Storing the Harvest

[Toddy]

Perhaps a little early for the harvest's full bounty, but I find that if I don't prepare and store in season, it's a year before I can enjoy some of my favourite foods again.

So far this year we've had Birch and Sycamore syrups and wines, Beech leaf liqueur, and Ransom flowers in white wine vinegar. The little Ramson bulbels are filling out now and soon they'll be ready for pickling. The ones from the three corner Leek are already dropping off; filled full with all this sunshine we've had recently.

I'm gathering Heartsease flowers daily and drying them for tisanes. The coltsfoot is now in leaf but I gathered some of the flowers very early to make a syrup or robb.

Now is a really good time to spot plants which die back to just roots in case you need them later in the year. Comfrey, Bluebells (I take from my garden though the woodlands around here are carpeted with them) Meadowsweet, to name but a few.

Time to replenish the Sage jar too with fresh new green leaves. Sage is probably the only herb I know that actually strengthens in taste dried and kept for a little while. Still a few Lime flowers around here too.

The Willows are letting loose the fluffy seeds and the dropped 'cones' are good to dry for tinder. Also good dipped into melted scrap wax and used to start a fire with a match.

Dandelions are blooming like miniature suns just now, I keep some plucked so that the roots get the nourishment and a little after the flowering eases off I'll dig them up, roast them and make coffee with them.

The first raspberry and strawberry leaves are big enough now to be taken for tea without stressing the plants too much to affect the fruit production. The wild strawberries are sending out dozens of runners, time to pot up if you want more

Gorse and Broom are both still in flower in many places, good wines as well as dyes.

Nettles are still edible, and before they get too tall or develop the uric crystals they are ideal to gather and dry for tea or as a herb to use on food for those who are trying to cut down on their sodium intake.

Who else does this kind of harvest and storing ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[listenclear]

Toddy, you are a mine of information and hopefully one day I will be doing that kind of thing. I haven't noticed any lime flowers in Edinburgh yet and my house is opposite a few lime trees. Could there be that much of a difference from your neck of the woods to mine? Really like lime flower tea so was planning on drying some this year.
Good tip on the dandelions too, might do the same but ot to make coffee with - will eat them instead...
Cheers

 

[Toddy]

Match came through to a meet up in Brownlee woods a little further up the valley from me. He lives in Edinburgh and he does so much of this kind of thing; he said he was really surprised at the varieity growing all together, and how far along things were. I kind of take it for granted since it's just home. The Clyde valley is sheltered and and sunny. Where I live the river surrounds us on nearly three sides, the village sits on a tear dropped shaped rise out of the valley floor and we're always a couple of degrees warmer than the surrounding areas.
Today has been waaaay too warm though
That's kind of what brought this thread to mind. Some plants are growing and going past their most useful so fast already, and it's still only May.

atb,
Mary

 

[listenclear]

Ah, thanks. That has reassured me i'm not going crazy.
Was it a weekend meet up Mary? I am going to stop working weekends soon and got my driving licence recently so hoping i can make more meets etc.
Will def be at the moot though.
Cheers

 

[Toddy]

It was, though we might arrange another walk along there this Summer.
You're already more aware than I was at your age, and your interests are wider focused too It's good

Looking forward to the Moot I see that Maddave has already marked the map for us !

cheers,
M

 

[Nagual]

Mary, if at all poss, could you collect some for me? There is a severe lack of several herbs / plants near me just now. Nettles are about the only thing I can get my hands on. I'm thinking along the lines of anything that can be used in herbal teas / meds and soaps.

 

[locum76]

Today has been waaaay too warm though
That's kind of what brought this thread to mind. Some plants are growing and going past their most useful so fast already, and it's still only May.

atb,
Mary

Aye, it's ll happening too fast.

 

[Toddy]

Mary, if at all poss, could you collect some for me? There is a severe lack of several herbs / plants near me just now. Nettles are about the only thing I can get my hands on. I'm thinking along the lines of anything that can be used in herbal teas / meds and soaps.

Mark would you like rooted cuttings of things ?
Off the top of my head I can pot up.........Feverfew, St.John's Wort, Soapwort, Lady's Mantle, Wild Strawberry, Wild Oregano, Comfrey, Tansy, and I have two overflowing pots in the house of Aloe Vera.
If any of that's of any use, let me know ?

No bother drying some stuff for you too though.

cheers,
Mary

 

[Nagual]

Fantastic Mary, that's very kind of you. Dried stuff sounds good, as I'm not too sure how we go about getting the rooted cuttings down.. but maybe worry about that nearer the time? )

 

[Toddy]

I'll pot up some for you then we'll get them down to you somehow. I'm going down to Dumfries soon anyway.

