A Fat Problem

[Goatboy]

Scots used to make skirlie. It's tasty, filling food, and some still do make it as a 'side' to dinner. It's basically oatmeal fried in leftover fat.
It's incredibly calorific, easy to digest, doesn't bung up the guts or make them loose, and it's relatively lightweight for it's energy impact.
It's one of those foods that can have whatever meat or herbs you forage added to it.
Cold skirlie though keeps well, and will pack into a pouch as a carrying meal.

M

I still make skirlie, usually put onions in there too. One of my favourite sides, especially with fowl though it does pair with red meat too. My local butcher makes a braw steak pie with a skirlie topping.
Though most find it easy on the tummy it gives me heartburn if I over indulge.
As you say it carries well and is easy to make on the trail. Loads of energy and the meal makes it a good slow release. Skirlie, tatties, kale and rabbit makes a meal that would be a good last one.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[mrcharly]

I have made burgoo with it. I don't care for it, but 2lbs/day should keep a hard working person going.

What is burgoo?

 

[bobnewboy]

What is burgoo?

According to Wildwood Wisdom, a very meaty stew with veg and occasionally rice, made in a large pot for communual consumption, originally based around game - partridge, venison, rabbit and squirrel. Never tried it myself.

 

[Robson Valley]

The travelling voyageurs (aka fur traders) had root vegetables and pemmican.
+1 for bobnewboy. I used chopped carrot and parsnip in mine. I could live on it if I had to.

The best part was the connection to elders of a First Nations tribe. I just picked one that had a website,
people who lived in bison country for thousands of years. I think they were really quite happy that I asked.
I have dried Saskatoon berries (aka Serviceberry) Amelanchier alnifolia, but they were like bullets, hard to rehydrate.

As they ripen nearer the beginning of July, I harvest 20 pounds to go into the winter for fruit pies.
One spot, if it's any good this year, I'll strip the bushes for 5lbs/hr.
Dry clean them rolling down a fuzzy blanket (gotta find that) = the twigs, etc stick to the blanket.
Then wash, sort, weigh, bag and freeze.

 

[bobnewboy]

Hmmmm, serviceberries..l have never eaten one though i have spent a good deal of time in the woods. Round here in Surrey (SE England) i have only ever seen one wild tree even, and that wasn't fruiting. One more thing to try one day...

 

[British Red]

Hmmmm, serviceberries..l have never eaten one though i have spent a good deal of time in the woods. Round here in Surrey (SE England) i have only ever seen one wild tree even, and that wasn't fruiting. One more thing to try one day...

What was referred to as a serviceberry by RV we know as a Juneberry, our Wild Service is a Sorbus Torminalis and the fruit is known as chequers ( hence the name of the prime ministers country house).

We also have the amazingly rare True Service Tree (sorbus domestica). That fruit makes a brandy that I would love to try.

I grow all three so am a nerd on the subject!

 

[Toddy]

Is the service tree in the same family as the Rowan then ?
Rowans are useful fruits in their season.
Why can't we do more to spread the service tree if it's native here ?

M

 

[British Red]

Yep, same family. The true service looks very similar. Apparently the wild service no longer germinates well in our current climate so is mostly propagated as a hedge plant via root suckers.

 

[bobnewboy]

What was referred to as a serviceberry by RV we know as a Juneberry, our Wild Service is a Sorbus Torminalis and the fruit is known as chequers ( hence the name of the prime ministers country house).

We also have the amazingly rare True Service Tree (sorbus domestica). That fruit makes a brandy that I would love to try.

I grow all three so am a nerd on the subject!

Someone has to be Interesting in any case. As far as i remember the tree i saw was a S. Torminalis (chequer), as the leaves are quite different compared to the pics online of the True Service tree.

 

[British Red]

Wild Service looks almost like a maple I think, vivid green too.

 

[Toddy]

Like a really sharp bright green sycamore ? but it has the wrong kind of flourish ?
Hugh, are the berries like biggish rowans that look like they've gone off coloured ?

M

 

[British Red]

Yep, smaller leafed than a sycamore. The fruit are a bit like whitebeam. Brownish and a bit like small apples in bunches. Only palatable if you blet them like a medlar.

 

[Robson Valley]

Not so fast. Saskatoon = Amelanchier alnifolia is related to Malus sp = apples. The leaves are single, entire and dentate, like apple leaves.
In cases where apple replant is an orchard problem, Aa rootstocks are used. All these fruits are pomes in anatomy.

We have 3 species of Sorbus, two native and one landscaping ornamental, introduced. They ALL have pinnate compund leaves.
Mealy true berries with nothing to recommend them as edible. Waxwing birds usyually strip the trees & bushes in autumn.

 

[Joonsy]

There are both ''Wild Service'' and ''True Service'' trees not too far away from me, the True Service (also known as Whitty Pear Tree) is very rare but I know where there are a few specimens (including some of the original specimens planted from cuttings from what was thought to be the last surviving tree in the country and some planted by the late naturalist Doctor Christopher Cadbury one of the founders of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust). The leaves are completely different on each type, True Service being similar to Rowan while Wild service are more like maple. The fruit of the True is about as big as a damson and the trees related to the original last surviving tree have pear shaped fruit, other true service trees not related often have apple shaped fruit. Fruit of the Wild is a bit bigger than rowan berries and brownish. The seeds of service trees do not germinate very well. There is another species of service tree called the ''Fontainebleau'' and the leaves of this type are different again. On my travels I’ll see if I can get some pics of them in leaf and later in fruit and post in due course.

This photo below (taken last year) shows the leaves of a True Service tree which is a direct descendant of what was thought to be the last surviving specimen in the country. (sorry it’s not a better pic, will try to get some decent ones).

PS, edited just to add for anyone interested, this link is a survey done in 1974 of the distribution of Wild Service trees in Britain (note True Service trees are very much rarer)
http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Wats19p209.pdf

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks. Without the proper Latin identification names, regional common names are of little value.
Well then, I'll continue to use a really regional and distinctive common name, the "Saskatoon."
Even your majesty, Queen E II, knows what that is.

Gopher:
1. the regionally common name for a burrowing rodent.
2. the regionally common name for a turtle.
3. the regionally common name for a snake.

Mountain Ash = we commonly refer to any one of a number of species of Sorbus.
However, it is also the common name for the 100m tall Eucalyptus regnans.

 

[santaman2000]

Thanks. Without the proper Latin identification names, regional common names are of little value.....

The comparisons they're making can be confusing to us as well. They're making comparisons to Sycamore trees; our North American Sycamores are different from theirs also.

 

[Tengu]

Ive had saskatoon berry tea which is nice.

The one time I found a pub called `Chequers` I went loking for the tree. There wasnt one. (Nor was I the first to look according to the Landlord...)

Anyhow, my oil.

I have fresh sage and mint for herb oil...What shall I use?

 

[Robson Valley]

I have a 500ml jar of herbed oil in my kitchen. I'll vote for the sage.
I use sage, oregano, thyme, B pepper and garlic powder = a little of each.
Best topping for baked veg.