Who else forages?

thriftwizard · 20 June 2019 at 10:36PM

That's so sad, snilloct1957. Near us there's a hedgerow that the farmer clearly doesn't want; he's flailed it 3 times in a year, that we know of, once while we were walking down the footpath (public right of way, National Trust land) next to it, which could easily have resulted in serious damage to our eyes if we hadn't realised what was happening & turned to face into the other hedge. It's reduced to a few sorry sticks now; this happened in early summer & there were definitely birds nesting. No more blackberries, hips & sloes from that one! I can't imagine what the benefit to him is; now dogs can get into the field easily as there's just a wire fence between the few surviving bushes, and the wind whips through straight into his crops.

It can't be easy to have the public continually traipsing across the land you're trying to make a living from; this is very close to a big historic monument and many visitors don't have much clue about closing gates, keeping off the crops & keeping their pets (or children, even) under control. But just to rip the hedgerow out, when you can't physically make the field any bigger, baffles me...

DigForVictory · 21 June 2019 at 6:32PM

Foragers reference books I'd recommend:
Wild food - Roger Phillips
Food for Free Richard Mabey
River Cottage - any of the Handbook series

Lifted from a colleague's guide to edible greens
Wall Pennywort - raw as a salad nibble. Very nice "Sugar Snap pea" like flavour
Wild Garlic - leaf and bulb, both raw as a salad nibble and chopped into home made cheese - mild garlic flavour.
Ground Elder - raw as salad nibble, not great... a bit tough and bitter
Hawthorn leaf - raw as salad nibble - nutty flavour
Jack by the Hedge - raw as salad nibble,. Mustardy garlicy flavour.
Violet - flower raw as salad nibble. Not much flavour.
Alexanders - Leaf raw as salad nibble, stalks boiled in salt water and served with black pepper. Stalks very nice asparagus/celery flavour, leaf a bit tough and bitter but with a nice tang.
Cleavers - leaf cooked in salty water. Not great and somewhat bitter
Primrose flower - raw as salad nibble. Not much flavour.
Nettles - cooked in salty water. Spinach flavour
Dandelion - leaf and flower as salad nibbles leaf a little bitter but flower very nice flavour... a bit floral!
Lesser Celendine - leaf raw pleasant as a salad nibble and root boiled - nutty crunch, quite pleasant. Do not use too much as can be slightly toxic!
Lemon Balm - leaf raw as salad nibble - very strong lemon flavour...you do not need much in a salad! Makes a great herb tea.
Sycamore leaf bud - raw as salad nibble - slightly bitter peapod flavour.

Other reminders were
Fresh cleavers - put them into a sandwich of brown bread and cheese
Lots of very fat looking sycamore seeds, obviously ripening to burst into leaf. They taste a bit like peas.
Hairy Bittercress, it definitely packs a lot of flavour for such a small plant - for salad!

Camomile · 21 June 2019 at 9:34PM

Wow, so many suggestions! Thanks to everybody for naming a few plants, at least can google the pictures and enhance my diet.

Goosefoot I know as fat hen, we use to eat it as spinach when we were kids

Great idea to “employ” the kids.

Last year I was given/scrounged/picked so many berries my freezer is still half full so was thinking about making a go at wine. Surely must be better than shop bought plop and a bit cheaper as well.

Heaps of wild fruit growingaround here, hope the summer is going to come soon otherwise there might be nothing to pick in the autumn.

FairyPrincessk · 22 June 2019 at 5:10PM

I forage--mostly blackberries, bilberries/winberries and elderflowers. I've just done a batch of champagne today and have plans to go bilberry picking next weekend.

Topher · 22 June 2019 at 8:02PM

with regard to plantain. I've read, but not tried, that if you start taking a tea made of a local plantain leaf in early spring, you can build up an immunity to hay fever before whatever aggravates your own brand of hay fever begins.

Melc36 · 23 June 2019 at 7:55AM

In addition to the usual blackberries and elderflower, we regularly pick wild garlic (there's a lovely Waitrose recipe for wild garlic, salmon and Jersey new potatoes). I've also made primrose curd with the flowers - a beautiful delicate flavour.

Mushrooms of course too and wild blueberries, yum!

carriebradshaw · 23 June 2019 at 6:58PM

I use meadow sweet flowers to make cordial with, just use your usual elderflower cordial recipe swap them out for meadow sweet flowers instead and make in the same way, it's got a lovely honey/almondy/marzipan type of flavour and is delicious, it smells divine too.

wort · 24 June 2019 at 10:08AM

Thanks halogen and mse tine. I'll defo have a go, there's loads of flowers on it. :T

Mee · 25 June 2019 at 10:10AM

Just stumbled across this thread. I too lack the knowledge to actively forage for anything beyond blackberries. However, I'm trying to change this and spotted this youtube video on how to ID sloe/blackthorn berries:
Tree id: How to forage sloe berries & make sloe gin (Blackthorn - Prunus spinosa)

bsuije · 25 June 2019 at 1:10PM

Further to my post last week - on the weekend I ventured out to Zone 4 again in the search for elderflower. Managed a small haul (most flowers were past the stage where they are suitable for cordial) and made about a litre of cordial.

And OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!! Mind absolutely blown at how tasty it turned out, even with less sugar than the recipe suggested (I love that I have control over the sugar content!), and it was so, so easy to make it! :j

It seems I'm late to the party this year, but will be stockpiling empty bottles for next year!

Speaking of elderflower, though - does anyone here make anything with elderberries? My mum got a little bottle of elderberry syrup / cordial from a friend last year - it's supposedly very good for boosting immunity ahead of winter...

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Who else forages?

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