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Natures bounty!

PopUpPirate

By PopUpPirate
in United Kingdom and Ireland

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PopUpPirate

+PopUpPirate

Posted
Posted

Do you pick fruit and nuts, and drink water from springs? Or won't you touch it?

 

Part of the fun for me - had some great feasts this year!

 

Looooooooads of whinberries (brill with ice cream), blackberries, raspberries, hazelnuts.

 

Water from a couple of places I know are safe.

 

And it'll not be long now till its february and we can all eat the Ramsons (wild garlic) and Wood Sorrel that will be popping up!!!

 

MMMMMM!!!!

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thunderbird30

+thunderbird30

Posted
Posted

CHESSNUTS!!!

Delicious, I got them in a remote area and no one else had been there for them.

As for the other stuff pup mentions....I have no idea what I am looking for so will not eat anything in case they are poisonous :unsure:

 

Don't know about 'chessnuts' - Is this the name for folk that are fanatical about a certain game?

I haven't found any in the wild,but I am partial to 'pawn' crackers.;)

 

Sorry,I must be getting board :)

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CrazyDruid + Redhead

+CrazyDruid + Redhead

Posted
Posted

CHESSNUTS!!!

Delicious, I got them in a remote area and no one else had been there for them.

As for the other stuff pup mentions....I have no idea what I am looking for so will not eat anything in case they are poisonous :unsure:

 

One thing to remember when eating chestnuts......Make sure they are Sweet Chestnuts and NOT Horse Chestnuts!!

 

Horse Chestnuts contain Aesculin which is a bitter, poisonous glycoside which breaks down blood proteins. This property has led to the development of the common rat poison, warfarin, extracted from clovers, which contain a similar toxin.

 

Sweet Chestnut Leaves looks like this :

 

9-1.jpg

 

And Horse Chestnut looks like this :

 

4-2.jpg

 

The leaves are the best way to tell them apart...

 

CD

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MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted

CHESSNUTS!!!

Delicious, I got them in a remote area and no one else had been there for them.

As for the other stuff pup mentions....I have no idea what I am looking for so will not eat anything in case they are poisonous :unsure:

 

One thing to remember when eating chestnuts......Make sure they are Sweet Chestnuts and NOT Horse Chestnuts!!

 

Horse Chestnuts contain Aesculin which is a bitter, poisonous glycoside which breaks down blood proteins. This property has led to the development of the common rat poison, warfarin, extracted from clovers, which contain a similar toxin.

 

Sweet Chestnut Leaves looks like this :

 

And Horse Chestnut looks like this :

 

The leaves are the best way to tell them apart...

 

CD

 

Surely anyone who grew up in this country knows what a Conker looks like, so if it's a Conker stick a string through it and let battle commence, if not then stick it in the fire and eat.

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LollyBob

+LollyBob

Posted
Posted

Surely anyone who grew up in this country knows what a Conker looks like, so if it's a Conker stick a string through it and let battle commence, if not then stick it in the fire and eat.

 

The nut covers are very different too.

The sweet chestnut is encased in an extreemly prickly cover, more like a hedgehog, conkers are encased in a prickly cover too but they are thicker spikes and more spread out.

 

Make sure you slit the sweet chestnut before you stick them on the fire or another type of battle will commence :P

 

Sweet Chestnut

 

Horse chestsnut

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Alibags

+Alibags

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes, I pick the fruit that I see when I am out caching. See the pics on this log from the weekend.

 

I have also picked and eaten wild mushrooms before see this log of a cache where I found a nice haul of amethyst deceivers. Yum!!

 

Ramsons: Take care you dont pick lily of the valley. They can look very similar and the latter is very poisonous... although the smell is quite distinct! :P You can wash them (ramsons that is!), chop them and add them to salads or anywhere you would use spring onions. I have a nice recipe where I slice mackerel fillets into slices and wrap each slice in several wild garlic leaves, before steaming each 'parcel' to cook it. My garden is FULL of wild garlic. I am going to have to dig some out. Get your requests in now for a pot of luvverly ramsons for your garden in the spring.

Edited by Alibags
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PopUpPirate

+PopUpPirate

Posted
  • Author
Posted

There has been a lot of sloes! Dunno about making other things than gin with them, though.

 

Re the ramsons /wild garlic, break a leaf and give it a whiff, there's no mistaking it for Lily of the Valley then! All of the plant is edible, but the leaves and shoots taste best when they are young at the end of Feb until Easter. They're quite springy! Then when the flowers come out you are best eating them rather than the leaves.

 

http://www.pfaf.org/leaflets/garlic.php

 

So.... it's 12 weeks till spring then! Yayayay!

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spannerman

+spannerman

Posted
Posted

This year we noticed that there was a real abundance of Sloes, apart from making Sloe Gin does anyone know of any other use for sloes?

 

When the Gin is ready to be filtered, destone the sloes then cover in melted chocolate to make your own liquers. The chocolate advent calenders make ideal bases for the liquers and the tray can be reused to make as many as you need. Near one of my caches are several blackthorns and they were fully laden this year. We have 5 bottles on the go at the moment so should be in for a good Christmas.

 

Another of my caches is under a Sweet Chestnut tree and we have already had our share of them. I prefer them uncooked, they are great, sliced, in a salad.

