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OH and I have been keeping an eye on the gooseberry bush behind the bus stop - and today was the picking day So off I want armed with rigger boots, sturdy gloves and a hook and came back with enough to make about 4 jars of jam. Then on the way home I took a diversion thru the quarry and picked some elder flowers for cordial - my friends wee boy loves it - although he did think that I was going to turn it into cauliflower! Then I stopped off to pick some ash keys for pickling - apparently they come out like capers in about 3 months.
And so begins our free food season! We are lucky enough to have many apple trees round here, the lady from the pub in my mums village lets us have the plums from the tree in her car park and there are lots of bramble bushes in the quarry too - so we are never short of a crumble, jam or Dowerhouse chutney. All I need now is to find a good mushrooming field and we are set!

Brilliant! I wish our elderflower was still in bloom but sadly it's all pretty much over now. I really ought to have made a lot more elderflower fizz while it was around. Hey ho! Lime blossom coming in around here and also meadowsweet so I'm going to have a bash at using those instead. I think it will be another good year for berries etc., most trees here look pretty well laden and are setting fruit well.

(Oh yes, and the cherries are ready!! I must remember to buy some brandy! )

My hubby made cherry jam yesterday - that's a first! I shall pass this particular job over to him from now on......

oooh its great ... its so exciting when the foraging really gets going ...

excellent, I have collected some cherries with my friend and found some brambles (not ready yet tho) and will go and collect some elder tomorow. I am a bit of a noob at foraging so dont know where there are apple trees or anything.

Trust me, you'll get your eye in soon enough and then you'll be in the grip of an obsession which will mean you can barely pass a patch of new ground without scouting it out for likely forage. Watch the hedgerows for the ripening of the plum family next - first the mirabelles or cherry plums, then greegages, bullaces, damsons etc. You'll be amazed at just how many things that you probably would've walked right past before that you can spot now.

Always makes for a good feeling when you find something worthwhile. Came accross a patch of redcurrants today

Are they in a wooded area? We have patches of them in our woods but all of the fruit (although it set earlier on in the year) seems to have vanished from them.

Hedgehogpie wrote:Are they in a wooded area? We have patches of them in our woods but all of the fruit (although it set earlier on in the year) seems to have vanished from them.

Yes, they were on the edge of a woodland path. There was plenty of others we left behind because they straggled off into the brambly unfergrowth. None seemed to have been picked over by birds even though they were ripe and sweet.

How lucky you are! I'd earmarked the ones we'd spotted to look at once ripe but I think maybe the local rodenty critters beat us to it. Ah well, all's fair as they say...

You know - I've been staring at Ash keys for weeks wondering how they could be used, thanks for suggesting pickling! I've now found the recipe on www.eatweeds.co.uk and I think I'll go get some keys this week

Keeping an eye on local Lime trees too - the blossom is out on some of them.

Malcolm

To check that your ash keys are worth the effort of pickling, nip one between your teeth. If you can get through it without a fight they're tender enough to use.

Not really foraging, but managed to rescue loads of massive plant pots from an office building being cleared out today near where I work - handy for me because I rent and can't plant in the ground

I'm building up the courage to knock on the door of a house up the road that has a MASSIVE cherry tree that hangs over the pathway to ask them if I can have some

Go for it! The worst they can say is no. If you think it'd help your case you could always offer a little incentive to say yes by offering a share of some produce made from them like cherry jam or cherries steeped in brandy once you've harvested some (assuming they're not teetotallers!).

my haul today was cherries,raspberries a few blueberries and checked out apple, medlar,pear and bramble ... gonna be a good year...