Ray mears Wild Foods

[9ball]

Don't forget! 2nd episode on tonight, BBC2 8pm

[Shirley]

Thanks for that... I thought it was tomorrow!! You are a star!

[the.fee.fairy]

Missed it again!!

I thought it was Thursday...

[pskipper]

Pity! Lots of good foraging tips, I was especially interested in Sea Buckthorn which produces fruits from august through to spring, apparently fairly easy to grow away from the coast as well, very hardy (copes with temperatures between -43'C and +40'C and only requires irrigation in areas with <400mm (16") annual rainfall), and is abundantly healthy if a bit acid. Hmm off to find some seedlings then :)

Oh yes, I also forgot that it can provide up to 15 tonnes of fruit per hectare :)

[Kev]

Missed it again!!

I thought it was Thursday...

Its repeated on saturday at 7.10pm bbc2

[Hedgehogpie]

Watch out for your sea buckthorn, it's quite invasive!

[9ball]

Ok, I'm now getting annoyed with the gerbil-like way the botanist chews his food.
That is all.

[Hedgehogpie]

I think he's all too aware of the presence of the camera, bless him.

[Chickpea]

I enjoyed Ep 3 last night, about foraing along waterways - catching fish (obviously) and also eating the rootstems of greater reed mace and the seeds of yellow water lilies. They spat the water lily seeds out, even after they had fermented them for a week and ground them up and made them into a sort of cake they still tasted too bitter to eat.

Interesting stuff about nettles - instead of boiling them he wilted them over a direct flame and said they were the best way of eating nettles he'd tried. Sort of flame grilled nettles. That's do-able at home. And I liked his rant about the use of aluminium foil when cooking, and alternatives using big leaves etc. Oh, and baking goose eggs in the embers of a fire. There were lots of good bits.

Before the series started I assumed it would be about the tye of foraging we do, a sort of HFW rip-off. But it's more archeaological isn't it? It's good anyway.

[Kev]

It is archeaological and really interesting. Its amazing that plants most people ignore today or regard as pest's were once a staple diet. Looking forward to the episode next week.

Kev.

[Shirley]

Interesting stuff about nettles - instead of boiling them he wilted them over a direct flame and said they were the best way of eating nettles he'd tried. Sort of flame grilled nettles. That's do-able at home. And I liked his rant about the use of aluminium foil when cooking, and alternatives using big leaves etc. Oh, and baking goose eggs in the embers of a fire. There were lots of good bits.

.

I missed it on Wednesday - I MUST remember to watch the repeat on Saturday. Flame grilled nettles with baked goose eggs... oooh yum!! I can't WAIT for my geese to start laying. Could make goose eggs with nettle florentine LOL

[Shirley]

Repeat is on Sunday this week (I WISH THEY WOULD MAKE THEIR MINDS UP!) at 7pm... at least it is that time and day for Scotland.

[Chickpea]

It is archeaological and really interesting. Its amazing that plants most people ignore today or regard as pest's were once a staple diet.

I agree. I'm waiting for him to show us how you can get all your necessary nutrients from couchgrass, bind weed, docks and brambles, and then I can give up digging, weeding, buying seeds etc. for ever!

[pskipper]

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php ... gia+sepium

Just be careful eating your bindweed, it says it's a purgeative

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php ... tusifolius

Dock too :)

Sorry couldn't find couchgrass http://www.readymademag.com/feature_6_sodcouch.php

[Millymollymandy]

I enjoyed the 3rd episode a lot - it covered picking wild leaves for salad some of which I've picked and eaten myself.

I do love their experiments with grinding up strange seeds and then finding after all that work that it was completely unpalatable!