In the News Today

[Toddy]

Thought we might use a thread where we post news items of interest.

This fellow got caught out by a (I don't know which name to use bob, colony, crash, harem, herd, pod, rookery, spring, and team ) group of fifty seals lying on the beach. They had pups with them, so I think that might have played a big part in their response to him.

Man escaping 'aggressive' seals rescued from cliff near Eyemouth
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46082808

 

[Toddy]

Can you survive on foraged food ?

httpps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49516682

 

[Tengu]

Its a bit late for Elderflower fritters, isnt it?

Typical BBC.

And I doubt that Mesolithic man was very interested in cutting down on his meat consumption.

(Saw the Mesolithic layer round here...Auroch and Elk footprints)

 

[Woody girl]

Can you survive on foraged food ?

httpps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49516682

I do use a lot of foraged food in my diet. Being mainly vegitarian helps but if I wanted pheasant and rabbit could easily be added at this time of year particularly as they are everywhere, often times in my garden.
Right now I'm busy with cordials ,chutneys, and jams, and collecting hazel nuts, and soon sweet chestnuts.
I also grow my onions potatoes, beans salad leaves beetroot, courgettes, and peas. Swop stuff for egg, honey, and bees wax.
There are loads of apples about too, so cider and cider apple vinegar have been added this year to my burgeoning larder. It's hard work! But I love living this way.

 

[Toddy]

I find the seasonal round of foraging and harvesting happily not only enriches my diet, but it kind of keeps me in touch with the year as it turns. Like Woody girl I harvest and prep and store for through the cold and dark. Like Jewels of Summer I called them once the jars sit there on the pantry shelves, just quietly packed with not only good food, but memories, smells, tastes, and the hope for next year too.
I'm another vegetarian, but there's a heck of a lot of edible wildlife around. From deer to wildfowl and fish. The river's hotching with salmon in season too.

Tengu's right, and even the elderberries are well away here, never mind the flowers. I see the article does give Fergus a nice write up though He's inspiring.

M

 

[bobnewboy]

We’re not too far from Woody Girl, and apart from our veg garden and greenhouse delivering well in it’s first year, we could have rabbit, pheasant and partridge to enrich our diet. So many rabbits that I might look into getting an air rifle just to protect our garden, as there are a growing number of holes everywhere.......

With British Red’s videos, a new freezer and a new dehydrator to help we’re putting away all sorts of garden produce for the winter for the first time

 

[Woody girl]

Well today's produce preserved is,.. 4 more bottles of blackberry cordial.... would have been 5 but the ice cream van turned up and it just started to boil over as I came back in... whooo what a mess! And 5 jars of spiced damson chutney. More hazels collected, and onions braided and hung. Phew I'm shattered! There has been an awful lot of washing up too!

 

[Toddy]

I've been very lazy today. All I've collected are raspberries huge big sweet juicy rasps. Cut and tied to dry bunches of sage too though. I made blackcurrant jelly the other day as well.
Himself found more trees with Chicken of the Woods when he was out walking this morning.
The pity is that I can't eat it without great discomfort these days
Loads of apples and pears about, and the cherry trees are still producing fruits. I'm eyeing up the big rosehips and I'm definitely going to gather a couple of basketloads of them this week.
Their pulp, if sweetened with honey or unbleached sugar, dries into layers that can be cut up with metal cake cutters or a pair of scissors to make lozenges.
They will attract water if not kept sealed and very dry, but they're really good

M

 

[demographic]

I reckon at this time of year I could not only survive but I might even be able to put weight on.

Unfortunately picking berries and so on wouldnt pay my mortgage so I'm self employed which is sort of self reliant (ish).

 

[Woody girl]

Toddy i certainty dont envy you the job of getting all those hip seeds out.! Making rose hip syrup is far easier tho still a lot of work.
Yes this lifestyle doesn't pay the rates etc but it frees up a lot of money that I would have spent in the supermarket for other things. It is time consuming aswell. But I've always done it to some degree even when I had six part time jobs and a mortgage plus refurbished a 400 yr old cottage. THAT WAS realy hard work.. 19 hr days and no time off for months! Never again!

 

[Toddy]

There's a knack to it, and it they're huge big rosa rugosa ones then they can be peeled and you just stop before you reach the hairy layer. It's a little wasteful but not dreadfully so, and it fair saves both time, and the hands

M

 

[Woody girl]

Ah! that's a big cheat! Try it with the wild ones. You'll wish you never started!

 

[Toddy]

There's a neat way to do those ones. A wee sharp knife with a sheepsfoot blade. Cut the haw open down one side, press gently from the ends and use the curved end to neatly scoop out the hair covered seeds. A sharpened old fashioned mustard spoon works very well to do it too though

M

 

[Broch]

In the garden the other day. Made two meals! It weighed just short of a kilogram

 

[Toddy]

NIce find

 

[Woody girl]

Love those puffballs fried up in the bacon fat. Delicious.

 

[Janne]

Not sure if it falls under the ‘news of interest’, but B. Grylls got stung by a bee and needed a shot to prevent an anaphylactic shock.

Ray would have cooked the bee first.

 

[Woody girl]

And he had to be rescued from anaphalactic shock by one of the contestants who was a doctor.

 

[Janne]

Is what they wrote?
Hmmmmm....... why would a contestant carry an Epi pen?

If they had a medic on site with an apparently well stocked first aid supply....

 

[Woody girl]

Guess as he has had serious reaction before, he carries an epi pen or two if he's sensible . Contestant being a doctor knew what to do and did his stuff.