What are you harvesting this month?

[rich59]

What are you harvesting this month and what are you doing to preserve or use your harvest? It may be for food, drink, fire, raw materials for making clothes etc. etc.

I am expecting my neighbour's mullein stems any time - to dry and use for hand drill for fire.
This is the month I usually harvest elderberries to make both a red and a white wine.
I have sawn my wood for the winter fires.

 

[stotRE]

I have blackberries coming out of my kazoo
There in the freezer ready for jam and pies.

 

[demographic]

Got a mate who has just picked a huge quantity of Cep mushrooms this week

 

[R-J]

i've got my first bottle of sloe gin going. had to cheat and use thr freezer though...

i'm on the lookout for many muschrooms, hopefuly some bunnies and i'm pretty sure of getting a load of brambles

 

[Toddy]

This is harvest season for me, so.....
#Apples; peeled, cored, chopped, spiced and lightly stewed....batched for the freezer
Peeled, sliced and dried in rings suspended on chopsticks above a radiator.
Leaves for dyes.
Peelings added to mishapen fruit and squished for cider making.
Last ones boiled up for apple and rowan jelly.
#Blackcurrants, the last ones on the bushes for syrup. Some leaves for herbal teas.
#Flag Iris stems for basketry, cut and wilting before use.
#Quince just ripening, a wonderful scent in a bowl. Cut some into slices and dry for later use.
#Elderberries. Dried for dyes and tisanes. Leaves for dyes. Two small bottles of syrup for cordials.
#Strawberries, the last of the fruits eked out with the last of the rhubarb for jam. Some leaves for tisanes.
#Raspberries, the autumn flowering ones give me a last boil up of puree for the freezer. I've already gathered most of the leaves I'll use for tisanes.
#Rowans, some dried for herbs and apple and rowan jelly with the rest.
#Brambles, cranachan munching, jam, jelly and syrup. Gathered some of the long stems for basketry.
#Mugwort, gathered into bunches for hearth herbs.
#Golden Rod, a bit late but gathered and hung to dry for dye.
#Nettles, stems cut for fibres, leaves stripped and drying in mesh bags for dye.
#Rushes, pulled today to allow to wither before I use them next week for weaving.
#Lavender, gathered long stems and made lavender wands. Leaves drying for pot pourri.
#Plantain, seeds drying out now.
#Willow, cut today for basketry and leaves for dyes.
#Assorted fungi, food, dyes.....
#Dockens, seeds gathered and drying.
#Meadowsweet, last flourish drying, some soaking in almond oil on a sunny windowsill.
#Pine, cones to dry for winter decoration, resin gathered today for incense and glue.
#Mallow, flowers for dye and stems for fibre and firecrackle.
#Enchanters nightshade, just because!
#Roses, petals drying for pot pourri, a jar of fresh rose water in the fridge, small just opening spray buds cut and frozen in ice for fancy drinks/table decorations over winter. Perfect leaves picked and washed ready for chocolate.
Haws for syrup.
#Thistle heads for firestarting.
#Barley, oats & wheat, the last gathered and hung in bunches to dry.
#Melissa, drying for pot pourri and bath mixes.
#Heartsease flowers for tisanes and some into the flower press.
#Catnip for tisane.
#Eau de cologne mint for pot pourri and bath mixes.
#Kitchen herbs, such as thyme, sage, roesmary, drying.
#St. John''s wort in almond oil on asunny windowsill.
#Hawthorn berries, I'm going to try Match's fruit leather but from puree like the Chinese sweeties

It sounds like loads but it's just a bit at a time.
My pantry is bulging, my freezer is full, the sheds are crammed and I'm thinking hibernation *They* tell me I'm squirreling Isn't it a lovely time of year?

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[R-J]

it sure is a hell of a time of year.

you seem to be keeping busy! i'm trying to work my way up to getting a good end of summer harvest, not quite got that much though...

happy harvesting all!

 

[Stew]

Blimey Toddy, that's quite a list.

 

[Willowbark]

After Toddy's megalist I'm almost too embarrased to post! I obviously been slacking. I have got some beautiful oyster mushrooms from a fallen beech tree simmering in a casserole though.

Willowbark

 

[weekend_warrior]

I found a hedgerow full of hops today - couple more weeks and I might have to revisit.. Wonder where that brewing book is?

 

[Toddy]

Blimey Toddy, that's quite a list.

I didn't think there was so much until I started to answer the question, but it's just this time of year. I just do a bit at a time; today I've dealt with more apples, gathered fennel seeds, pine resin & cones, brambles, some fungi, mallow flowers and stems, flag iris, rushes, lavender, mugwort and willow. Anyone who potters around will do as much I'm sure. We're not talking mega amounts of a lot of these things either, so it doesn't take very long, but if I don't do it now I won't have them when I need them later on.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[Marts]

Apples and pears from the garden. Boiled up and bagged in the freezer.
Sloes (when I can find them ) for gin project
Blackberries For crumbles with the apples and pears
Ceps. Drying them and filling up jars. I'm also trial drying other mushrooms to see how they cope - russulas, oyster, blushers, porcelain and anything else I come across.
Nettles for cordage, though most are still not browned off enough at the bases.
Hawthorn berries - Got a load of these this weekend. Any suggestions for using them?
I'm also keeping a real close eye on the sweet chestnuts...

