Why not try...

[troy ap De skog]

Roughtly once a week I'm going to aim to give you an item of wild food that is in season to try..

This week it is COLTS FOOT

My recipie is:

colts foot and nettle soup

small pan full of, colts foot leaves
small handful, shepards purse seeds/ and or leaves
cup of, diced nettel leaves
small chunck of, burdock root (altnertaivly a patatoe)
and (for a garlicly or minty twist) either
2 small, jack of headge leaves or 1/2 a cup of ground ivy leaves


1. boil burdock root
when this is about 5 mins from being ready add colts foot leaves
2. 3mins after colts foot is added add the nettels..
3. mush this up in the pan or liquadise if at home
then add sherpards purse and jack of the headge/ ground ivy
4.then bring back to a simmer and reduce to a soupy constency..
5. enjoy


Or you can just use it as spring greens

 

[ol smokey]

Nice one Troy, Keep it up, this could be very interesting and informative, I have been wondering if some of the more experienced members would do something like this. But was really thinking of what bushcraft activities are appropriate for each month or part of the year. This has maybe been done, but I have not found it yet. I managed to collect quite a bit of winter dried grass for tinder but missed out on the tree sap this spring.
Thanks a lot.

 

[troy ap De skog]

well its a new week so:

Wood Avens/ Herb Bennet ("Geum Urbanum")

The easiest recipe for the rose it to collect a handful of leaves, Then blanch the leaves for a couple of hours and surve with a salad...
The salad we had it with last week was:
daisy leaves and petals,
dandiloin leaves
wild voilet leaves
orach leaves
blanched lime(linden) leaves
.... and the optional tomatoes, cucomber and salami


alternively,
you can dry some roots, and grind it into a powder. the flavour of the powder will be very simular to that of cloves.
so put a pink of this, pinch of ginger, and some raisins in your banock and enjoy..

 

[JFW]

troy,

great thread keep up the good work.

Cheers

JFW

 

[g4ghb]

great thread

- if you could add a link to a piccie or two for identification it would help muppets like me

 

[troy ap De skog]

Silverweed

1 get a large pile of silverweed roots
2 wash them.
3 boil them for abut 5 mins
4 fry in a pan with veg oil that just covers the roots
5 when golden brown like chips there done
6 serve with some meat and what ever wild greens/ salads are available

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wild Strawberries are out at the moment bit early i know but i cant argue;

1 collect strawberries, cat tail roots and eggs
2 roast roots in fire, when roasted grind into a powder
3 mix the egg into the powdered catstail root with a little liquid(water, milk or beer)
4 once to batter constency chuck in a few handdfuls of chpoped wild strawberries
5 make pancackes

 

[rivermom]

Silverweed

1 get a large pile of silverweed roots


another wonderful use for silverweed leaves is as a lining in your footwear if you have to walk long distances. It stops you getting sore feet and blisters. That is how it came to this part of the world, I'm told. The Romans brought it for their footsoldiers.

 

[troy ap De skog]

yea silverweed is great
leaves as well as linning shoes can be used to bring out bruses and burnt to get rid of midges....

 

[troy ap De skog]

well hears a few...

. dark fruit jam or drink:
drink:
3/4 gal of blackberry
3 to 6 handfuls of elderberry
3/4 small bag of sugar
3 sprigs of mint
1/2pnt of boiling water
2 tbl spoon of honey

biol for 30min-1hr


jam-
1gal of blackberrys
6+ hand fuls of elder berrys
1 lrg bag of sugar
3 tbl spoon of honey
2 sprig of mint
1 handful of rowen berrys
2 or 3 sloe berrys
..pectin
boil for 1-2 hrs... let cool and store

or for a fruit tartlet-
create a tart base, aprox, 12" diaminter and 1- 1 1/2" deep
filling:
1/4 od tspoon of mixed spice,
1-2 pnt(s) of black berrys
1 handful od elderberrys
1 sprig of mint
2 table spoon of honey
and 1/4- 1/2 small bag og sugar
less than 1/4 pnt of boiling water
simmer down to a thick compot consistency

pour into tart base let cool and eat.....
also... out now:
hazzle nuts- if you shake tree and they'll fall off if there ripe just let them go brown in the sun on a window.
sulphur polipores and beefstake mushrooms
apples
pears
garden oche
wood avens
wood sorrel
rowen, sloe, hawthorn, elder/balck/rasp-berries
burdock

 

[troy ap De skog]

now after a few weeks and and a lot of food, i supose i sould put out another recipies

AUTUMN PIE

aprrox measures
The pastry:
9oz flour
3oz buter/marg
3oz lard
cold water
lemon juice & pinch of salt(opitional)

bind 1/2 of the butter with the flour, (add lemon and salt if required) and mix into a stiff paist with water and roll out.
spread 1/2 lard in small dabs over 2/3 of paste, sprinkle flour over this, and fold in therds.
seal the edges, and roll out again, dab the remaining butter and lard, flour and fold and roll again.


