Hidden Treasures - tell me your foraged finds!

[CuriousEats]

My Wild Food Foraging book arrived on Friday!
We went to our local NT garden yesterday which is normally pleasantly dull, but its like a 4th dimension has just opened up and I'm seeing stuff everywhere!

Tell me what wild food you've found!

Obviously, it goes without saying, do your own research and don't eat anything you're not 100% sure of the ID.

So yesterday I tried -

• beech nuts - they're a bit like mini almonds

• yew tree berries - these were delicious, like lychees but fruitier, and they look a bit like pomegranate seeds. Obviously don't eat the seeds and be careful of any leaves or other debris.

• a single sweet chestnut

• an oxalis triangularis leaf

• pine needle tea - its supposed to be full of vitamin C but it just felt like I was drinking floor cleaner!

Ramsons in the spring, the flower heads are really nice, bit of a kick. I mean to try them on a cheese sandwich.

Yes they're lovely. Unfortunately the ones near us are on a popular dog walking path so I don't bother with them. I have got 3 cornered leek in our garden though so I snaffle that instead.

When I move into my current home, many years ago, there was a small patch of 3-cornered leek in the garden. It's a pretty flower and I love the onions smell of It's leaves. However, it's really invasive. I swear I turned my back on it for 5 minutes and it's bloody everywhere. In the lawn growing out of gaps in paving. It even suppressed the marestail, so not all bad. I've been putting cardboard and bark on it to try to make it behave itself. So watch it like a hawk. I believe ramson can be a bit of a thug in the garden too.

Ironically, I've had no luck growing chives.

I've had mushrooms coming up in the garden. Some that look like fly agaric (red cap, white flesh) but without the white flecks, lots of miscellaneous brown ones and some huge ones that I'd swear were penny buns. They've got pores not gills and similar colouring. I'm not sure though, so not willing to risk it. The slugs usually get to them first.

I've always picked stinging nettles each year before they go to flower.

@IcakethereforeIam I got rid of it in 1 bed in a couple of months by following the No Dig method, and now its only in a slim bed next to the fence where its all over next doors garden.
I inherited chives at the allotment when we took over an extremely overgrown plot. I think they thrive on neglect because I gave them a heavy mulch and they weren't nearly as thick the next year!

The white bits on fly agaric can wash off in the rain so it could still be that... we've had a lot of rain here recently. Have you got a mushroom book you can identify them against? Some info on boletes for you...

@jewishmum how did you use them? In a tisane or a stew? And how would you describe the flavour?
My mum used to get me to drink nettle tea as a teenager to help with my acne but I can't say I noticed any difference! It never tasted that good to me either.

@IcakethereforeIam apologies, I've just seen your post on the mushroom thread - you're obviously a lot more knowledgeable about them than I am!

@CuriousEats raw in with my smoothie, risotto, and made into a tincture for my scalp :)

my mother used to always go on about pignuts that she and her siblings would dig up and eat...like a nutty/chestnutty taste and texture but I could never find them

Have found and scoffed
*sweet chestnuts although they don't plumpen up in N.E

• beech mast
• hazels
• sloes
• bullaces
• hawthorn leaves and berries
• sea buckthorn berries (as a jam/jelly)
• rowan berries ditton
• rosehips; as a syrup
• dandelion heads/leaves/roots
• elderflowers and berries
• bilberries.; these make the best jam- ever!

Ooh what does rosehip syrup taste like? And are dogroses better for collecting them from?
Ditto with sea buckthorn and rowan berries. How do they taste?
And is there much difference in taste between bullaces and sloes?

@jewishmum does the blitzing destroy the sting or do you frazzle them over a flame first? Is the tincture for dandruff or hairloss? And do you find it makes a difference?

@CuriousEats the blitzing does it. If you roll a nettle leaf up into a ball, it also flattens the sting spokes making it safe. Added tip, squeeze the rolled up leaf to get a drop of juice out and rub it on the skin where you were stung, it neutralises it.

On the hair for thick healthy hair.

@jewishmum do you wear gloves when prepping them? My mind is blown by the juice thing!!

@CuriousEats when picking and handling I definitely wear gloves but in a pinch for a small amount you could get away with only a sting or two without gloves, I tell you what I learned it on YouTube how to handle them, you can pick from the bottom of the stem near the roots long as your hand scoops upwards along the stem to the tip and never against it. There's always accidents though due to complex nettle plants with leaves growing in different directions.

"some huge ones that I'd swear were penny buns. They've got pores not gills and similar colouring."

From the edible mushrooms book:
There are no poisonous lookalikes unless you are blind. All the poisonous boletes have red or pink colours somewhere, and most of them discolour blue. If a bolete is entirely white/ brown/ yellow/ olive, with no pink or red, and no blue discoloration, then it is not poisonous.
The bitter bolete which isn't poisonous but is extremely bitter, is also easily mistaken for a penny bun, the main difference being the Bitter Bolete has brown reticulations on a white background, instead of the other way round, and pinkish pores and spores.

