Anyone Still Gather Wild Fruit?

[lainey lou]

It was Blackberries and Walnuts for me last year, those walnuts don't 'alf stain your fingers!
Will be on the look out for sloes for gin this year, and may well try to make some elderflower champagne.

[shirlthegirl43]

It was Blackberries and Walnuts for me last year, those walnuts don't 'alf stain your fingers!
Will be on the look out for sloes for gin this year, and may well try to make some elderflower champagne.

Make sure you pick the elderflowers that smell nice - if you get the ones that smell of cat wee your champagne will be horrid

[lainey lou]

Urgh! Good tip Shirley, thank you! I take it you speak from experience!

[shirlthegirl43]

Urgh! Good tip Shirley, thank you! I take it you speak from experience!

Actually just passing on a valuable tip - I wondered what it was all about till I found the smelly ones - yik!! Really nasty

[lainey lou]

Actually just passing on a valuable tip - I wondered what it was all about till I found the smelly ones - yik!! Really nasty

Thanks Shirley, I'll remember to sniff before I pick!

[Flummery]

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!

[bluemoon]

We still pick wild blackberries and until recently elderberries and elderflowers, but now we have an allotment with a large elder tree behind the shed so take ours from there. I recall my brothers and I being sent bilberry picking by my gran - I'm not sure if this was because she really wanted the fruit or if it was a ruse to get an afternoon's peace - I remember returning with a miniscule amount of berries, but with fingers, clothing and faces stained purple.

[phil the shed]

free but for the grace of god

we have collected many of the above over the last few years and i find the hedgerow field or woodland a lot more uplifting than many things i grow on the lottie, because they are free i've searched them out collected and used what is there for the taking. to add they are often more complex and richer in flavour than mass grown and produced varieties.
to add to the expanding list ihave a special spot for
fresh water crayfish and now after research and a brave tasting
also fresh watercress in season !$&*"! yummy

lucky huh!

[Tracey]

We used to scrump apples from the local school grounds. The school didn't use them at all. Last year we were upset because the school had the trees removed for health and safety reasons as the kids threw them at each other at play time. What a waste. One of my daughters 1st cookery lessons at the school was making an apple pie, and we had to buy the apples for her to take in. Madness!

We also collect wild blackberries.

[Sirius]

My fondest childhood memories are of traipsing up the hills or through the woods with my Dad, picking as we went. As a farmer's son in the countryside, my Dad learned more than I could ever hope about edible plants/berries. He taught me from a very early age about what was safe to eat and what was not - even now if I'm unsure, I'll ask Dad before I do anything, and I'm nearly 40 for goodness sake!! Dad and his brother made their own jelly last year (or jeely as we like to call it) and all from berries picked from the local hills. My kids don't seem to share the same enthusiasm as I remember having unfortunately, but I still pass on what I can when I get the opportunity.

[Birdie Wife]

My favourite wild fruits are raspberries and bilberries - we used to have a really good patch of raspberries that hardly anyone knew about, right next to the road... sadly now word has got around and it's not worth going there anymore. We do have a great patch of bilberries though, no-one else knows about it and the deer can't access it either, so we have a trip every year in late July. It's a long walk over the hill and bog and a short paddle in the boat but it's well worth the effort

[duggie]

As kids, my brother and I were always taken wild blackberry, damson, apple and plum picking. We were also taken to fruit farms to pick strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrents and gooseberries. Dad grew a few things in the back garden i.e. beetroot, onions, carrots and lettuce etc.

My husband and I have always taken our kids blackberry picking in the autumn - bit of a family tradition - and frozen some for the Christmas Pie. We have also picked damsons, bilberries, sloes, elderflowers and plums. Great fun!

[Dane End Dolly]

Oh the memories of blackberry picking as a child. Imagaine my joy when we moved to the country last year and found out on the fields masses of hedgerows full of blackberrys, still have some in my freezer, looking to purchase a book (ffod for free) this year and get more things. Already have found sloes at the end of last year and will be looking to make sloe gin when i go picking sloes at the end of this year.

[momol]

This is a very interesting thread. Though I recognise lots of edible wild berries in our forest but I never gather any as we grow our own berries too. I did collect some wild dandelion flowers to colour our pickles .

[TonyF]

I'm deprived (depraved) because I did none of this when I was young - my parents weren't interested in the countryside and wild harvest at all.

Now J and I are regulars round the hedgerows along our chemin rurale and we just enjoy what we pick - making up for lost time on my part, that's for sure.