What to do in the Autumn

[Toadflax]

As a spin-off from Toddy's thread on I love this time of year I thought it might be an idea to collate some of the ideas of what to do with the "harvest bounty" that is now appearing. Could I suggest that people update this list in any follow-up postings (like we sometimes do with group buys) so that subsequent readers don't have to read through the whole thread, but can just look through the list in the most recent posting.

I'll start off with a collation of what has appeared in Toddy's thread so far (please feel free to correct errors):

• Dyer's Chamomile, the St John's Wort and Tansy:
• Blackberries: jam /jelly, pies, fruit leather
• Wild strawberries: jam, fruit leather
• Apples: dried fruit, fruit leather
• Elderberries: wine
• Fungi: eat them if you know what you are doing!
• Sloes: sloe gin
• Hazel nuts:
• Acorns: coffee, flour
• Beech nuts:
• Sweet chestnuts:
• Greengages:

Geoff

 

[xylaria]

We could add rosehips make syrup, wine and jam (jam requires deseeding )
Or meadowsweet flowers dried and then used for winter colds and flus.
Elderberry and sloe (ratio 4/1) make a jam thats like cranberry sauce.
Hawthorne fruit is a good mixer for jams that wont set. I going to make fruit leather this year with them.

 

[Toddy]

I would agree with all of the above and also advise to look for where things are growing; there'll be almost no sign of the roots in Winter but it you know where to dig you can find Meadowsweet, Comfrey, Bluebells, Mare's tail, Celandine, Pignut, Burdock, Ramsoms, Silverweed, Dandelions and the like. A good digging stick is an awfully useful tool.
It's also worth remembering where to go look for the first early greens and edible flowers and leaf buds.


cheers,
Toddy......who has just been offered a barter of a stone of sweet, ripe damsoms for a bottle of homemade sloe gin, and he'll throw in a couple of pheasants for HWMBLT later on too

 

[Beer Monster]

Isn't Autumn/Winter the time for coppicing? If so you could harvest a new thumb stick or select a piece to make a crook?

 

[Clark]

Well i'm looking forward to this weekend when i'll be out collecting blueberrys for granny to make into jam, yum with a capital EEEEE!

 

[KAE1]

I like lure fishing in the Autumn, the summer weed has died off yet the water temperature is still warm enough to keep the predators active. Or you could shoot a brace of partridge.