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doctor scotland

+doctor scotland

Posted
Posted

I love to pick free food as often as I can, and especially when caching!

 

My favourite picking location is close to my house in Ashton Court Park in Bristol.

A few good trees regularly produce good Beefsteak mushrooms (Fistulina hepatica) and Chicken of the Woods (sulphur polypore) as well as some nice Oyster mushrooms, amongst others.

 

Sweet chestnuts can be found here as well, though hazel nuts tend to get hammered by the squirrels.

 

Its a great spot for good clean nettles, elder flowers and berries etc, being far enough from busy roads.

Also Ramsons, lime flowers and leaves, and Burdock and Horseradish roots on some of the disturbed parts of land.

 

Theres even some caching to be done in the park!

 

Now i'm feeling hungry!! :P

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Pharisee

+Pharisee

Posted
Posted

This year we noticed that there was a real abundance of Sloes, apart from making Sloe Gin does anyone know of any other use for sloes? :P

 

When I made it, years ago, we used equal measures (by volume) of well pricked sloes, sugar and 120 proof Polish Spirit. Gin was just not strong enough.

It worked for me.... :(

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Tiger-Eyes

+Tiger-Eyes

Posted
Posted

We seem to have such an abundance of free food this year :laughing: when I picked sweet chestnuts they were HUGE, definately the biggest native ones I have ever seen :laughing: , One other not mentioned yet is rose hips, I have made rosehip syrup to pour over my icecream :laughing: and Danylions for wine (well washed as I didn't want dog pee wine) :laughing:

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MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted

...

 

Surely anyone who grew up in this country knows what a Conker looks like, so if it's a Conker stick a string through it and let battle commence, if not then stick it in the fire and eat.

This is the only Conker I know.

 

You must be talking about some other conker?

 

I guess it's a British thing, something most kids do and some grownups too:

 

http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/

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PopUpPirate

+PopUpPirate

Posted
  • Author
Posted

We seem to have such an abundance of free food this year :laughing: when I picked sweet chestnuts they were HUGE, definately the biggest native ones I have ever seen :laughing: , One other not mentioned yet is rose hips, I have made rosehip syrup to pour over my icecream :laughing: and Danylions for wine (well washed as I didn't want dog pee wine) :laughing:

 

Loads of roeships today!!!

 

Also surprisingly some blackberries in perfect nick - yum!

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PopUpPirate

+PopUpPirate

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Would love to, but have not got a clue what i am looking at .Can anyone recomend web page or books that i can read to rid me of this ignorance.

HODGE

 

http://www.4qd.org/fff/index.html

 

Get ready for the wild garlic in January, you can't go wrong! Break the stem and give it a sniff. http://www.4qd.org/fff/ramson.html

Edited by PopUpPirate
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Lentil

Lentil

Posted
Posted

This year we noticed that there was a real abundance of Sloes, apart from making Sloe Gin does anyone know of any other use for sloes? :D

 

I am making Sloe Gin this year, and came across this recipe for SloeJacks which looks worth a try!

 

Thanks to John Robinson for the recipe.

 

"These fruity flapjacks make a delicious snack on their own, or better still as a natural partner to the liqueur itself.

You can safely leave the drained sloes in their (capped) bottles for a week or two, making this recipe an ideal activity for the recovery phase after Christmas!

 

· 175g drained sloes (half the leftovers, i.e. the contents of one bottle, after making sloe gin)

· 125g porridge oats

· 100g unsalted butter (if using salted butter, omit the next item)

· ¼ tsp salt

· 75g sugar

Method

Shake the sloes from the bottle into a large bowl, and tip the oats into another. Using a paring knife, shave the flesh from each fruit directly into the oats (avoid the temptation to remove it all in one long piece, as that would make the flapjacks break apart too easily). It will take a while, but you've already proved you have the necessary patience by making the liqueur! Stir the mixture every so often to disperse the parings evenly. At the end you'll have just a small pile of stones to throw away.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, Gas Mark 4. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the sugar and salt, then (off the heat) the sloe and oat mixture. Tip into a lightly greased, shallow, 20 cm square baking tin, level out and press down firmly all over with a potato masher. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave in the tin until cold. Slice into 16 squares, or as the whim takes you."

 

Lentil

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Family Hodge

+Family Hodge

Posted
Posted

Would love to, but have not got a clue what i am looking at .Can anyone recomend web page or books that i can read to rid me of this ignorance.

HODGE

 

http://www.4qd.org/fff/index.html

 

Get ready for the wild garlic in January, you can't go wrong! Break the stem and give it a sniff. http://www.4qd.org/fff/ramson.html

 

Cheers PopUpPirate, great site, ordered a couple of books today on the same subject. Looking forward to a free lunch while out Caching in the future :) . Dont worry i will not be trying the mushroom to the left of this message :) .

HODGE

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Vanya1

Vanya1

Posted
Posted

I used to have a Thai friend who used to go on long walks with me. She used to take a bag and a gardening glove in her handbag to gather her food for the following week. She taught me a lot about our countryside. She grew up in a peasant family in Thailand and all their leafy food came from their countryside.

 

What we call weeds she called vegetables :blink:

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