The filling:
1lb cored and chopped apples (preferabley cooking although have used crab)
2-4oz of currents and berries
4-6oz sugar
1/2tspn of mixed spice(alt you may use roasted& ground wood avens root)
some lemon juice

roll out pastry, create a pie base in a tin using the pastry fill will fruit, sugar and spices...
use remaining pastry to mae a like and make sure it is sealed. ***** a few small holes in the top..

put in to a HOT oven/ heavy pan with lid in fire and at home it takes 30-45 min at gas mark 7....
so will take between 30min and 1hr in the fire

 

[troy ap De skog]

herb garden tea, (great for a regular drink and for colds)
1 tblspoon chopped thyme
2 tblspoons of finely choped sage
5 finely choped mint sprigs
1/2 ground clove
5 roasted/ ground cleavers(goose grass seed)
1 tbl spoon of honey
(optional)
2 eucaliptus leaves
2 sprigs of Rosmary

put all the thyme, sage,mint, clove, cleaves(and rosmarry) in a pestal and mortar, with 1 shot of something 35%+ ide sergest your value range vodka or gin grind into a paist. add a little water till paist is a mixure of green liquide and paist... put in a saucepan with a 1pnt to a 1 1/2 pnt of water (add eucoaliptus leaves and extra cleavers if needed) put a lid on to keep in the aeromatic compounds (eg/ thymol) that cause the health benifits. bring to a simmer for about 5mins, leave to cool and drink as a cool tea...

 

[troy ap De skog]

well im sorry i haven't been on much lately, but ive been fattning up for winter...
on a huge range of stuff from the wild and a few bits from the allotment..

so i guess you want to know whats been on the menue:
large amounts of fish: mainly Pike, Perch, Chub and Rudd/Roach. (Perch being my chose on flavour)
so nice way to cook any them is to gut it, let the fire go to embers, put a bundle of green stuff on them then the fish with some wild herbs, like thyme or ground ivy. then some more green stuf and a few hot rocks and more embers and leave it for an hour..

Game wise its all been squiralls and rabbits, and the od small bit of venison. (a recipie for my autom/winter game pie will be up soon)

Plant stuff: well im still eating my way threw the chessnuts from earlier in the year, as well as berries wich now are manily hawthorns, blaeberries(uk version of blueberrys). disbite the frost, many small herbs like young cleavers and nettles as well as acorns and a load more.

Fungi, well theres been loads of that lately, but mainly: parasoles, fawns, feild & horse mushrooms, winters herald, chicken of the woods, puff balls, various species of oyster fungus, a few chanterels and many small mushrooms to.

well in the next few weeks il should have some of the recipies from the last few weeks up.

 

[Ekdog]

Plant stuff: well im still eating my way threw the chessnuts from earlier in the year, as well as berries wich now are manily hawthorns, blaeberries(uk version of blueberrys). disbite the frost, many small herbs like young cleavers and nettles as well as acorns and a load more.

Hello. Most interesting thread.

With regard to acorns, how do you eat them? I'm a cyclist who's always looking for free eats when I'm out on the road. There are lots of acorns here in Spain and over in Portugal where I often tour. I sometimes pick up a couple of them and eat them raw, but they're quite bitter, and consuming too many of them this way over a long period of time is supposed to cause kidney problems.

I understand the native Americans would place them in baskets in fast-flowing streams to leach out the tannic acid. I've also heard they can be boiled, but I haven't tried that.

 

[troy ap De skog]

well when 'm using acorns i usually; roast them over a fire, grind them up, the boil in 3- 5 changes of water and dry out on a backing tray till its like a lumpy flour, and mix with honey and warm them over a fire or in the oven Gas mark 5ish for 5-10 min.