Whats on the foragers menu this winter?

[Stanleythecat]

Assuming I was lazy this summer and did all my shopping in the super market... not filling the stores for the cold winter ahead, during these harsh winter months, aside from stewed squirrel buttocks and pigeon pie, what treats can be found in the countryside at this quiet time of year?

 

[Toddy]

Unless you know your land, not much.
There is too much snow to see the last remaining greenstuffs, like nettles and the cresses. The ground is frozen solid to about 15 cms here, so digging for roots, even when you know where they are, isn't fun. Few withered and frozen rosehaws and rowans and that's about it for the fruits. Same for the jelly ear fungi, shrivelled to nothing, and no others about.
Sea veggies are still possible,just, and if your ponds are clear; ours aren't, they're frozen solid too; then cattail roots would be good.
Toasted and ground tree barks, if you can prise them off the trees, no sap rising, no buds opening. Pine needles for tea. Mosses are frozen solid too. The oats, barley and wheat I left on the stalks to see have mostly spilled their seeds and the birds got them. The lemon balm still has some leaves low down so I've been using some of them for tea, sage and thyme since I know where they are under the snow. Some of the Docken stems still have seed heads.

What have you found ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Stanleythecat]

What have you found ?

cheers,
Toddy

I've found that my general level of ignorance is pretty high! I suppose I was thinking of winter under slightly less adverse conditions but I have to say that it is all of the stories of people after ration packs in scotland that made me think of this! However i'm in the generally more hospitable (climatically speaking, I love Scotland) wiltshire/gloucester area.

Toddy, you mentioned tree barks? Aren't they full of tanins, must be a fairly bitter experience like the weather!

Leo

 

[groundhog]

Check out Ashley's site at Natural Bushcraft , him and Justin are doing a thing on foraging at the moment and have a you tube channel covering whats available now.

 

[rik_uk3]

Assuming I was lazy this summer and did all my shopping in the super market... not filling the stores for the cold winter ahead, during these harsh winter months, aside from stewed squirrel buttocks and pigeon pie, what treats can be found in the countryside at this quiet time of year?

Not much, in reality you would starve to death.

 

[xylaria]

I have been for a bimble today to see if I could make myself a meal for free, or to close free.

I foraged/found
Rosehips [soft but edible]
Mohonia flowers
Sorrel
frost bitten plantain leaves [allegdly more edible in this state]
rattail plantain seeds
frost bitten sow thistle
A frozen potato on the side of the road [well it is free!!!!]
Some very iffy looking apples


I looked at the nettles there was some seed left but not to be worth the effort of picking. The pond where I normal pick the bulrushes from is that frozen that someone had walked across it. I also found hogweed leaves by following down last years dry flower stalk into the snow (found the sorrel the same way) the leaves were too frost bitten for me to be 100% sure it was hogweed so I left it be.

I was going to have beans (shop bought 50p/500g dried) with rosehip based sauce and wild greens on the baked potato. I am not sure what I will do will mahonia flowers they are normal quite lemony but maybe because of the cold they are very rich in sticky sweet nectar at the moment.

The snow is about three inches where I am and last nights temperature was -10. Plants are just about sticking out from the ground, the biggest indicator of what is under the snow is last year dried flowering stalk.

 

[troy ap De skog]

Well there's plenty out there, but then i know where a lot of stuff is under the snow.
but i've had a small haul, of rose hips, plantain, thistle, juniper berries, some dodgy crap apples and quinces, nettles, alpine bitter-cress, blaeberries, handful of frozzen haws and sloes, wintergreens, few colts foot leaves, and some woodsage . and there's loads of edible reeds and sedges out there... but round my way the water there in cant be trusted.

ps.
elm, pine barks.... are there, but from experience elm needs additives like honey/fruit to make it more palatable...

 

[Toddy]

You must be much milder than here Troy

Plantains are down to ground hugging weathered winter rosettes. No fruits on apples or pears, nothing worth eating of seedy shrivelled brambles, not even fresh buds, rosehaws are gone to leathery skin and seeds, thistles are reduced to wooden stems and a few spiny tough leaves, the coltsfoot has retreated into it's roots. The ground is so frozen that getting at waterplants isn't happening, and though the stems of the burdock can 'just' be idenitified, digging them out isn't on either.

Xylaria, I didn't know Mahonia was edible, thank you
I don't think I know where any grows around here, but I'll keep an eye open now

I did find some cuckooflower leaves today though, and spied some yarrow next to a fence.

Roll on Spring


cheers,
Toddy

 

[Cael Nu Mara]

Nothing up here is edible at the moment, or not that I can see. Well not without shooting it/scrumping from a veggie patch! The guy I share digs with is sure that there must be some truffles here abouts? most of the land looks like this

or this

(None of thoose pics are mine)

I dont think there will be much chance on the deer forest but in cale woods, your thoughts please great trufflers all

Sam

(sorry if I sorta hijacked the thread)

 

[rawshak]

Check out Ashley's site at Natural Bushcraft , him and Justin are doing a thing on foraging at the moment and have a you tube channel covering whats available now.

We have a list each month of the wild foods avaliable that time of year, which is regulally updated (just click on my banner to go there).

Here's January's list to get you started, your best bet for foraging at this time of year is coast and hedgerows.

Dandelion
Nettle
Daisy leaf
Gorse flower
Greater Plantain
Ribwort Plantain
Buck's Horn Plantain (coastal)
Scurvy Grass
Hogweed
Chickweed
Sea beet
Sea Radish
Pennywort (particularly good at the moment)
hawkbit
Water cress
Alexanders (very good at the moment)
Chirvil (be very careful , as Hemlock Water-Dropwort is starting to sprout now and looks very similar, but is deadly poisonous!)
Cleavers
Sea Purslane
Rock Samphire (still usable, but a bit over now, coastal)
Yarrow
Rose Hips
Common Sorrel
Ivy-Leaved Toadflax
Wood sorrel
Three-cornered leek
seaweeds

This is of course not including all your shellfish and hunted foods

 

[troy ap De skog]

Toddy; not too cold down hear, only got to -5 in the shed last night. but yea all the fruit is leathered. suppose it helps that in my main foraging area there's loads of sheltered patches around fallen trees and hedges.

 

[Toddy]

It warm tonight, really, really warm, it's 3 oC and at last the ice is melting
Normally this bit of Scotland is very mild, the rivers surround us on three sides and we're in a teardrop shaped rise out of the valley floor, but occasionally we get a Winter like this one, and the cold settles in bitter and hard.

Very little green stuffs but at least with the depth of the snow away the low rosettes are visible and if the frosts free the soil then roots become accessible again.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[troy ap De skog]

warm here to, around +5 but very draege.
roots aint been too hard for me only the first inch is frozen hard.
im lucky being on top of the hill faceing out over the thames flood plane& te other side the Colne valley and chilterns, as all the cold air sits down bottom and the winds usealy brocken my the bigger (mole)hills.