Suggestions - Whats good to forage now?

[TeeDee]

Looking to carry on with my current run of foraging and cooking ( hoping its well received ) - so what else is out and about now that I can use?

Suggestions wanted please.

 

[Toddy]

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

 

[Broch]

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

 

[Toddy]

....and the woodpigeons love them. They pull the leafy stems and they adore the seeds when they form too.
If you want to catch wood pigeons (good in a pie) then plant ye lesser celandines !



M

 

[Broch]

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)

 

[slowworm]

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. It is hardy to zone (UK) 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 hermaphrodite (has both male...

pfaf.org

 

[bobnewboy]

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....

 

[slowworm]

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.

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.

 

[Thoth]

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!

 

[bobnewboy]

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.

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

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

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....

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.

 

[bobnewboy]

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