Foraging - Natures Food

Horace

I did a bit of foraging in my parents' garden on Sunday and came home with 2lbs of Laxtons, 2lbs Comice Pears, 2lbs of Conference Pears. I love free food. Mum gave me some lemonade too so that I could prepare my grandma's pears - she used to poach them in lemonade - delish.

ampersand

Horace, that sounds v.interesting and I have brought free pears back today. Poach them in lemonade? Don't have any, but have had lovely results adding elderflower cordial to all sorts of fruit cooking.
Can you say more about your grandma's method?

Seakay

pammer wrote: »

Afternoon everyone!

I picked some sloes a week ago with the intention of making them into sloe gin but I've only just been able to get to the shops to buy the gin. So the sloes have been in the fridge for a week now, they seem ok, none have gone mouldy although a few feel a bit squidgy. Do you think they will be ok to use?

(Sorry if this has been discussed in another post but I couldn't find reference to it by searching)

P x

As long as there is no mould then they are fine to use.

Chestnuts should store in the shell as long as they are sound in the first place, but if you want to peel them to make sure that they are sound then you could freeze them or dehydtrate them, if you want to have them whole so that you have the most options later on, or you could cook them and puree them and store the unsweetened or sweetened puree in the freezer or in sterilised jars with pop top lids or in kilner jars or similar.

Mistral001

I saw a programme on TV last night about the Danish chef Rene Redzepi who has a restaurant in Denmark called Noma which was voted the best restaurant in the world two years running. He serves food in his restaurant which has been mostly foraged locally aparently.

Has anybody heard of him before? Scandinavia is a climate like the UK's and I am tempted to learn from him and take up foraging mmyself.

Mistral001

The TV programme I referred to above, I heard a Radio 4 version of a few days ago:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmnh0/Hardtalk_Rene_Redzepi_Head_chef_Noma_restaurant/

Edwardia

Last Spring, I did a herb walk with an experienced forager and found lots of free food, right under my nose which I had never spotted before.

Having grown up in the country, I was familiar with chestnuts, blackberries, elderberries, nettles and dandelions but I had no idea that I could find sorrel, wild garlic (leaves and flowers are fantastic) and Jack in the Hedge, for example.

So I'm wondering if anyone else forages and if so what you do make with the food you collect ?

Sunflower1227

Hi, if you check out the "Old style money saving" there is a section on there all about foraging huh

tsimehC

Wow cool. I never thought to do that, is it legal in public spaces or do you need a special foraging license?

faerie~spangles

No, not to my knowledge.

TravellingAbuela

Our summers are spent foraging! Among the free foods we pick are bilberries from the moors (for pies and jam & crumbles), elderflowers (for "champagne"), elderberries (for cordial or chutney), blackberries (for jam, pies & crumbles), apples (to supplement aforementioned fruits) and wild pears (to make Pear & Lemon jam) In the autumn we brave the blackthorn bushes (beware the spikes!!) to gather sloes for our Xmas supply of sloe gin! I have a spare freezer which is full of berries to last us 12 months, until the next supply is available for picking!

I have a little book which identifies all the fruits/herbs/fungi you can pick and their uses. I have, however, never been brave enough to pick mushrooms!! I'll stick to Sainsbury's for those!