free food for all

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.