 

[match]

For me its Elderberries, edlerberries and more elderberries!

I make wine, beer, cordial, cough syrup, hair conditiioner, dessert sauces, elderberry schnapps and more.

The the other things I get now (often as it's my last chance!) are beech leaves for some more Noyaux (its a stronger taste with older leaves, but more of a kick too), mullein stems (finally found some growing locally) , plaintain seeds, beech nuts (when they arrive) and a general collection of herbs to dry for winter use. Oh, and valerian root, for self-sedation during the winter months

 

[Toddy]

Can I have your recipe for hair conditioner please? I don't know that one
I buy Valerian tincture but I have never tried making it. Do you grow it in the garden or gather it wild?
I'm working for H.S. (14th century) in the next two weeks and I'm looking for seasonal recipes for 'lotions & potions' from indigenous plants. Any ideas gratefully received.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[stotRE]

Toddy, you sound like my wifes family in Spain.
All they buy from the shops is coca-cola and bags of crisps

 

[Roving Rich]

Erm well I gathered some Rose bay willow herb fluff for Tinder on my walk last night

Cheers
Rich

 

[Ed]

All the fallen ash trees around here are covered with cramp balls..... got a bag full last week and still left loads so they can continue to spore.


Ed

 

[Grez]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any information about what we should be looking out for on a month-by-month basis?

I'm just thinking about producing a list to stick to my fridge as am hopeless at remembering things like this.

Edit: Any recipes for what to do with things would also be a bonus

Ideally I would like to put together something that says what I should look out for and what I can then make from it etc

Cheers

Grez..

 

[match]

Can I have your recipe for hair conditioner please? I don't know that one
I buy Valerian tincture but I have never tried making it. Do you grow it in the garden or gather it wild?
I'm working for H.S. (14th century) in the next two weeks and I'm looking for seasonal recipes for 'lotions & potions' from indigenous plants. Any ideas gratefully received.

Right - hair conditioner - for dark red/brown hair:

Take 2 sprigs of elderberries, strip from the stems and boil up with 1 cup of water, several sprigs of rosemary and a tbsp of honey. Simmer until it forms a thick gloopy mixture.

Wash your hair as normal with a mild shampoo.

Rub the elderberry mixture through your hair and leave to sit for 20-30 minutes. (you might want to do this over the bath/wrap it in a towel etc to stop your house turning purple!).

Rinse out with warm water - it should provide extra shine, and a darkening of colour.


Valerian Tincture: I make this from wild valerian - I know its a rare plant, but I also know where it grows in abundance, and I take selectively, pulling plants that are dead/dying/unable to survive. I also try to help replace them by planting seeds from its neighbours!

I peel the root to get rid of the soil, then grate it while still damp, then spread it out on some newspaper to dry. It smells absolutely foul while its drying, and attracts both cats and rats, so choose wisely where you dry it! (its believed to have been used by the Pied Piper of Hamlyn).

Then take the dry root, and add 3 grated tbsp to 200ml of vodka or other spirit - leave to infuse for 2-3 weeks until it goes a light brown colour, strain and use.

Finally - Seasonal lotions and potions, for the 14th Century...:

Well, Elderberry Rob (cough syrup) is an obvious one, as I suppose is the conditioner above.

As winter is approaching - lip balms are good - herbs such as mint and thyme should still just about be going even up here in Scotland.

Oat, herb and salt bath soaks are good - tied up in muslin squares and hung under the hot tap.

Plaisters for chesty coughs - goose grease (or a beeswax/oil ointment ), made with sage, thyme, mint and, if you're allowing imported spices, ginger and bay leaves, which has been heated over a water bath for at least an hour - rubbed into the chest like Vix, but then covered in cloth.

 

[Povarian]

I have got some beautiful oyster mushrooms from a fallen beech tree simmering in a casserole though.

Willowbark

Yup, and the others from that haul were great with steak that evening too.

And these were some of them...:

Preserved as bodyweight

 

[Toddy]

Yup, and the others from that haul were great with steak that evening too.
Preserved as bodyweight

Oh me too!

I so want to walkabout with someone who really knows his fungi There're masses in my area and I know so little about them.


Thanks for all the information Match, all good stuff Our ancestors were fond of plaisters weren't they? Every receipt book has instructions for them.

Does anyone know how well goose grease actually keeps? I can get the grease but I don't have a use for it for months yet. Lard and dripping keeps for ages but I don't know about the goose grease.

Cheers,
Toddy