Foraging - Natures Food

Churchmouse

How strange rachbc, I too saw squashed what I assume were greengages, but couldn't find a tree with any on :rotfl: They're definitely not the same ones because mine wouldn't have been on anyones school route Only low lying blackberries left, all on dog walking routes so shall be leaving them exactly where they are

Haribo, you are so clever to be able to identify all those mushrooms. I shall have to content myself with buying as many varieties as the supermarkets sell :D

Does anybody know if the ornamental shrubby quince fruit are edible, and if so what can you do with them?

rachbc

Hmmmm mysterious greengage dropping alien life forms?? Its the only possible explanation....

I make jelly with my japonica quince - only get a few jars of mine - but this year only 4 fruit on it - gutted as I love love love the jelly and only 1 jar left ((

Churchmouse

Oooh that sounds lovely. Do you have a recipe to share rach, or shall I just google, and are they treated the same as tree quinces. ( whispers, I couldn't remember the word japonica :o )

HariboJunkie

Churchie and rach, perhaps it's a biblical plague of greengages.

Churchie, the fruit of the shrub is edible but not considered as good as the fruit of the tree. You can use it in jams and jellies but the fruit is smaller and more sour than the tree.

Nothing clever about my foraging. Just years of practise and a clever OH who taught me well.

rachbc

i do the traditional jelly method - just cover the fruit with water and cook til soft, strain and add sugar a pound to a pint of juice and boil - though can't remember the temp think my recipe was from cottagesmallholder.com

floss2

D&DD wrote: »

...Picked a few sloes to be brave and try apple and sloe jelly....

We make sloe jelly every year and use it like redcurrant, it's delicious. The recipe I use is also from the cottage smallholder website here

adelight

A small sweet chestnut tree had dropped early so I collected a few dozen :j And a few dozen acorns, six crap abbles, some water mint, a big parasol mushroom and maybe 100g of what i think are rowan berries but not 100%.
Will do cabbage with bacon and chestnuts, little chestnut soup, acorns in stew, crab apple crumble and a jelly test if they are rowan.


Also think I saw white rowan berries but couldn't find much searching online on my phone at the time.

floyd

Went to get some more sloes today with my friend but our session was cut short when we were flashed at by a 15 year old boy! :eek:

He looked a bit crestfallen when the pair of us burst into hysterical laughter

ceridwen

For those interested - I found a copy online of the Wild Mushroom Pickers' Code:

http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/mycology/conservation/code-of-picking/

KazLA

adelight wrote: »

A small sweet chestnut tree had dropped early so I collected a few dozen :j And a few dozen acorns, six crap abbles, some water mint, a big parasol mushroom and maybe 100g of what i think are rowan berries but not 100%.
Will do cabbage with bacon and chestnuts, little chestnut soup, acorns in stew, crab apple crumble and a jelly test if they are rowan.


Also think I saw white rowan berries but couldn't find much searching online on my phone at the time.

Can you please tell me more about what you do with acorns? My daughter is always picking them up, but didn't realise there was a use for them (other than growing an "acorn tree", which is what she has been trying to do!