Kitchen Garden Forum

These winds are blowing the leaves off, great for making leaf mould, but more importantly I can see the Hazlenuts I missed earlier in the month, I seem to be the only person who does much foraging, there was a time when rural communities knew to supplement the garden produce. There are one or two who pick Brambles(or Blackberries), but there is so much more to harvest, they even miss the wild raspberries, most odd.

I wish I knew more about the safe fungi that are edible….

I can normally be found in the local park with a bag and a pair of secateurs foraging for elderberries, acorns, blackberries and even nettles.

I’ve been eyeing up the local haws and wondering if the wildlife could cope with me taking some for myself. Love a good haw sauce.

There's a lot of rosehips this year. I'm not sure what I'd do with them though!

retropants wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:02 am There's a lot of rosehips this year. I'm not sure what I'd do with them though!

I made some wine with some many years ago, a right faff and the end product wasn't very nice.

oldherbaceous wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 7:12 pm I wish I knew more about the safe fungi that are edible….

They are all inedible................devils food...............................can you guess I'm not keen on mushrooms lol

I just posted on this thread and it’s vanished

Sadly I,m not mobile eniugh to do this any more and really miss my autumnal visits to the location where three walnut treeea are located in a public space. Hardly anybody. realised what the walnuts were in their husks and I would come home with a couple of carrier bags full.

I used to enjoy sharing some with our patio visiting squirrel who used to.get very excited as we have no walnut trees in our locality, at least as far as I,m aware.

I grew a lovely seedling from one of them in a pot but had to give it away as our garden is too small for a tall walnut tree. Should have just planted it in a hedgerow somewhere and allowed it to do its thing. Don't know how old they have to be before they start bearing nuts.

Perhaps what we need is a group of "reverse foragers" who go around the countryside planting back to ensure future stocks are preserved.

I still miss the splendid group of rare sweet chestnut trees which were felled in a front garden near us to make room for three new houses.

Primrose, I have been throwing cherry & peach stones into the undergrowth in our local park. You never know! I also have a couple of oak seedlings which I am planning to guerilla plant in the grass verge outside our house. There is an almost constant row of oaks along our road, but several fell down in high winds over the years, so there are gaps that the council haven't filled (they have replanted a few) I'll wait until they are big enough, and use a tree planting kit, so it looks like they are meant to be there.

Retropants. I,m intrigued to know what you do with your foraged acorns. I read that in Eastern Europe during the last world war they were roasted and ground Into ersatz coffee when real coffee was unobtainable. I recall being served some on a school exchange visit to Germany n the late 1950s and recall it tased pretty disgusting, along with the black ersatz bread.

My only attempt at making rose hip syrup was a disaster - a shame as that was one wartime item I had as a child which was delicious. In those days people were encouraged to go on foraging expeditions and hand the proceeds in at church halls to be sent to central processing centres. I can still recallthe rural area where my mum took me . It,s all concreted over with roads and houses now sadly..

All we forage for are blackberries and sloes. With you on fungi TB, never touch them wild or cultivated.

Acorns have to be rinsed to remove some of the tannins, but you can make flour from them, I carry a book called "food for free" written by Richard Mabey, it's a small Collins book that fits in your pocket and is a great guide. I have tapped our Birch tree and tried the sap, full of vitamins, but tasted just like chewing a bit of wood to me. Nettles can be used for many things, using the new young shoots of spring, you can make "dock pudding2 with them. Ray Mears old tv films with his expert Gordon Hillman were brilliant.

Primrose, I am using them for crafting. They must be washed and dehydrated, a lot of them have bugs inside. I wouldn’t use them in the kitchen!

What a lovely idea, particularly like the golden acorn.