Do You Forage?

TTDA we always book a CS near Middle Rasen (used to be a CL) around September / October time as it's located next to bridleways lined with sloe bushes. We started making sloe gin but have since found (by experimenting 😉) that sloe white rum and sloe spiced rum is much nicer.🍷 

Made sloe gin last year but not many sloes here this year due to hot weather , although have seen quite a few blackberries so must get them before the birds do. We get a lot of mushrooms about but so many are not edible do have different books to look at and you can get identification at the local pharmacies here.

Went with a friend to her local market in Carjac and one stall have some greens free to take and we were not sure and then when we got back to her place I said you have those plants in our garden anyway I got back home looked them up to find they were Purslane plants and you eat all of the plant flowers as well only they are small yellow ones apparently Purslane are better for you than Spinach very interesting hope she has not pulled them all out as I will try them the next time I am up there as we have none around here. There is a lot of Mirabelle plums about and folk just let them rot such shame, just for anybody's information the club site at Cirencester has them on site  unless they have been chopped down.

I pick blackberries, just to mix with our apples for pies and crumbles. I freeze small bags, a few in each. I've made small amounts of sloe gin in some years. OH picks Horse mushrooms which grow in a nearby cattle field, have to be quick a few locals also know they're there. 

We often come across watercress. The cottage we rent on Dartmoor has lots of small streams coming off the Moors, some of these have watercress in them. Not tried any though.

Years ago I used to make blackberry wine plus added to apples for pies. Haven't done it for a fair few years though. The bathroom scales prohibit puddings and the winemaking is a bit of a fag.

Like to pick blackberries to go with the apple crumble. Cirencester is good for that, plenty of blackberry bushes on the local footpaths and apples available from trees on site.

My grandparents used to brew lots of wine. I can recall cupboards full of Demi john’s bubbling, then the bottling. There was a cupboard that had elderflower champagne in it we were never to open. Back in those days it was in glass bottles and they occasionally would explode. It was delicious though, OH makes it occasionally. 

Foraged all my life. Wild strawberries and Raspberries in the high Alpine are lush this time of the year.  it's a pity so many youngster dont know what they are missing

Oh !! Wild strawberries ,,such an intense flavour,,as are wild cherry plums .,wild spinach too !! YES i forage too. 

Nice isn’t it😁 we have found some lovely apple trees in our local wood, look like Braeburn. I am guessing they have grown from discarded cobs, as both are close to well used paths.

Golden rule of course is never pick anything and eat before washing if it’s lower than above knee height!😂