Anyone into foraging?
I’m still a beginner but have made blackberry jam and wild plum jam. There’s a wood near me with filbert nuts, rowan, hips, haws, crab apples, sloes and damsons so I’ll be picking there in the next few weeks.
But I steer clear of fungi not because I don’t know enough but I just don’t fancy it even though I love normal mushrooms.
I’ve got half a wall full of bottles of cider made from various local apples, the other half wall is full of wine made from blackberrys, plums, damsons and various other fruits, there’s a larder under the stairs full of jars of quince jelly, crab apple jelly, blackberry & apple jam, and big kilners of glutney and dill cucumber pickles. The cucumbers are ones I grow myself in pots in the conservatory, only the dill comes from the local supermarket. Love a good forage! There’s a hedge full of blackberrys and elderberries about 25 yards from where I type, and we have a quince tree and an apple tree in our little garden. The plums and damsons are in a field half a mile away, where we now also have a walnut tree, though it may be some years before that yields any fruit! Oh, and there’s a couple of litres of sloe vodka somewhere at the back of the fridge.
Buy a copy of Pam Corbin’s brilliant ‘Preserves’ book if you can; it’s one of the River Cottage books. There’s a brilliant ‘Booze’ one too, and another called ‘Hedgerow’. Plenty of others in the series to tempt you. These little books are a forager’s best friend.
Sounds great thx
Mrs B and I went blackberry picking last summer and we made blackberry jam. It was a first time effort but I can honestly say it was the best jam I’ve ever tasted. We will be doing the same again in a couple of weeks.
The hedgerows round our way are bursting with sloes this year and I fancy trying my hand at sloe jam or even sloe gin.
Top tip after picking the sloes freeze them and when put in the gin the skins will burst letting the juice out. The old method was sticking a pin in each berry to let the juice out tedious.
Speaking of gin, the brambles are early in Essex and I’ve already made some of my favourite summer desert – gin and tonic granita coloured/flavoured with blackberries.
Yes brambles are early in lincs I’ve been picking tons for a month
Off to search out sloes and Blackberrys tomorrow.
In lincs it’s a bit early for sloes there are loads about but still a bit firm
I have a crab apple tree in my back garden. I pick about half the fruit and give it to someone at work who makes jelly with her mum. The other half (which I can’t reach) I leave for the birds.
I used to make jelly myself but I’m the only one in the house who likes it, and I’m no longer allowed it (or any apples, sadly) on my medical diet.
I have a quince tree in the garden, probably 14 years old, in that I planted the shrub about 12 years ago. No fruit until about 4 years ago. Last year was the first time there were enough to make me feel guilty about doing nothing with them, as about 8 beauties dropped. This year I can count twice that all swelling up amongst the leaves. Top tips for quince please?
(Oddly, the fig a couple of trees down, seems barren this year. It has grown more than ever, but no fruit, perhaps a result of over vigorous pruning in the winter.)
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/quince-membrillo-recipe
The nearest shopping street to us is lined with various exotic food shops. There are a couple of South Asian, a Chinese, an Afro-Caribbean, a Romanian … What they have in common is that they all have large trays of quince for sale. I have seen them elsewhere and would be interested to know what to do with them.
Quince jelly is gorgeous with cold meats or with cheese. Easy to make, you’ll just need a really big saucepan or a preserves pan (same thing but a two handled version), a decent knife and several bags of sugar. I also have a fruit press, a stainless Italian jobbie, bought from Vigo – a fantastic investment if you like making anything out of foraged fruit. Watch in fascination as the boiling chopped quinces go from a pale yellowish brown to that vibrant red of the finished stuff. There are a couple of stages in the process – it’s easily Googled. Pam Corbin’s book (mentioned above) tells all. I use a recipe I found online.
I planted our quince about 30 years ago, and the harvest now varies from year to year. Last year I only got about 4 decent fruits, but this year it is laden with fat furry young fruit already, and I anticipate a bumper crop in a month or two from now.
You can also go beyond the quince jelly stage and just keep reducing it down – eventually you end up with a thick goo that will dry to become fruit leather – think a sheet of Fruit Pastille material. Spread it out on parchment paper in a layer about 1 cm think, let it cool off. Cut it into portion sized rectangles and wrap it in folded parchment paper – keeps for years and tastes fab. Basically its just quince-flavoured sugar, just like the Rowntrees sweets.
Thanks I’ve now got Honey by Bobby Goldsboro going round my head.
There’s a lot of good foraging advice here- https://www.theotherandyhamilton.com/
Genuinely seems to know his stuff.
This little book (below) is really excellent – you can often find it in those bargain book-stores that crop up on high-streets and in motorway service stations. The dodgers are currently offering it at just over a tenner, which I honestly think it is worth, but there are also loads of second-hand copies (World Of Books, AbeBooks etc.) out there for under half of that.
Highly recommended if you are into producing your own pickles, sauces, jellies etc.
That is such a classic 70s cook book cover.
Is Foraging like dogging but with Reform supporters ?
I’ve given up dogging and put all my gear on eBay. Haven’t sold anything yet but there’s 12 people watching.
So, @Clive, your post was a bit of bit of an incentive for me to get out in the countryside again for a bit of foraging. I got hold of Richard Mabey’s Food for Free, read it from cover to cover, and have become quite evangelical about the whole thing. Mrs B and I have been blackberry picking, came back with pounds of the things and spent a very enjoyable day making jam. We’ve also been sloe gathering and have had a go at making sloe gin. Whether it’s any good or not only time will tell, but we’ve made so much there’s every chance we will be paralytic over Christmas.
I’ve learned a lot about hedgerows and hedgerow plants and we’ve both had a fabulously enjoyable time out and about in some glorious countryside. So thanks for your original post. Foraging – it’s the new rock’n’roll…!
Great stuff you can’t beat stumbling across a damson tree when you’re walking the hedgerows. Shame we don’t get many sweet chestnuts in lincs coz they might be my favourite food.
Try hedgerow jam adding haws hips and bullace etc to your blackberries in fact whatever you find.
I’m going to put some very tentative feelers out and pick mushrooms soon … I think there are parasols growing on my manure heap.