Easing back into the real world…

I’m in Somerset this week, at Ki-Aikido summer school. The class schedule is relaxed enough that I’ve been able to get out and about a little bit. I haven’t done huge amounts of foraging while I’ve been here – about a pound of plums the other day that were hanging over a car park in Highbridge, and the odd handful of blackberries from beside the various lanes. Lots of things are starting to ripen nicely, and I expect I’ll have plenty to harvest when I get back to London if it hasn’t all been rained away.

Things to watch for, at least in the south of England, in the next few weeks:

• Hazelnuts–ideally you want to get this when they’re just starting to ripen, if you wait until they’re properly ripe then the squirrels will have the lot.
• Mulberries–these are planted as ornamental trees, usually, but the fruit is quite edible once it gets dark. It doesn’t keep at all so you need to either eat it, juice it, freeze it or jam it the same day you pick it. Personally I tend to eat it straight away.
• Walnuts are getting big now and, just like the hazelnuts, if you want to eat them instead of letting the squirrels take them all, you’ll have to get there quickly.
• Elderberries–some people find that there are laxative effects from eating these raw, although personally I’ve never had a problem with the odd handful. They make good wine, good jam and good juice or syrup. I’ve even had elderberry port, although to be fair I didn’t make it myself.
• Grapes are also quite common as ornamentals and can range from deliciously sweet to rather too tart for eating.
• Apples! Some won’t be ready yet but it’s difficult to tell this year as the weather has been quite odd.
• Blackberries, of course.
• Fennel seeds when they start to ripen, which may be pretty soon. You can use them as a condiment, or sprout them.
• Various other seeds – hedge garlic, rocket, shepherd’s purse and various other wild brassicas are good for sprouting.
• Poppy seeds are edible and have a nice nutty flavour, although collecting any great quantity from the wild can be daunting.

That’s probably all from me until after I’m back to London, unless I find something really spectacular that warrants a post of its own.

Chop Wood, Carry Water

In a departure from my normal urban foraging, I’ve spent the last little while at The Utopia Experiment, in Scotland. The fresh air and good company are doing me a power of good, and I’m very, very glad I managed to get here.

I have been doing some foraging while I’m here. I’ve found chanterelle mushrooms for the first time, as well as some blackcurrants that are so big and juicy and sweet that I’ll eat them straight from the bush although I’m normally not a currant fan. The wild cherries, or Gean berries as they are called here, are quite delightful, and the raspberries are superb. I’ve also found most of the usual greens – hedge garlic (sadly past its best), sorrel, shepherd’s purse, various oilseed rape escapes, yarrow, narrow-leaved plantain, broad-leaved plantain, bladder campion, goosegrass, ground elder, chickweed and of course, nettles. The nettles here are quite fierce and I’ve come out in blisters from their sting a few times.

Other than foraging I’ve been doing bits and pieces around the site. We cook with wood here, and after getting quite tired of blowing ash into my face I built a bellows out of discarded plastic bags, cardboard boxes, foil tape, wood and a beer can. It works well, but the wooden handles keep coming off – I think some modification will be necessary for a more durable tool. I’ve been chopping wood, refilling the kettle from the standpipe (still on mains water but work continues apace on the water filter), sleeping in a yurt, feeding the chickens and the pigs, helping with general garden things (weeding, planting out autumn brassicas, and the all-important harvesting of peas…mmm… peas…) and doing quite a bit of cooking.

I’ll be leaving this place on Saturday to spend a week in Somerset studying Ki-Aikido, and we are very, very short of volunteers up here. I’ll be back in London after that and unable to get away again for quite some time. If you’re in the UK or planning to be in the UK before TUE comes to an end in September 2008, staying here for a while is a wonderful opportunity to get out of the city and learn a bit about some self-sufficient living and pass on some skills of your own.

We really really really need more people – special skills don’t matter too much if you’re willing to learn and can apply common sense and stamina to a problem. After about the middle of August it’s really sparse. If you’re interested in coming – even just for a weekend – please contact tue[at]the-earth-effect[dot]com for more information. The website is a bit daunting but really, the people here are lovely and it’s great to get into the countryside for a while.

Foraging Log 5

Time: a very slow two-hour wander
Place: Crane Park, Whitton
Gathered: a few sour cherries, three Jew’s Ear mushrooms, and a small handful of hedge garlic

This weekend I was at a friend’s party in the pleasant leafy suburb of Whitton. A group of us went to the local park to take some air in between rainstorms and food.

A few apple trees and a pear tree were apparent quite near the beginning of our walk; those fruits won’t be ripe for a while yet but the trees are fruiting very well. While taking shelter from yet another of the intermittent showers, I found some Jew’s Ear fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae), a treat at this point in the year as they are much easier to find in winter when there aren’t so many leaves on the trees. Later, nearer the riverbank, I found some young hedge garlic (Alliaria petiolata), a pungent member of the brassica family. At this time of year much of the hedge garlic in the London area is getting old and leggy and going to seed, and not tasting so nice. I do have some ideas incubating for the seed

The hedge garlic and the Jew’s Ear fungus ended up on homemade pizza later in the evening. Yum!

FORAGING TIPS FOR BEGINNERS: I. PAY ATTENTION!

This is the first article in a series of foraging tips for beginners.

The ability to pay attention to detail is crucial in successful foraging. Many people walk past huge amounts of food on a daily basis, but they don’t know it is there because all they see is “green stuff”. A large amount of that green stuff is tasty, nutritious and free. There are no plants that are not worth identifying.

Part of paying attention to detail is about familiarity and knowing what to look for, but a larger part of it is cultivating a sense of curiosity. Take a closer look at that patch of waste ground by the supermarket – what do you see? Dandelions? Stinging nettles? What else is there? Go for a walk around the block and see if you can identify the trees on your street. To begin with it’s enough to notice that some of them have needles and others have true leaves. Later, you can find out how many of them are native to your area. Are any of them edible species? Find a park to eat your lunch in, and make a task of walking around some part of it each day; become familiar with the flora and fauna there.

Don’t just rely on your eyesight, either. Stop and smell the roses, literally. Also smell the peppery wild rocket, the pungent hedge garlic and the cool, sweet fennel. Feel the cat’s-tongue roughness of goose grass. It’s probably a good idea to avoid smelling or touching the nettles, though, unless you actually like being stung.

After a while of making an effort to pay attention, you’ll start to notice things. You’ll start to notice the shapes of leaves, stems and flowers, rather than just the colour; you’ll start to see how the seasons change your local landscape. This is incredibly useful. Those nettles might be too old and stringy to be any good for eating now, but they’ll be back come springtime.

Once you have developed the habit of learning details past the general differentiating characteristics most of us are taught in childhood, (“The big green tree…”), you’ll find the world is richer than you might have imagined. I think it’s worth the effort just for that, even if you don’t eat any of what you study.