The Potting Shed

Kathy · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:12 pm Post subject: Foraging

Who does it? There's something most satisfying about finding food for free, don't you think!
The forest floor is just covered in blueberries at the moment, if I was to pick 24hrs a day for the next month I couldn't cover a fraction. We've already picked loads and dried some for winter, there's info about the healing properties of them here. http://www.whyorganic.org/archive...perfoods%20-%20Blueberries%5D.asp

nanny · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:43 pm Post subject:

i like a good forage too kathy

tomorrow it is crab apples...we discovered a laden tree just by the school and i fancy some crab apple jelly this year

we have a 9 year old who will be willing to go up the tree (better than stuffing him up a chimney, he's a nice kid) so by tomorrow evening i hope to have my jelly bag on the go

next will be the hazel nuts, god knows how many trees there are on the property, more than there are squirrels in the world i reckon....then the sloes and perhaps the blackberries and i am now keeping my eye out for any mushrooms that might appear....and the apple tree in the garden does indeed have some apples on it though they ae small so blackberry and apple crumble could be on the menu this autumn

Cabbagepatch · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:18 pm Post subject:

Foraging has to be one of my favourite pastimes, starting with young nettles in the spring. The blackberries aren't looking good this year and the sloes are very early.

I know they are supposed to be better after a frost but they are so ripe, we now have a load in the freezer waiting to be turned into sloe gin. Well, freezing them has to be as good as a frost surely...

mc55 · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject:

I have had pounds and pounds of blackberries ... have my eyes open, but am still to find hazelnuts, sweet chestnuts (I THINK there are some in the cemetry, but I'm not 100% certain), crab apples and plums / damsons.
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Pilsbury · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject:

2 hazle trees in the little garden bits at the end of the road so i thought I will have some of them later,then yesterday morning i was driving past and there was a bleedin squirral there!!!! Im in the middle of town!!! is there nothing safe Crying or Very sad

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Jellycat · 4 Star Club Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 1732

We're hoping for some hazelnuts this year - there are some trees we've not noticed before quite a way from the woods (where the squirrels live) so we're keeping out fingers crossed. The squirrels round here (red ones, thankfully....) seem to prefer pine cones anyway.

We've still got some of last years elderberries in the freezer and will pick some more this year. There's always a bumper crop of sloes in the hedges on the farm, and we've found a really good spot for blackberries but they're not ripe yet...

I really like berry-picking in the autumn Very Happy

Somerset Lad · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:26 pm Post subject:

Wild mushrooms will be about now ,ceps, hedgehog, wood blewits, parasols, no end of lovely fungi. Good time of the year for the forager. Wink

Aqui · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:58 pm Post subject:

I'm too scared to pick mushrooms, just in case, although I know to avoid the red ones with white spots!

I love grazing on blackberries when we walk through the park/woods. They are lovely this year here!

And I could do a lot of scrumping as no one seems to pick the fruit of their trees - they just let it fall and drop - they would probably eat it if it was in a plastic tray, peeled and chopped and covered in cling film,though! But anyway, I'm scared of ladders - more so after seeing lloyd's post.
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