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 2

Time: Around an hour on a Wednesday evening
Place: Millwall Park, E14
Gathered: Enough fennel for a large salad, a few leaves of wormwood for tea, but there was lots else if we’d wanted it. Later and not actually in Millwall Park, a couple of cherries each.

A week or so ago, I went for a gentle amble around Millwall Park with a friend. This particular friend hasn’t done much foraging, so I found myself pointing out many plants I might not normally look twice at.

The south end of the park has gardens, mostly full of roses and lavender; the woodchips are a good place to look for fungi later in the year but there were none visible that evening despite recent rain. There are a few areas in the south and west of the park where the grass is allowed to grow long, and in those there a multitude of wild greens. These include Shepherd’s Purse, Narrow-leaved Plantain, Broad-leaved Plantain, Fat hen, chamomile, mugwort, yarrow, wormwood, bladder campion, wild rocket, sand leek, dock, dandelion, wild fennel and various types of wild mustard or cabbage.

Some of these, like Shepherd’s Purse, campion, wild rocket, leek, fennel, and dandelion, make excellent salad leaves; they can also be cooked. Shepherd’s Purse is related to cabbage and the seeds in their heart-shaped pods can be used, as well as the leaves, to add a peppery flavour to soups and salads. Wild rocket is also quite peppery – far more so than the spiritless, half-wilted leaves available in plastic bags from supermarkets – and should be used with care, more as a condiment than a basis for an entire salad. Dandelion leaves are best in the early spring when they are young and tender, later on they tend to be quite bitter. Sand leeks are pretty much done for this year, but when they’re around in earlier months they can be picked and used just like chives. Campion leaves are quite delicious, I think they taste like a cross between lettuce and fresh peas, but the older ones are a little hairy sometimes so stick to the younger ones. Various mustard and wild cabbage leaves are also edible raw, but tend to be quite strong in flavour.
Chamomile, mugwort, yarrow and wormwood are known more for their medicinal properties than plain food value. I’ve long used chamomile flower tea as an anti-spasmodic. Wormwood and mugwort leaves are both used as flavourings and contain thujone, the active component in absinthe – they should be taken in moderation. Yarrow leaves are a useful astringent, and are said to make a wonderfully cooling tea in summer.

Other plants spotted that evening do need to be cooked. I’m not actually sure whether Fat Hen can be consumed raw, but both it and dock leaves contain oxalic acid, which can cause problems with iron absorption if eaten in excess. I haven’t tried either wide-leaved or narrow-leaved plantain myself; my understanding is that they are edible, but tough, and require quite a bit of cooking to be eaten easily.

It’s comforting to know I can throw together a soup and a salad from wild ingredients near most parks for a good portion of the year, but we’d already eaten, so this wasn’t necessary. We did venture a little further north into Mudchute Farm, and sampled the first cherries of the year, straight from the tree. Delicious!