Happy to pot up more if anyone else wants some of any of those too.

cheers,
M

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Tody

Earlier this year, we collected blackberries for both jams & pies

Later on this year, we'll be collecting mulberries for pies

Dandelions grow year round where I am, so I just go and pick the leaves when I want to add them to a salad.

Stinging nettles also grow year round, so when I want some for a stir fry, I just go & pick them.

Native cherries I tend to eat when in season as there really isn't enough flesh on them to make it worthwhile preserving.



Kind regards
Mick

 

[Toddy]

I love the smell of bramble jam making Smells of childhood
I've got jars of jam and jelly put past from last Autumn but I've still got about a kilo frozen in the freezer. You've put me in the notion, I might make strudel

So far the only real fruit I've gathered this year is the rhubarb.

I cut and dehydrated some oyster mushrooms too though.

I find that if I pull the nettles but leave the roots they keep sending up new shoots. It lengthens the season.

I agree with Rob, some things seem to be growing so fast that if you don't prune, pick, or harvest, they'll be bye and back down to roots before we really get a chance to use them.

Anyone else I'm likely to see want any of those herbs potted up ? Add pulmonaria and foxglove to the list and if I can get it to root cleanly, Bittersweet too.
cheers,
M

 

[John Fenna]

Potting up wild strawberies?
Bleedy things are weeds around here!
Can't move for the beggars and they choke the spud beds!
They make great jam though!

 

[Toddy]

If you have them that's great, but not everyone does...........mine stay confined in a cut down barrel in a relatively dry/shady spot. That means it fruits but it doesn't send out masses of runners. The one that does is sitting in full sun with loads of water......probably much like your tattie bed
The fruits of the one in the more shady postition are more perfumed, the taste is finer. I wonder if that is why the imported strawberries taste of very little, while the home grown ones are smaller but much nicer ?

cheers,
M

 

[locum76]

There's a real trick to harvesting. It's really easy to miss the best of a crop, even when you're expecting it. It's something I've noticed in a few community gardens, folks put a lot of hard work and effort into growing fruit and veg and miss the opportunity to reap the benefit.

The elder is just about to bloom here which seems very early to me.

Has anyone ever made hawthorn essence? A chef was using some on a telly program and said it was a good substitute for vanilla. There's lots of lovely hawthorn in bloom just now and the hot weather has made it really smelly. If it's made from the flowers I might give it a go.

 

[Toddy]

Interesting
I haven't, but I do know that like Elders some Hawthorns smell better than others, some have sweeter berries too.
There's a heart issue with Midland Hawthorn that might be worth reading up on before using them though.
Meadowsweet flourish is incredibly heady when tinctured or turned into an essential oil. It was traditionally added to the ale. It might work like vanilla in cooking. The roots smell too much like germolene.

cheers,
Mary

 

[Nagual]

If you have them that's great, but not everyone does...........mine stay confined in a cut down barrel in a relatively dry/shady spot. That means it fruits but it doesn't send out masses of runners. The one that does is sitting in full sun with loads of water......probably much like your tattie bed
The fruits of the one in the more shady postition are more perfumed, the taste is finer. I wonder if that is why the imported strawberries taste of very little, while the home grown ones are smaller but much nicer ?

cheers,
M

Probably the same reason all shop bought foods taste of nothing much when you compare them to home grown. Luckily we have a fruit n veg shop with still deals with local farms and sells lovely carrots not the superstore tasteless nonsense.. roll on a few months and we'll have our own. Made our own butter the other day, from supermarket cream, wasn't what I was expecting, quite bland / mild flavour, but very pleasant.

 

[Toddy]

For butter the cream is better being just a tiny touch ripe. They used to use the cream from several days milking so that the bulk of it was fresh but there was just a tang in the early stuff that added to the flavour. Salt really makes a difference to very fresh stuff.

cheers,
Mary

 

[Nagual]

We used just out of date cream. Would we be better using OOD cream but maybe left open for a day or so, rather than sealed? We were thinking of trying other creams, if we could get them, like Jersey or Devon..

 

[forestwalker]

Interesting
I haven't, but I do know that like Elders

Elderflowers... I have a lovely medieval cheesecake recipie that calls for these, but up here they are not as common as further south.

Meadowsweet flourish is incredibly heady when tinctured or turned into an essential oil.

We usually make a sweet "syrup" from the meadowsweet (Filipendual ulmaria; flowerheads+slices lemon+sugar+water, let stand for 3 days, filter store in the freezer, mix with water for a sweet nice-tasking drink), and I usually add some to my home-made tea mix.

The Rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium is the main basis of my standard home-made tea, with some mint and black currant as the main additional ingredients. Right now the E. angustifolium is just small shoots, nice for adding to food, hardly any fibres and not bitter at all.