@jewishmum thats fascinating, thanks! Apparently plaintain is also very effective for nettle stings too.

@CuriousEats thanks for the info., I actually know relatively little about fungi, just enough to know I know nothing! The ones in my garden have stalks that are netted grey on white, they've gone for the year or I'd post a pic. If they reappear next year I might do a spore print.

Have you looked up common mallow? They are sometimes called 'cheeses' because their fruit resembles a wheel of cheese. To my mind they look more like teeny tiny bagels. Apparently, the sap can be used a a thickener for soup and the whole plant is edible. Its relative, marshmallow, was used to make a sweet, the name escapes me

@IcakethereforeIam that book says penny bun stalks have white reticulations on a light brown background, so I dont think its that.
It could be a bitter bolete. They get mistaken for penny buns, but their stalks are the opposite colourway. They're not poisonous, just inedibly bitter.
The reason I got the Edible Mushrooms book was because I had loads of mushrooms in my front garden that looked and smelled like the portobello ones you can buy, but I didn't have a clue if they were edible. They've since died down now and I have since discovered a poisonous earthball among others, which originally I would have thought was an immature portobello had I not had this book.
Its a pity our chemists don't offer the same service as french ones - they're all trained in mycology and can tell you if your find is edible or not.
I also bought the Wild Food Foraging book which has a large section dedicated to mushrooms. I find it quite useful to compare the same entries in both as the photos show quite a wide variations in colours for each.
If anyone has any other mushroom books they'd recommend, I'd be interested!

Common mallow - that came up on another thread. I think @MereDintofPandiculation mentioned it. I grew annual mallow this year and that had those same cheeses on. (Off to google if they're edible).

I bought James Wongs homegrown revolution which was an eye opener. Loads of stuff I've already got growing in my garden is edible apparently! I tried the immature fiddle leaf fern fronds and they were delicious after prepping them! I've got loads growing around our pond and rockery and am so tempted to serve them if we entertain next spring. They look so cool!

Oh, one I just remembered, but never tried, the seeds of Ash (the keys) are edible. Iirc, you pick them when they're green and pickle them. They can probably be used in other ways.

Oh have you tried them?
I've been meaning to collect nasturtium seeds while they're still green for 2 years now but by the time I've remembered they're at the bottom of the trug, they're covered in bits of crap and a bit sad looking. They're supposed to be a good substitute for capers if you pickle them.

Nasturtium, grrr, either won't grow for me or get smothered in black fly. I had ambitions for the leaves, which are supposed to taste peppery like watercress. The flowers are edible, but the bees like them so much, I don't have the heart to take them. Well, this year neither of us had the flowers.

I'm going to give them another go next year. If they grow I'll collect the seeds.

Oh, have you ever tried planting the bases of onions and/or lettuces? You know the root discs that normally get binned. I kept an empty ice cream tub with some compost on the kitchen window sill. Poked the rooty bits of spring onions in it, kept them watered and, tahdah, more spring onion (mostly green bits). Also with pakchoi, new leaves grew between the stumps of the old ones, then it bolted but it was an interesting experiment. I think you can do the same with celery and leeks. I had to stop because I needed the space for another plant.

@CuriousEats rosehip syrup is fruity and delicious. As a child it was always served drizzled over rice pud. It's easy to make but avoid the big, fat japanese rosehips - you want the oval dogrose variety for flavour.
Rowan jelly is dry and astringant and not everyones cup of tea but for me its delicious with cold meats. Sea buckthorn much nicer and VERY good for you

Sloes are very small and v. sour but fab in sloe gin...you couldn't really use them for much else other than a jam/jelly. Bullaces however are much bigger and ripe ones delicious eaten as they are or in jams/cordials pies, etc

I've done the pickled nasturium seeds a la Pam the Jam recipe book and they are a very good substitute for capers

@IcakethereforeIam the nasturtium leaves are very nice. I like adding them to salads, or if we entertain, sometimes I'll fill a decorative wide glass vase with water and float them and some flowers in, so they look like mini water lilies. Quite effective as a table centrepiece. Blackflies or aphids tend to go for weaker plants in my experience. Especially if they're under watered. Or plants which are given lots of artificial fertiliser- they love the soft sappy new growth.
I've not done the replanting rooty bits, mainly because I grow my own lettuce and only pick the outer leaves rather than the entire plant so that gives me a steady supply of leaves for much longer. I've run out of home grown spring onions though so that's worth a try. And I'll give it a go with celery too. I uprooted my lovage plants in the garden because they in the wrong place, and didn't replant them in time. That's basically perennial celery, fwiw. Its stringier but doesn't matter if you only use it for soups and stocks like I do.