Anyone Still Gather Wild Fruit?

[Pickle]

Anyone a bit unsure about what you can eat might try looking for Richard Mabey's book Food for Free. I've had a copy since it first came out - when he was young and dark-haired - and I was young and slim!

Does this book have good pictures? I've been really tempted by it especially since it's only �2.50 on Amazon at the moment. But I really need pictures just for confirmation and my own peace of mind

I was never taken foraging as a child but now I have children of my own I'm really keen to take it up and share that knowledge with my children. I have 2 boys who are 4 and 2 and they already love blackberry picking although I don't get to see many of the ones they pick I've found a source of sloes ready for my sloe gin but would LOVE to find more things to forage.

I also know of LOADS of hawthorn bushes absolutely laden down with berries but what do you do with them. My friend is a medical herbalist and from her I know they are great for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure but she obviously uses them in tinctures so I still don't know of a "housewife" way of using them.

[northepaul]

I have found a feral apple tree in the park!
Also (hoping this is not a stupid question) what I think is another apple tree, except the apples are quite small - could it be a crab apple, or are there any trees that produce very small apples?

[WrexTheDragon]

Everything is very late here.

This week I have had free Blackberries, Plums and Damsons.
Looking at the amount of fruit still not ripe, I will be getting a few more weeks worth.

[hailtryfan]

Mostly picked blackberries this year as there was such a bumper crop of enormous juicy berries on the bushes behind the allotment this year.

I used to live on an estate that had been built on an orchard so could pick plums, apples and pears from trees lining the roads. Not sure if that really qualifies as wild though

[WhiteWolf]

For us this year it has been:

Damsons
Victoria plums
Blackberries
Elderberries

Would have also been Sloes, but we just can't get to them. They on the opposite side of a vast ditch covered in "Stuff"

WW & Nix

[hailtryfan]

I have found a feral apple tree in the park!
Also (hoping this is not a stupid question) what I think is another apple tree, except the apples are quite small - could it be a crab apple, or are there any trees that produce very small apples?

Lots of apple varieties naturally produce very small fruit (eg. Irish Peach) and others which are heavy croppers will produce small fruit unless the apples are drastically thinned in the summer. Crab apples are also small (but more so usually) and have an intensely sour flavour.

Guess you'll have to taste one to find out

[Glutton4...]

Sloes, Blackberries, Damsons, Bullaces, Elderberries and Flowers, and Horse Mushrooms are the main ones. Hazel/Cobnuts occasionally, along with Walnuts.

Thanks Ginge, I can add Apples and Cherries too - my memory isn't what it used to be!

You can't beat free food!

[ginger ninger]

Cherry plums (First time this year), Sloes, Blackberries, Elderberries, Apples, Crab Apples, Rowan berries, Cob nuts, Cherries (if the birds don't get to them first) and wild mushrooms.

[buzzingtalk]

Ohhh I've eaten lots of wild food. Its my favourite type of food, considering I'm vegan and it is FREE. I didn't used to forage when I was younger - I lived in London where the only thing you'd find is blackberry and it tasted of car exhaust! Now I live out in East Anglia, theres allsorts:

Mushrooms
Cherries
Apples
Plum
Greengage
Pear (rare to find these though)
Rosehip
Elderberries and Elderflowers
Sloes

I have yet to find wild strawbs/raspberries - and when I do, I'll be chuffed

[rustylady]

Rosehips, elderberries, blackberries, and an apple tree that I can't reach (so frustrating).

[buzzingtalk]

rusty - have you seen the fruit pickers you can buy in some garden centres/magazines? they would come in handy

[rustylady]

rusty - have you seen the fruit pickers you can buy in some garden centres/magazines? they would come in handy

Have you seen the price of them?? I just wish I could still climb trees.

[buzzingtalk]

haha!

I saw one for about �30 that I'd consider buying, mainly for foraging and getting to that ever present perfect apple that is out of reach haha. Its gonna go on a christmas list anyway

[Two_Sheds]

I got 8lb sloes, bullaces & blackberries at the weekend, and 2lb apples (unknown variety, quite tart)

[buzzingtalk]

niiice - you did well to find blackberries still! although there were pleanty that weren't quite ripe in suffolk the other day so they might still be loitering about

gonna get more sloes on the weekend, and some rosehips to make syrup.

Im gutted i didn't find any plums this year though