Sweet Chestnuts

Curry_Queen

Ticklemouse wrote:

And those Beech nuts - which type of beech tree do they come off, what do they look like? I have lots of trees around where I live, so will investigate them forthwith

I've found a photo of the nut cases here

They're the ones that open out with four fronds and the nuts are in the middle. You'll find loads of empty cases on the ground under the tree so will know what I mean when you see them. Hope I described that ok LOL!


Ahhh, this link might be a little clearer

purplegirluk1

I live near a lovely woodland and had never considered the types of food I could get from there for free. I'll be out looking for the sweet chestnuts this week. If anyone else could suggest other nuts that might be around then any help would be brilliant.

Oh how I love this site, it gives me something wonederful and new to think about, make, do or collect everyday! Thanks to you all.

Curry_Queen

There's all manner of free food around if you're willing and able to go out and get it

There's an excellent book by Richard Mabey called Food for Free which has everything you need to know and where to find all this food

The first thing that springs to my mind beside nuts if your searching woodland areas is funghi and mushrooms, but you really do need to be able to distinguish between the edible and poisonous varieties

squeaky

There are lots of local mycology groups you can join and so go round hunting with people who know which is which.

Debt_Free_Chick

squeaky wrote:

There are lots of local mycology groups you can join and so go round hunting with people who know which is which.

Put mushroom foray into Google and you get this for the UK.

Add your area or county to the words you search for, and you should get results close to you

Debt_Free_Chick

Back to chestnuts.

All the ones I've seen so far are not properly developed ... just little slivers of baby chestnuts. Definitely not worth the effort of peeling!

Has it been too dry in the South East? All our local reservoirs are dangerously low and our rainfall for the last 2 years is well below average

Curry_Queen

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Put mushroom foray into Google and you get this for the UK.

Add your area or county to the words you search for, and you should get results close to you

I think "fungi foray" might turn up a few more hits too

purplegirluk1

Brilliant, i'm off to the library to look for the Free Food bokk, that looks like a great read! I would love to join a mycology book, I shall have a look into that when i'm a bit better. Thanks guys!!

purplegirluk1

Brilliant, i'm off to the library to look for the Free Food book, that looks like a great read! I would love to join a mycology group, I shall have a look into that when i'm a bit better. Thanks guys!!

scuzz

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Back to chestnuts.

All the ones I've seen so far are not properly developed ... just little slivers of baby chestnuts. Definitely not worth the effort of peeling!

Has it been too dry in the South East? All our local reservoirs are dangerously low and our rainfall for the last 2 years is well below average

IT's strange, cos where I am there are two big chestnut trees at opposite ends of the road.

One gives huge nuts, the other you needn't bother with. So it might not be the lack of weather. Maybe give it another week or so. I've started to see conkers on the ground, so shouldn't be too long before chestnuts are ready:j