Foraging - Natures Food

Laura_D_3

I love this thread. As a chicken owner and an allotmanteer I'm thinking I can cut the food bills down to next to nothing with the help of a wonderful forum like this.

I was lucky enough to pick up Food For Free by Mabey at Barter Books in Anwick a couple of years ago on holiday and have totally fallen in love with it. Problem is I'm just not brave enough to try most of it.

So I'm thinking if I start small scale and increase gradually this could be a good plan, the food I have foraged for prior to this year are:-

1) Blackberries - never quite made it home munched the lot
2) Damsons
3) Elderberrys for wine which is still sitting happily in its bottle I haven't quite been brave enough to have a glass yet its smell 100% alchol

Next on my hit list is definately nettles, dandelions I have enough of them in the back garden I've also got hawthorns and beech so thats a couple more foraging on my own doorstep sorted.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what else I can forage in May/ June. Any foragers around the Shrewsbury area willing to share their local knowledge of good spots would be very appreciated


Yipeeeee I've just tried the elderberry wine and its lush, tastes like a nice red wine, possibly make a good sangria in the summer - how exciting :-)))))))))))))))))))

thelawnet

geordie_joe wrote: »

In a Jamie Oliver show, his Italian chef friend said there were over 2,000 species of mushrooms in the UK, and only two will kill you. There are also a small number that may make you ill if you eat them raw.

Not all mushrooms can be identified from photographs, some look very similar to others.

There are actually more than two deadly species in the UK.

Death Cap kills frequently.


Then there's Destroying Angel


Deadly Webcap, which nearly killed the author of The Horse Whisperer


Ivory Funnel


Autumn Skullcap


Entoloma sinuatum


Deadly Fibrecap


There are others that are pretty nasty too.

thelawnet

Laura_D wrote: »

I love this thread. As a chicken owner and an allotmanteer I'm thinking I can cut the food bills down to next to nothing with the help of a wonderful forum like this.

I was lucky enough to pick up Food For Free by Mabey at Barter Books in Anwick a couple of years ago on holiday and have totally fallen in love with it. Problem is I'm just not brave enough to try most of it.

So I'm thinking if I start small scale and increase gradually this could be a good plan, the food I have foraged for prior to this year are:-

1) Blackberries - never quite made it home munched the lot
2) Damsons
3) Elderberrys for wine which is still sitting happily in its bottle I haven't quite been brave enough to have a glass yet its smell 100% alchol

Next on my hit list is definately nettles, dandelions I have enough of them in the back garden I've also got hawthorns and beech so thats a couple more foraging on my own doorstep sorted.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what else I can forage in May/ June. Any foragers around the Shrewsbury area willing to share their local knowledge of good spots would be very appreciated


Yipeeeee I've just tried the elderberry wine and its lush, tastes like a nice red wine, possibly make a good sangria in the summer - how exciting :-)))))))))))))))))))

If you are going to go for Elders, you might as well take the Jew's Ear mushrooms off them as well. A substantial proportion of Elder trees have them on:

Laura_D_3

thelawnet wrote: »

If you are going to go for Elders, you might as well take the Jew's Ear mushrooms off them as well. A substantial proportion of Elder trees have them on:

Now I don't want to be mushroomist but they look mingy - please tell me they taste nicer than they look?

celyn90

Laura_D wrote: »

Now I don't want to be mushroomist but they look mingy - please tell me they taste nicer than they look?

Yep - they are common in oriental cooking - they have a slightly gelatinous texture but taste fine

thelawnet

Laura_D wrote: »

Now I don't want to be mushroomist but they look mingy - please tell me they taste nicer than they look?

They don't taste of much really. Not unpleasant. I saw some imported ones in the Thai shop, the owner seemed quite surprised to learn you could pick them off the trees in England for free.

Laura_D_3

Any tips on elderberry cordial and champagne making? I'm hoping to start some of later todya. Was meant to be this morning but then realised that there was no lemons in the cupboard and our local chemist only had 50g of citric acid left :-(((

Gigervamp

Here's a thread on elderflower cordial and champagne.

Here's my post on elderflower champagne.

Another thread here on cordial.

That should get you started!

ELIZA_D

hi there.
went to a park by my moms yesterday and took a walk down to where they have closed off the pool to refill to see the progress.
As we got there it is really overgrown by the path and i looked to my left at a tree i dont remeber seeing before laden with huge red fruit.
I thought it looked like plums and when we tasted the small fruit at the bottom they were very bitter but plum like in texture etc.
Getting a higher riper fruit we found they were plums a huge untouched plum tree in a park !! My boys were so excited we filled a carrier bag full and have bought home to ripen .
Need recipie for plum jam etc etc.......told a few friends so they can get some too and i may go back after my holiday next week for more !!

Lady_Aitch

Nothing nicer than getting something free. Plums are higher in pectin when barely ripe so dont disregard the half ripe ones.
Plumb preserve
1kg barely ripe plumbs
1kg preserving or granulated sugar
Half the plumbs, remove stones and place fruit in a preserving pan with 150ml water
Bring to the boil, then reduce to simmerfor 40 min until plumbs have broken down
Remove from heat and add sugar, return to heat until sugar desolve, bring to boil until setting has been reached.
Stand 10min and jar.
Seal immediatley
If the plumbs are ripe you may need to add lemon juice to the jam before boiling
Also the stones may be split and added to give a more delicate flavour. Traditionaly they would just be left in the jam.

Enjoy your free harvest