yesterday as it was glorious weather I met up with me old mad Scottish mate who's an excellent forager and who is going to give me some of her starter for sourdough bread ! after cheekily asking for some toast and refuse coffee. Les and I head out to a community space and scrump the quinces and meddlers, at this point we feel quite good about the urban foraging exhibition . Our next spot leads us to a housing estate and we have an abundance of sloes and haw berries, a man asks us what we are doing so we show him and les in forms him the reason we are doing this is because we are witches ! We explain what to do with the sloes and that you can use a whole host of alcohol, I think we have convinced him to have a go as he has that look of consideration and that we are not mental. He then tips us off about some hazel trees, not a bad exchange of knowledge really. We head off for another wildlife corridor , this bit proves that les is mad we had to go all jungle and battle our way through think grasses/rushes that were at least seven foot high for 20 minutes and thought is it really worth it and I also stated that I didn't like it and can we go back! we come out of the grasses to the sight of a massive crab apple tree which are all shine red , but on closer inspection are scabbed quiet badly me move on to the next tree a little further and the fruit is in perfect condition , we spot a wild eating apple tree and have an apple to eat , whilst collecting the crab apples which should not be eaten raw! as we walk we see more and more crab apple trees , and come across hazel trees that have not been found by squirrels!!!!!!!!!!!! there is also an abundance of blackberries and mulberries, but I'm not over keen on these so I concentrate on the hazels.
we have been foraging for seven and half hours and have an excellent booty of food . This makes me wonder about how people in the UK have lost the ability to tune into the seasons and forage for food. In countries such as Africa, South America and India, the survival skill of foraging for Food is still being practised widely by those who have no money to by food. Yet in the UK foraging is seen as a middle class activity for those not suffering from food poverty.
Hi Vicki. Are you really a witch? I think its probably criminal how much wild food we let rot on the trees in this country but on my part its down to lack of knowledge. I was out with my mum the other day and we came across some things which looked like apple type things, after biting into one decided that they weren't as it tasted all sour and a bit antiseptic. Worry too much about poisoning myself and others. Would love to go foraging with somebody who knows what's what.
ReplyDeleteThe apples you found were probably crab apples these when eaten will give you a bad belly but when gooked with sugar and other bits can be turned in a jelly/jam . I avaoid mushrooms as I need more lessons but i don't eat them as I consider them to be evil! Am I a witch? well if i float like a duck I am and if i drown I'm not but I'm dead, I'll go with yes i am a witch !
ReplyDeleteAt least if you float there is a chance you could sneak away when the which finder general is distracted. I was thinking about an idea around foraging a while ago. The idea was to concentrate one one natural product which you could forage, I had in mind elderflower. The idea would be to create a map circling a particular community member. It would note all the places you could find that thing within say a 5 mile radius of the person's home by taking the community member out with an expert to do a survey of the area. The community member would be encouraged to use the natural product for themselves and others in the community. There would be tips/ recipes etc on what to do with the natural product generated. This would then be available to everyone in that community. If the person moves they repeat the process where they move to. Does that make sense? I might float it past transitions towns or some other such groups.
ReplyDeletethis is something which we are trying to do in work , however it is really difficult to get people into foraging unless its for blackberries . Although alot of people won't even enage in that ! The foraging activites we do also incoporate the community route and the rural timecentre (activties such as dry stone walling, foraging, felt making etc, land management , growing spaces) all followed up with cooking sessions and a recipe exchange. check out my webpage for work www.therealfoodbox.com .
ReplyDeleteI've always been interested to know what to do with nettles? We have a crab apple tree, have never ever made crab apple jam, mainly because i don't know when they are ripe. You can't test them by biting them like with normal eating apples!
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