foraging for food

[piglips]

hi, have foraged for wild garlic and blackberries before but would like to try find some elderberry, sloes, etc...
does anyone know any good websites/info?
cheers

i have looked and failed watching with interest

Doesnt Valentine warner do some? There is another bloke I've seen on the TV who never buys food called Freegan???? (not sure spelling)

I'm not having much luck either. Is this any use?

I know where my favourite fruit bushes are from years of observation. Not much help, huh? Somebody cut down my favourite elderberry patch this year.
I tried looking up elderberries but books seem to say that they will grow anywhere. I usually find them by water, though.
Sloes are usually in hedgerows.
HTH

PS no way am I telling you where my favourite damson tree is

I know a secret stash of sloes but they are ours, all ours.....

People generally keep this sort of thing to themselves (for obvious reasons!).

The plants you described are really common hedgerow plants, edge of woodland etc. They're everywhere. A website would just list miles and miles of hedges!

If you go out on some walks along rights of way and bridle paths in the countryside, you'll find some, or find people who know where they are. Sloes are better in a month's time, elderberries are maybe over for the year anyway.

Yes, sloes need a first frost.

This is probably bad form but have a look here Not sure whose that blog is no siree ....

Elderberries are in full flight here in Norfolk btw, though I find them really strong and better diluted with lots of blackberries but they're just about finished now.

We've got lots of sloes in our garden, if you're in Suffolk you can have them...

Get Food for Free then you can take it with you and check you're not about to poison yourselves with fly agaric on toast.

In terms of foraging, there's no substitute for knowing your patch and time. What you need to do it get to know what the trees you're looking for look like, walk a lot, and keep your eyes open all year, not just when you need fruit.

Eg the Blackthorn bush (for sloes) is the first shrub to blossom in very early spring, it's distinctive with pure white blossom which comes out before the leaves and makes the branches look black (hence the name I guess) Once you spot one, you can keep an eye on it all year til the fruit is ready to pick.

Sloes and elderberries are so common you may find people are willing to tell you where they are.

It's a family hobby for us (who said wholesome dullard?!) if we spot an interesting looking path or bridleway we'll make a point of walking down there one weekend to see what we can spot.

Ooh love your blog ProfY. And am now following you on Twitter!

Excellent! What's your twitter name? (you could always tweet me if you don't want to say it on here)

It's v similar to my MN name. I'm new to Twitter (I don't really get it, but am trying to be down with the kids and shiz)

I can't find you on there atm, could you send me a message so I can follow you back?

Arghh. How do I reply to you on the new twitter?? I don't like it!

(SO SORRY piglips for hijacking your thread so blatantly)

Got you - all sorted.

Just go to a park. You need to know your area, really. I know I can find apples, plums, damsons, blackberries, some little orange things that taste like apricots, sloes, elderberries, wild raspberries and redcurrents - but I've lived her all my life. You hgave to go for lots of walks and go looking for them.

we had the most brilliant time foraging for blueberries. we found them in the spring when they were in flower and came back in the summer.
The fruits are very hard to find - to start off with I was as I couldn't see any then once I got my eye in I realised there were masses.
(well, not masses compared with blackberries, but we froze them and had them a few at a time and they went a long way.)

the other thing you see a lot of is apple trees growing by roads or railways where people have thrown the cores out.

wild raspberries are lovely too.

sometimes you find several things at once somewhere completely deserted and I always wonder if there used to be a cottage garden there once.

All excited as I googled 'Apple Crumble Cake' earlier on this afternoon and that blog page came up first.

The cake is bloody divine.

Having a crack at making rosehip syrup tomorrow.

Which county are you in piglips? We have a foraging map for round these parts that is kept by the local foodie/enviroment group.
Re sloes, I have already picked mine and I'm in the process of making sloe gin. Have I picked them far too early? I put them in the freezer so they have had a frost...sort of...is my gin going to be horrid?

Betty - it'll probably be fine. The first frost thing is because the sloes are said to be sweeter though there is an element of personal preference. I'm sure purists can tell the difference but most people probably wouldn't. Also with climate change, first frosts are probably getting later so may not even occur til the sloes have shrivelled on the bush.

Freezing them doesn't make an 'artificial' frost, it just means that when you pour gin over them, the skins split due to temperature shock, meaning you don't have to prick them individually.

It's also possible you've picked purple bullace rather than sloes. They're very hard to tell apart (main difference is sloe bushes have thorns, bullace bushes don't)but the bullace ripen earlier. We've got 4 bottles of bullace gin in the go already.

If you've got bullace there's nothing to worry about. It tastes identical to sloe gin btw.

ProfYaffle, thanks for that. These bushes had thorns, alright! They are growing along the towpath on the canal, I'm fairly sure they're sloes.
My parents always go out to pick sloes on their anniversary in late October, I'll probably see if there are any still about then and make a sneaky little late vintage sloe gin. I'm also trying sloe vodka this year.
Loving your blog btw :).

ooh i love a forage! The richard mabey food for free that lastyearsmodel linked to is the classic. There's a new river cottage hedgerow handbook out which i haven't got but will be getting as all their other hand books are brilliant. Also hugh f-w did a tv series and book called "cook on the wild side" where he travelled round living of t'fat o land so to speak. Worth it just to drool over his converted land rover thing where a cute kitchen just folds down from the side of the car...reminds me of barbie houses when i were a lass!

We get all sorts of goodies, going back to remembered spots to collect later. Elders grow like weeds round here, we've made wine this year! Won't be ready for ages though. But we frequently make beer style brews out of whatever we can find, nettles and elderflower being our best ones yet. They are ready to drink in a week.

Piglips elders spring up quickley in disturbed ground like abandoned building sites (lots of those around now days so look out for them next to hoardings etc. And hedgerows obv. Cherries are a good one to spot as very obvious when in flower so you can then come back and get the goodies. Plus they feature in alot of municipal planting schemes. Even the sour sort of cherries make great cherry brandy. Just eat the sweet ones!

If you want shrooms the river cottage (sorry ) guide is ace because it's geared to help you find and definitivly identify edible shrooms. The only non edible ones in it are there to help you see the difference where an edible and non edible look similar. Fungi field guides are no good for this imo!