The Great Hunt: What's the best thing you've foraged?

keepergirl

moneypicapica wrote: »

Last year I was walking by an estate where they shoot pigeons and found one freshly shot. Nobody was to be seen around, but bird still warm and sloppy, so I took it home and cooked it in red wine. (After carefully removing all the lead shot.)

Can't really call it poaching as it was already shot and not by me.

Found another bird at the same place this year, but the poor thing was only injured and I couldn't catch it by hand. Actually, I'd call this animal cruelty. They either have completely incompetent retriever dogs or really don't care at all and its all just for the fun of shooting.:mad:

actually pigeons are seen as a major pest along with rats, crows, rabbits, etc to the farming industry as they destroy crops and can literally eat whole fields in a short amount of time, so shooting is an effective means of control, everything shot is usually picked by the person shooting as dogs are not generally used on vermin shoots, most people who do take part in shooting eat what they shoot apart from vermin obviously, and if you want to shoot just for fun then you would just go to a clay shoot

polka.dot

Parasol mushrooms (google it). Abundant this time of the year, great fried in breadcrumbs.
Ceps an other edible wild funghi - for making into a sauce.
Elderflowers - for champagne (if I can still call it champagne) and cordial
Sloes - for sloe gin
A mixture of hedgerow berries - for hedgerow jelly
Billberries - for anything you'd do with blueberries. I think in some parts of England they call them whortleberries.

Seakay

keepergirl wrote: »

actually pigeons are seen as a major pest along with rats, crows, rabbits, etc to the farming industry as they destroy crops and can literally eat whole fields in a short amount of time, so shooting is an effective means of control, everything shot is usually picked by the person shooting as dogs are not generally used on vermin shoots, most people who do take part in shooting eat what they shoot apart from vermin obviously, and if you want to shoot just for fun then you would just go to a clay shoot

you are quite right and this only emphasises the truth of what moneypicapica says, that shot birds should be collected and made sure that they are dead. Regarding an animal capable of suffering and feeling pain as vermin doesn't absolve anyone from the responsibility of ensuring that no unnecessary suffering takes place

kayannie

This is obviously the best time of year for foraging, but I begin in the spring with the wild garlic (ramsons). The leaves are used, not the bulb, and as they are not as strong as the garlic you buy, use plenty! There used to be hop fields where I live, and hops can be found growing wild in the hedgerows. Picked before the end of May, the tips of the young shoots are delicious lightly steamed - a bit like asparagus. I use the tops of young nettles instead of spinach, usually added to a cheese sauce with pasta. Ground elder can be used in the same way (not the elder tree). I make elderflower cordial from elderflowers, not the 'champagne' as this only keeps for a short while. The cordial will last for months if stored in very clean glass bottles. With the end of summer come all the wild fruits, most of which have already been mentioned: cherries, raspberries, strawberries, bilberries. As autumn approaches, I pick sloes and rowan berries and make jellies from these. I am now gathering wild pears - these are very small and not very nice eaten raw, but once cooked they are sweet. I mix with blackberries or apples in a crumble and they are lovely. I take a carrier bag with me when out walking the dog, and pick up any windfall cooking apples. These need using up fairly quickly as they are bruised so I stew them and freeze for later. I also know where a quince tree grows in an ornamental wood and at this time of year the fruits start to drop so I gather these and add them to apples to make a crumble or pie. There are plenty of hazel nuts around this year and can be found lying on the ground under the trees. A walnut tree grows in a field where I sometimes walk my dog but I haven't checked it out so far this year. I have left the best freebie till last! On late summer/early autumn days you might come across a puffball and this year I have found several. They can be any size up to that of a small football. Make sure that it is still fresh - the flesh needs to be pure white. Cut out any holes where slugs have nibbled. Peel the puffball, slice into 'steaks' and fry in olive oil. Wonderful!! I do eat other fungi, but as it is easy to confuse an edible variety from one that isn't, I don't recommend anyone eating these until they are sure of what they are picking. Puffballs cannot be mistaken for anything else!

Patches41048

Managed our first proper foraging trip of the year this weekend but I seem to have got my timing wrong.


Managed to find the rosehips I wanted for the syrup but have missed the elderberries by a week or so, the birds have stripped the trees! Not a problem really as their need is greater than mine but it would have been nice to try some in the rose hip syrup, just to see what its like.


Picked a few haws too as I found a recipe for sweet and sour haw sauce I want to try.


Not many apples and it looked like the sloes have been decimated again this year or the fruit just didn't set on some trees ... maybe next year if I get out a bit earlier!!!

Ken68

Still a few elderberries here, all on the north side of the hedge.

Patches41048

Ken68 wrote: »

Still a few elderberries here, all on the north side of the hedge.

That's good news Ken, you're further south than me so its worth looking a bit further .... the rosehips are in the freezer till it get the time to process them so there's time.

Sulevia

Best ever was oyster mushrooms in some woods, lawyers wigs from grassland were also pretty nice, very delicate flavour. I used to get tiny puffballs from a fairy ring in a playing field, and I've dried slices of giant puffball on low heat in the oven, one whole puffball lasted me a year in soup and stew flavourings.
Wild hops if picked after they've dried make a nice decoration, perhaps they can be used other ways?

juliamarsh

juleyross wrote: »

Last winter, we opened up the fireplace, and after begging from skips (always ask nicely), visiting the woods, and taken all those wind-damaged fences (we asked first!) we spent the whole winter very warm FOR FREE! We've already got loads for the coming winter including wood bits from the burnt-down Hastings Pier and the off-cuts from builders building it back up! You do need somewhere to store it though!:j
AND a freezer full of blackberries, rosehip syrup, foraged apples, plums (hedgerow), pears (tree in local car park), chestnuts (a delicious sauce), apples, pears, almonds, and figs from our garden - yummy!

I do exactly the same and have a woodburner that also heats many of the radiators. I go 'wood scrumping' regularly in the fields and woods and friends pass on trees that they cut down and old wooden pallets they no longer need. Freecycle is also good, several times I have got wood from there.

ejr

Please be aware that many woodlands are privately owned, and the landowner may not take kindly to people 'scrumping' their wood. It could be viewed as theft & also trespass if you stray from a footpath.