree they knew of (ie in the spirit of sharing) and found that they had misjudged the character of the person. Reason - when they went to forage from the tree - it was completely bare (the so-called friend had turned out to be a "greedy grabber" and had taken the lot).[/QUOTE]

But the original person won't have been the only one who knew of the tree so the have no proof it was the person they told - could have been absolutely anyone...

In fact I think thats what bothered me most about this - people acting as if they ownership of wild things - that they can somehow dictate who and how should be able to pick once they have passed some judgement - it just seems so arrogant to me.