Suggestions - Whats good to forage now?
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
Lesser celandines and pignuts are profuse around here just now.
The celandines are a pest in my herb bed, they become over abundant. Beware bringing them into the garden as foraging food
The celandines are a pest in my herb bed, they become over abundant. Beware bringing them into the garden as foraging food
Lesser celandines and pignuts are profuse around here just now.
The celandines are a pest in my herb bed, they become over abundant. Beware bringing them into the garden as foraging food
Ah, but they are a ray of sunshine in early spring
Around here at the moment, some you've already used:
Dandelion of course
Stinging Nettle - Urtica dioica
Primrose - Primula vulgaris - in abundance
Reed Mace/Cat tails - Typha latifolia - some early shoots but the rhizomes are always available
Common Sorrel - Rumex acetosa - but only small leaves for now
Cow Parsley - Anthriscus sylvestris - again, only the lower rosettes - if you are not confident of your carrot family leave well alone
Pignut - Conopodium majus - not much leaf yet so difficult to find the tubers
Wood Sorrel - Oxalis acetosella
Ground Elder - Aegopodium podagraria
Hogweed - Heracleum sphondylium - some early shoots but not much yet
Gorse - Ulex europaeus
Wood/Jelly/Judas Ear - Auricularia auricula-judae
Scarlet Elf-Cup - Sarcoscypha austriaca - but not enough to consider foraging; it's too pretty
Garden snail - Cornu aspersum (yes, they are edible!)
Grey Squirrel
Rabbit
Not legal, but if you were desperate, from now on is the time to find pheasant and mallard eggs (actually, mallard from February)
Dandelion of course
Stinging Nettle - Urtica dioica
Primrose - Primula vulgaris - in abundance
Reed Mace/Cat tails - Typha latifolia - some early shoots but the rhizomes are always available
Common Sorrel - Rumex acetosa - but only small leaves for now
Cow Parsley - Anthriscus sylvestris - again, only the lower rosettes - if you are not confident of your carrot family leave well alone
Pignut - Conopodium majus - not much leaf yet so difficult to find the tubers
Wood Sorrel - Oxalis acetosella
Ground Elder - Aegopodium podagraria
Hogweed - Heracleum sphondylium - some early shoots but not much yet
Gorse - Ulex europaeus
Wood/Jelly/Judas Ear - Auricularia auricula-judae
Scarlet Elf-Cup - Sarcoscypha austriaca - but not enough to consider foraging; it's too pretty
Garden snail - Cornu aspersum (yes, they are edible!)
Grey Squirrel
Rabbit
Not legal, but if you were desperate, from now on is the time to find pheasant and mallard eggs (actually, mallard from February)
I've often wondered about bramble leaves, I gather they are used in tea but I thought young shoots were edible. I note PFAF says the young shoots emerging from the ground can be eaten. Anyone tried them?
Rubus fruticosus Blackberry, Shrubby blackberry PFAF Plant Database
Rubus fruticosus is a deciduous Shrub growing to 3 m (9ft) by 3 m (9ft) at a fast rate. See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 6 and is not frost tender. It is in leaf from March to November, in flower from May to September, and the seeds ripen from July to October. The species is...
pfaf.org
Dunno about blackberry leaves, but on last year’s experience the fruits have little or no flavour round here (Somerset/Devon border), compared to those I’ve picked and eaten in Surrey. We have even gone as far as planting a commercial blackberry bush in our fruit cage to get some fruit with the right flavour.
I might try drying some black- and red-currant leaves later this year to make tea. I have heard it’s good. Plus there’s a huge lime tree in the village, so I might try that for some flowers when they come.
At present though we’ve a little patch of ramsons, and thousands of celandines (flowering) and lords-and-ladies coming up. Not much even on the beech tree yet....
I might try drying some black- and red-currant leaves later this year to make tea. I have heard it’s good. Plus there’s a huge lime tree in the village, so I might try that for some flowers when they come.
At present though we’ve a little patch of ramsons, and thousands of celandines (flowering) and lords-and-ladies coming up. Not much even on the beech tree yet....
Did you try any the year before? Blackberries, wild and cultivated. were terrible down here in Devon last year. They've been much better in previous years. I don't think they liked the warm early summer and wet and dingy late summer.
I made a vat of soup from nettle-tops & a few ramson leaves last week (also using a carrot, a potato, an onion) and a lot of pesto from ramsons and walnuts today. Only the ramsons were foraged, the walnuts were a gift from a Ukrainian neighbour; he gave me a couple of kilos of shelled nuts he bought at a market on a trip home a few months ago. It took me ages to grind up the ramsons by hand with a pessle and mortar as we don't own a food processor, worth it though; it tastes great!
No, I'm afraid not. We moved down to Somerset in August 2018, so too late (and too busy!
) to forage anything at all. If it is just a matter of the weather causing the blandness, then hopefully we will be covered for this year, as there were loads around last year. Plus of course, our new plant may give us a small crop, fingers crossed.Cheers, Bob
On the tasteless blackberries, I wonder if that was anything to do with how they were oriented in relation to the sun? There's an expression south is sweet or something like that. Just a thought.
We tried them from the garden, and from several hedgerows, but none of them were much good. Im hoping for better this year
Reviving an older thread
Today's wild munchies......
Brambles,
Rowans,
Wild strawberries,
Autumn Raspberries,
Bittercress, dandelions and fat hen for salad.
Mint for my tea.
What did you find ?
Today's wild munchies......
Brambles,
Rowans,
Wild strawberries,
Autumn Raspberries,
Bittercress, dandelions and fat hen for salad.
Mint for my tea.
What did you find ?
Last week I made a successful blackberry and mirabellum plum fruit leather. I also, for the first time, tried meadow sweet, ground ivy and water mint tea. I was surprised at how good the ground ivy was.
I fried up a few Amethyst deceiver mushrooms. Lovely, they were very reminiscent of velvet shanks.
Hazelnuts, crab apples and sloes last Saturday.
Hazelnuts, crab apples and sloes last Saturday.
I never have much luck with hazelnuts. It always amazes me that the squirrels seem to know exactly which ones are empty and they tend to be the only ones left. What are your plans with the sloes out of interest?
I just read Broch's post further up the thread, mentioning garden snails. I've often been curious about snails, having eaten many in France (delicious with garlic butter), but have never foraged them. Anyone have much experience with snails? And dare I say it... Isn't a slug a snail without a shell...?
Sloe gin, pretty standard I know. Never really thought about what else could be done with em, maybe some kind of hoisin sauce?
If I can get more hazelnuts, I'll do a hazelnut liqueur of some sort.
Ha ha I'm anything but game
I've only ever tried sloe gin. But I've read that once you empty the bottle they make a good desert with chocolate melted over the top. I plan to make a sloe / rosehip jelly, with a few blackberries too perhaps.
I've only ever tried sloe gin. But I've read that once you empty the bottle they make a good desert with chocolate melted over the top. I plan to make a sloe / rosehip jelly, with a few blackberries too perhaps.
