Wild Food Sites

[mason]

Hi all,

I have seen lots of different fruit trees on a old pit tip site which has been soiled over and planted with grass, conifers and fruit trees. My question is would these be safe to eat due to the usage of the old site, my gut feeling would say no but its so tempting with all that free food hanging around?

Thanks

 

[BushTucker]

My question would be, do you know the history of your garden? I dont for mine but grow crops every year. The prior usage of my land could have been for some nasty waste dump, but I would probably never know.

 

[xylaria]

I forage from coal tip sites if they contain coal not slag. I even forage from a site that has coal gas vents on it.

BUT old pottery works are no, no. It is really dependant on the industry that was there. To be truthful i properly take more risks than I should. I am less fussy about fruit than fungi, but that maybe because I know that fungi acculimate heavy metals and I don't know if fruit do it the same extent.

Does anybody know what slag contains? I know how its made but does it have heavy metals in it?

 

[brancho]

Does anybody know what slag contains? I know how its made but does it have heavy metals in it?

Not in detail but slag is term for the scum that is removed from blast furnaces, smelters etc and will contain metals of which type will depend on site.
Spoil heaps from caol mining and open casts are just unwanted rock pulled from the ground but may contain any kind of metals. I lived a few hundred yards from a working coal mine as a kid and and played there a lot on spoil and coal heaps when they were new, nature has taken over largely now.
The soap plant (now closed) a mile or two away is a site I would avoid though having seen what pumped out to sea.