Foraging in '23 and beyond...

Katiehound

looks like you can make Haw jelly from haws- good to serve with venison but I haven't found a good link . The one I found won't connect!. Haws, lemon, sugar. Found a US one but the fruits look far more like crab apples- much bigger. Of course you then have to convert from US cup sizes... faff!!!

there is also haw ketchup- Haw-sin!
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/hawthorn-berry-recipes-foraging

seem to be loads of haws round here, no sloes found & very few hips

Just struggling to clean kitchen floor- accidentally knocked & smashed  a hm 500 ml bottle of elderflower cordial on kitchen ceramic floor. teeny bits of clear glass & tacky tacky surface....eerrgghhhh.......

goldfinches

It was very wild and windy here overnight and this morning so at lunchtime I nipped down the road to some apple trees at the front of a hotel and picked up a bag of windfalls and then managed to fill another bag from a college sports ground as well as pick a few sloes and some blackberries. I also spotted that a sweet chestnut was dropping prickly cases inside a tennis court and am resolved to go back tomorrow or Thursday to pick those up, I didn't have time or energy today. Here's my haul.

thriftwizard

@goldfinches, what are you planning to do with your apples? I'm a bit all-appled-out, but still planning to try to get some more crab apples & blackberries - next week, probably, as the weather looks horrible until then!

Today I've made fruit leather from apples, rhubarb & damsons - so far, so tasty - I'm just wondering how long I'll need to dehydrate it for?

goldfinches

I'm not planning anything nearly so skilled as you @thriftwizard but am planning to make lots of apple puree to go into the freezer. I usually eat it with yoghurt for breakfast.

thriftwizard

Apple puree's a Good Thing, @goldfinches - there's lots in our freezer too. 

Went down to the crab apple trees again this morning & there are still loads, both on the ground & still up in the trees. I collected half a big carrier bag full, and was asked several times by passers-by what I was going to do with them. Also all sorts of queries about other fruits & berries in the area - some of which wouldn't do you any good at all! There are very few blackberries left now; most have rotted off, though some are still flowering, but there are plenty of rosehips, sloes and haws.

So we now have 8½ jars of mango & crab apple chutney (3 mangoes for £1 at the market on Friday) and a huge pot of crab apple pectin. (Interestingly my chickens have torn into the pulp left over from making that; they usually completely ignore it.) The pectin will be used to make jam with the raspberries from the allotment, still coming thick & fast.

MoonChild91

I had my second ever go at jam earlier this week and made sloe and apple jam (thank you @goldfinches for your suggestion!) and it's turned out really well - definitely better than my 'caramelised' damson jam last year! Used about 200g of sloes and 2 big cooking apples of about 300g and have 3 decent sized jars. 

Here's the recipe, I just adjusted the measurements down https://www.fabfood4all.co.uk/sloe-apple-jam/

My usual foraging spot has been mostly wiped out - no blackberries, damsons, wild plums, or crab apples left, and not enough elderberry left to do much with, though there is a very well established russet tree which was completely untouched (I think people are perhaps put off by their looks?) that I got a good haul from and will probably turn into crumble at some point. Hoping to try out another apple spot later in the week and get enough for apple puree or apple butter. 

Slinky

Talking of crumble, I made apple and raspberry crumble at the weekend. Oh my goodness, the nicest crumble I've ever made.

kayannie

Not exactly foraging, but passed a house yesterday that a large basket of Bramley cooking apples sitting on the wall with a notice to 'help yourself', which I did. Storm due here this afternoon so I will be making Sweet Apple Chutney as I have just opened the last jar from last year.  
KA

thriftwizard

@kayannie, urban foraging is definitely a thing - both from the resources people have realised are useful & are kind enough to share, like your apples, and also by just knocking on doors & asking. I'll be off to get some of my friends' Japonica quinces next week to make this year's quince marmalade, as I suspect Storm Agnes is going to bring a fair few of our tree quinces down. The tree quinces (var. Vranja) don't have as much pectin as the little knobbly Japonica ones & the two types work well together, the Cydonias (grated) making up the bulk of it & the Japonicas, just boiled up & strained off, contributing their pectin & a subtle spicy flavour.

Sadly it always surprises me how often people just don't realise (some of) the fruit in their gardens is edible, and just tip things like plums, "because we can't eat them & they just attract wasps"... the green waste skip at the tip yesterday was full of delicious-looking apples. Back when we lived in north-west London, I used to go blackberrying along the edge of the tube line near us. I'd always get some comments like, "But how d'you know they really are blackberries, not something poisonous?"...

annieb64

Did anyone see Bake Off last night? One of the contestants was a forager. I think she was using wild poppy seeds. Has anyone tried them?