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Foraging
I've been out foraging. Not from the hedgerows, but from parks, canal banks and graveyards.
17 messages
Gardeners' World Web User
15/07/2010 at 11:17
We have some amazing little lanes around here for foraging, or just walking through and forgetting you are in the middle of a city. Lots of brambles, of course, but I will have to look closer and see what else I can find. Didnt know that about eating dandelions before they flower - fab. Lovely post.
Gardeners' World Web User
15/07/2010 at 11:22
Dandelion roots can make a coffee substitute too. I'm forever pilfering rosehips and crunching them as I walk - they taste like apple-peel. Delicious to forage in nature's supermarket instead of in a sterile goliath multi-national. Great post - here's to more foraging!
Gardeners' World Web User
15/07/2010 at 20:14
Yes it is good to forage, but I can't help but wondering why my wild Blackberries are doing better than my thorn less variety. Do l have to wait a certain amount of time before my thorn less bears fruit ?
Gardeners' World Web User
16/07/2010 at 00:12
I love the idea of foraging, but I wonder if I should leave it for the local wildlife that may need it more than I do. So I'm not too weedfree so I can eat what turns up in my garden. Bittercress is lovely and I can feel I'm getting my own back on it! I'm trying to develop a taste for the vast amount of ground elder I have. Any recipes, please?
Gardeners' World Web User
16/07/2010 at 09:38
Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments. I like the idea of country-esque lanes helping you forget you're in the middle of the city, Lia. Jude, I worry about that too and I don't take holly berries off trees in winter for that reason. But there are so many berries on the trees and bushes at the moment, many of which are ending up crushed on the floor. I think the key is to not be greedy - just take a little bit here and there, leaving the rest for others and the wildlife. Kate
Gardeners' World Web User
16/07/2010 at 11:41
I live in country side but how do you know what okay to pick and what's not?
Gardeners' World Web User
16/07/2010 at 12:26
Take care when foraging you don't disturb wasp nests. My dog did the other morning and we both had the stings to prove it! I'm looking at self-set hedge plants to put around my rather conspicuous garden fence, they are in abudance in the hedgerows around us.
Gardeners' World Web User
16/07/2010 at 12:27
Hi Vee. I'd only pick what you can identify. There are lots of foraging books available to help you id plants, berries and fungi in the field. I'm a bit chicken when it comes to mushrooms. I wouldn't recommend picking them unless you're with an expert. Nettles and dandelions are easy to identify, as are blackberries. When picking leaves though I always make sure I pick from the middle of the clump - that way I (hopefully) avoid eating leaves which have been visited by dogs marking their territory! Kate
Gardeners' World Web User
17/07/2010 at 18:37
richard mabey's food for free is great to take along so you can identify stuff. it's small and will fit into a jacket pocket.
Gardeners' World Web User
17/07/2010 at 18:38
rosehips are called gratte-cul in french, and dandelions pissenlit.
Gardeners' World Web User
18/07/2010 at 17:44
Sample fruit from wayside cherry trees, many are very palatable and sometimes you will find a gem of a tree that you can go back to year on year. This year is terrific for cherries and lots of the ornamentals produce a morello like cherry which is fine for pies and crumbles etc.
Gardeners' World Web User
18/07/2010 at 17:48
Just read the comment about mirabelles, Look out for town parkland that once formed part of the gardens of victorian homes (ie Churchill Gardens in Southend on Sea) many of the old trees survive or their projeny do and a rich harvest is available if you know how to search.
Gardeners' World Web User
18/07/2010 at 17:50
By the way, I have had a copy of Richard Mabeys Food for Free for the last 30 years, it was money well spent, but for fungi do buy a specialist book with large colour plates for reference and if in doubt, don't..
Gardeners' World Web User
26/07/2010 at 15:13
I have foxglove (foxy) I have cut them down as they have finished flowering, it says they are a hardy annual, but underneath the old leaves there is a lot of new growth will these flower next year
Gardeners' World Web User
06/08/2010 at 17:27
Hi, I've found two very tall cherry trees in my garden in Ayrshire, Scotland. Are all cherries edible or are there ones I should avoid? (I know the evergreen cherry laurel is poisonous, but my trees look like true cherries and are deciduous). Watsonlwats, I cut down my foxgloves and they came back, it may be some of the seed fell down to the base last year. Remember, they are very toxic so please don't eat them!! Bees love them though. Advice on cherry 'edibilitiy' would be very welcome, thanks.
Gardeners' World Web User
07/08/2010 at 18:07
Gosh Isla, we were wondering the same thing. The deciduous cherry in a grassy area outside our house is producing lovely cherries. We tried one each and they were delicious... I just need to go ahead to eat the rest :-)
Gardeners' World Web User
28/11/2011 at 18:41
Kate, the best jam we ever made was from several types of mirabelle on the lane down to last year's gite. Later in the year I collected blackberries for endless crumbles. I failed, though, with the damsons collected from the hedges around a disused power station in Kent. Tart! My tongue trembles at the memory still. We still have some, but only use it to mix in an occasional blob with the gravy.
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