Thread 5 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads (thread 4).

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

Perfect, thank you although I suspect I'll be eating it on my own sounds lovely though.

It's said to avoid nettles after flowering, though if they've been cut back and have started to grow again they're fine.

Ground elder is also very tasty and full of nutrients - it tastes like parsley with a hint of lemon and is good in risotto. I read it was introduced by the Romans as a pot herb.

Elderberry, your grandmother's method with the bechamel sauce sounds lovely, I shall try that.

@DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry your nettle soup sounds delicious, as does the bechamel sauce idea! I am tempted to try - weather permitting, I might entreat the DC to forage for nettle tips this weekend (my hopes are not high, for the weather or the teenagers).

The nettles around here are a couple of inches tall already, so there should be some about.

We forage for wild garlic in the spring, wild raspberries in the summer, and brambles in the autumn. But I'm always slightly concerned that plants at low level near pathways will be well-fertilised with dog pee (there was an incident when the DC were toddlers).

Don't pick them from near pathways and they should be fine.

Kucinghitam · Today 08:34

We forage for wild garlic in the spring, wild raspberries in the summer, and brambles in the autumn. But I'm always slightly concerned that plants at low level near pathways will be well-fertilised with dog pee (there was an incident when the DC were toddlers).

There's a park near us, Jesmond Dene and in the higher parts, there's loads. I tell my daughter, "Climb over the fence, don't trample and get some from well in." This is after watching her grab the nearest bunch, next to an obvious piddle trail on the path...

I've never seen wild raspberries, just wild strawberries. Where do raspberries grow?

Sorrel is another delicious green leaf for soups and salads. Slightly lemony and just tastes of spring to me.

You can really understand how early modern and earlier people craved greenery by this time of year - if not rich, they'd have been living off pottage made of barley/oats/wheat with the last of their root veg, and if they were lucky some salted meat by now. No wonder there are so many "blood-cleansing" recipes involving early spring greens.

Winterborne74 · Today 08:54

I've never seen wild raspberries, just wild strawberries. Where do raspberries grow?

Several places near us, I think it's just where someone has dropped one and it's seeded. We only get wild strawberries up in the hills; the dog found some at Cragside, a few years ago!

Wild raspberries are found in similar habitats to blackberries, but aren't nearly as common. If you find one, though, there will usually be more in the surrounding half mile or so.

Wild raspberries grew in the woods by where we lived years ago.

I remember scouring those woods for edibles when we first lived there and there was a surprising amount - nettles, various mushrooms, wild garlic, hazelnuts, chestnuts, beech nuts, raspberries, blackberries, mint and marjoram. I used to throw apple cores into the undergrowth in the hopes that a tree would spring up, but don't know if one ever did.

Thanks. Wild strawberries were fairly abundant in my childhood - but they were useless for foraging because they are so tiny. I too collect wild garlic, blackberries, crab apples, sloes etc but wild raspberries are a new one to me. I'd quite like to make rosehip syrup but have never got round to it. Have made nettle tea, and am interested in nettle instead of parsley sauce with ham. We seem to have a lot of fruit trees in the local bird reserves - apples, pears, plums, cherry but I think they are just feral rather than wild as such. This post is not very seasonal I realise.

Keep meaning to try the rock samphire that grows here too. Apparently it's used in the same way, but quite different from marsh samphire and - er - opinions are mixed on how tasty it is. But I'd like to try it once.

I have a mushroom identification book. I've never trusted myself to pick wild mushrooms though as am scarred by dire warnings of death by mushroom in my youth.

Yes, we just have a small (really small) woodland area behind our estate and the undergrowth is full of wild raspberries. Same area as the brambles, pretty much.

Actually, the Victorian churchyard near us is also full of wild raspberries. But somehow it feels wrong to eat raspberries made of dead people.

I'm okay with parasols, boletes and morels as they're so obvious, but I'm not sure about others. This site is very informative and tells you about similar species.

My fungus identification book is used for "What the fuck is that?" rather than picking to eat.

The important thing with nettles rather than parsley sauce is that you do need to boil the nettles for a few minutes before adding to the sauce so they don't thing you.

I sometimes do a spring soup with lots of different green things - again an onion/ thickening vegetable base, sometimes also a few frozen peas for sweetness then - nettles, dandelions, chickweed, sorrel, alexanders, hawthorn tips, bistort, ground elder (except I hope I've eliminated that) and anything the herb garden or vegetable patch has to offer. Very young new tips of everything - I'm convinced there are all sorts of micronutrients in there.

Wild raspberries do really well here - I've picked up to 2kg of them, though I'm usually lazy and pick the garden ones for jam. The wild ones have a pleasing muskiness. They're a plant that likes damp - though I remember finding them in Norfolk long ago, so they're not too picky.

Remembering a slightly ASD (he said himself) bloke who reviewed the MS of something I'd written who was very insistent on never claiming that plants 'liked' anything or were 'picky' etc becasue they were plants. Forewarned, I purged the text. Scientists eh, no pleasing 'em.

I'd written who was very insistent on never claiming that plants 'liked' anything or were 'picky' etc becasue they were plants.

Reminds me of a German flatmate who was once most bemused by the idea that mugs live in the cupboard.

I've now got my new chat up line: "Come mushroom picking with me - I'm a fungi to be with".

boil the nettles for a few minutes before adding to the sauce so they don't thing you.

That would be thore.

I was fascinated to learn that nettles contain serotonin and wonder whether that is something the body can assimilate from eating it after it's been cooked.

..."The thunder god went for a ride on his favourite filly. "I'm Thor!" he cried. The horse replied: "You forgot your thaddle, thilly."