most recently,
field, horse and parasol mushrooms, fairy ring champignons boletus (not many) tawny grisettes, dewberries ( good to add to the late season blackberries for much needed acidity.) currently doing hawthorn sloes and rosehips for some jellies, cheeses and fruit leathers. I haven't used rose hips for leathers before and I suspect it'll be a lot of effort for very little result but I have a good stash of extra fat ones so we'll see. tempted too to use 'em to flavour up the haw berry pulp - which is also low in acidity.
earlier this year I did fat hen and st georges to the max, got a few morels (not a great year I thought) tried sea kale and limpets on holiday in cornwall. I also did a lot of flowers but was away in late may/june and missed elderflower! Hugh's nettle beer recipe went down a treat, and packed a bigger punch than I was expecting - hic! will definitely be doing that again!
You've had a good year! There must be something I can offer to trade for a look at your morels next year. I don't need to see the patch, that obviously won't happen, but I haven't got a good photograph of a morel because I haven't found any good ones in donkeys years.
I've also never found a tawny grisette in Cambs, which is a shame. Seems to be puffball and horse mushroom city
I ventured into Suffolk for those, wasn't expecting to find them but there you go. One of the best bits about foraging is the odd surprise item that I find in patches I've visited before. A bit like a 'this week's special offer ' shelf in the supermarket, but infinitely more rewarding and tasty!
I'll probably have to go back to suffolk for beechnuts as all the trees on my regular haunts are taking a break from nut production this year.
what you say on this thread and elsewhere about not sharing foraging sites has been on my mind this year. I think there's good reasons for keeping a site secret - perhaps the most important being the risk of degradation because of too frequent/inconsiderate picking. I also believe that the value of foraging is enhanced when you find something yourself - as my knowledge builds I can see how a little nature know-how enables me to fine tune my search , often this is no more complicated that a feeling that this site looks good for x or y or z. eg birch on sandy soils good for boletus, damp ditch edges good for morels.
plus it would be a blinding insult to go to a site you shared and find it cropped with nothing left.
But I do think that involvong folk with nature is the easiest way to get them motivated about taking care of it. And its good that more people are getting interested in foraging ( I just started my third wild food in the kitchen course at Impington village college ) and several people have suggested a local foragers group would be a good idea. I have a sense that the downsize community could work really well as a physical group, perhaps some kind of a get together to share recipes, produce gluts and walks in the country.? what do you and others here think? Most of my students this year have said how they would like to build their confidence in plant ID and this involves taking people out in the field. So far I've stuck to fairly large and relatively public sites and used the walks as a guide to what is around as opposed to a group forage.
I'd be interested to hear what people think of this dilemma - newbie foragers and seasoned ones.
jacky
what you say on this thread and elsewhere about not sharing foraging sites has been on my mind this year. I think there's good reasons for keeping a site secret - perhaps the most important being the risk of degradation because of too frequent/inconsiderate picking. I also believe that the value of foraging is enhanced when you find something yourself - as my knowledge builds I can see how a little nature know-how enables me to fine tune my search , often this is no more complicated that a feeling that this site looks good for x or y or z. eg birch on sandy soils good for boletus, damp ditch edges good for morels.
I entirely agree with all of that.
[quote]
plus it would be a blinding insult to go to a site you shared and find it cropped with nothing left.
But I do think that involvong folk with nature is the easiest way to get them motivated about taking care of it. [quote]
I'm a big, big fan of sharing knowledge of foragng because there's no better way of making people care for what is around them than telling them how they can use what's there.
Quote:
And its good that more people are getting interested in foraging ( I just started my third wild food in the kitchen course at Impington village college ) and several people have suggested a local foragers group would be a good idea. I have a sense that the downsize community could work really well as a physical group, perhaps some kind of a get together to share recipes, produce gluts and walks in the country.? what do you and others here think? Most of my students this year have said how they would like to build their confidence in plant ID and this involves taking people out in the field. So far I've stuck to fairly large and relatively public sites and used the walks as a guide to what is around as opposed to a group forage.
I'd be interested to hear what people think of this dilemma - newbie foragers and seasoned ones.
jacky
Impington is on my regular foraging patch... We really must compare notes, you know.
will definitely be doing that again!
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