Hello from very wet Anglesey

[rogdee]

Hi, Rog from N Wales, thought about building an ark but it seems to have stopped raining so am going to wait a bit. So I found this site from book I recently purchased, Booze for Free, yes it was the title that drew me. I have virtually no garden so growing stuff to make any sort of drink is a bit tricky so I thought foraging might be the answer. Problem, although I can recognise some plant life, I'm not confident enough not to poison myself and any other unfortunate, so could anyone help by advising of any book that would point me in the right direction?

[Milims]

Hi there and welcome

[Green Aura]

Hi Rog, welcome to Ish.

Have a look at Food for free by Richard Mabey - I think the latest edition has photos for better ID.

[GeorgeSalt]

Hi Rog.. there seems to be a new foraging book turning up every week or so at the moment, it's achingly trendy..

If you follow Andy Hamilton's posts (both on the articles section of this website and his own blog), and foraging articles on The Guardian website (Foraging tag) you should be able to work your way through the year knowing what is in season and that you should be looking for.

Good books include Food For Free by Richard Mabey (there are several editions and coffee table/pocket sized versions) and I quite like the relatively recent one from Alys Fowler, The Thrifty Forager, as it includes introduced and urban species that might otherwise be looked over. I usually take a copy of The Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose as a back-up to the Mabey book.

[MKG]

And don't overlook other sources for wine ingredients, Rog. You can pick up tinned fruit quite cheaply sometimes (past its sell-by date, which is comical for tinned fruit), fruit tea bags are good for a quick wine, markets near closing time are handy, dried fruits can be used (avoid dates like the plague). And if you're short of space, you could try container gardening - rhubarb grows well in a pot, strawberries in a growbag. Supermarket juices can be turned into wine ... oh, the list goes on, as do I.

Welcome to Ish

Mike

[rogdee]

Thanks all for the advice, very welcome, must say I'd never thought of tinned fruit, doh, cheers MKG

[MuddyWitch]

Belated Welcome to ISH

MW