Todays forage

[dtalbot]

Well, I've just posted a piccie of what I gathered on a couple of short walks today. Enough blackberrys to make a nice crumble for pud tonight even though they are nearly over and my small helpers (9 and 4) probably are more in the field than we got back home.
A pound and a bit of really good cobb nuts and a pound and a half of sloes so that is the next batch of gin and vodka sorted!
I love autumn!
David

 

[CLEM]

Marvelous. Damn i wish i could find meself some sloes.

 

[dtalbot]

Marvelous. Damn i wish i could find meself some sloes.

Not to difficult in the hedgerows of Derbyshire, this lot came from the Old railway line in Millers Dale. Tons round Carsington Res as well, not sure about you lot but I always seem to find that underlying limestone geology improves the flavour of wild plants no end, hence my trip to a tree I know a bit further away. Nice walk with the kids though. Then feeling like another walk this afternoon we just did a tour of the blackberry patches round home to get a late harvest.
Cheers
David

 

[jason01]

I wish I could find some Sloe's locally too! I know of several places where I could get some but all involve several hours drive

In desperation we picked a couple of pound of wild rose hips today, now I'm wondering what to do with them, looking like syrup atm, any other suggestions?

Jason

 

[Ed]

I have my eyes on the local sloes.... just waiting for the first frosts...


Ed

 

[dtalbot]

I have my eyes on the local sloes.... just waiting for the first frosts...


Ed

Mine are in the freezer right now simulating that!

 

[Ed]

:biggthump

Ed

 

[MartiniDave]

I'm not going to be making any sloe gin this year! I've been told I need to drink whats in the cupboard from the last 10 years or so - Its a hard life, but someone's got to do it :super:

Dave

 

[dtalbot]

I'm not going to be making any sloe gin this year! I've been told I need to drink whats in the cupboard from the last 10 years or so - Its a hard life, but someone's got to do it :super:

Dave

10 year old sloe gin!!!!!!!!!!!! :super: :super:
That should be somthing else, mine has never lasted beyond 3 or 4 but was still getting better all the time!
Cheers
David

 

[dtalbot]

Well after this weekend I've got sloe gin and wodka (polish and my polish mates insist it's spelt with a w not a v!) and damson wodka. Also crabapple jelly simmering on the rayburn and a load of onions to pickle (had to buy the though!). Thats before I work out what to do with the several carriers bags of bramleys off my tree. Rosehips and rowan berries to collect next, given up waiting for the first frost!
Certainly a bumper year for just about everything I have forraged for this year!
Cheers
David

 

[Little Mole]

Rose hip tart and rose hip jelly.

 

[bushwacker bob]

great link little mole. The rose petal beads sound interesting as well. :biggthump

 

[Stew]

I have a HFW recipe for Rose Hip Syrup kicking round somewhere if anyone wants a copy.

 

[MarkG]

What are you going to do with the Rowan? I just made some jelly from it havn't tried it with meat yet but on toast it was awful!

 

[Roving Rich]

Yep, I'm intrigued to know what the Rowans are for ?

Cheers
Rich

 

[Tantalus]

you can eat rowans raw

an interesting bitter taste

just to get an idea of what rowan jelly would taste like

nice with game

Tant

 

[dtalbot]

Yep, I'm intrigued to know what the Rowans are for ?

Cheers
Rich

Rowan and crabapple jelly, to go with the game that is about the only meat I eat!
Cheers
David

 

[Moonraker]

In the Irish romance legend of Fraoth, rowan berries were guarded by a dragon and these could give "sustenance equal to nine meals"; they also healed the wounded and added a year to a man's life. Not bad for a forage food

In the romance of Diarmuid and Grainne, the rowan berry, with the apple and the red nut, is described as the food of the gods. 'Food of the gods' suggests that the taboo on eating anything red was an extension of the commoners' taboo on eating scarlet toadstools --for toadstools, according to a Greek proverb which Nero quoted, were 'the food of the gods'.

The berries were used as a coffee substitute. Maybe worth trying to dry and roast some berries and give it a go. Acorns were also used for this. Rowan berries do look quite like coffee beans