Food for free

[greengas]

I would like to and I did buy food for free by Richard Mabey, however I still worry about picking the wrong muhrooms and ending up ill. I guess it is all about gaining the confidence and doing it, I wish we could be more like the French when it comes to food as I believe you can pick mushrooms over there and if your not sure you can take them to the pharmacist. That said I do still enjoy blackberry picking

[Suky]

I pick blackberries and elderberries and last year was so lucky to find a wild plum tree, gorgeous little spicy yellow plums. In fact the jam I am entering tomorrows Summer Show (Milford Village Hall 2pm) is a jar from last years plum harvest.
Today I noticed my neighbour has sloes growing in the wilderness at the bottom of her garden. Does leaning over the fence and pinching some count as foraging?

[flighty1]

I love foraging for food, especially mushrooms & toadstalls. I have no idea what I am picking but that's not a problem as I don't like them. However I cook them up & give them to the OH with a nice fried breakfast. So far he is still alive but you never know I might strike it lucky one day. (only kidding)

[COMPOST CORNER]

Blackberries, apples, rowanberries, elderberries, chestnuts all to be found locally. Would love to pick 'shrooms but wouldn't dare.

[maytreefrannie]

I haven't foraged for some years, due to concern about contaminants, also not sure about identifying many plants.

[Winged one]

I pick a lot of blackberries - some local to us here and a lot local to my and OH's parents houses in the depths of the countryside.

I also pick damsons next to MILs house. And she has a few ditches full of sloe bushes too, which make cracking sloe gin!! (Will have better strategies in place this year for a bumper harvest!!!)

I keep meaning to take elderflowers and elderberries, which are in the plots site - but keep forgetting when the time comes (I am usually rushing past with too much to do on the plot).

When at my parents house, I'd often wander the shore and pick limpets and the odd few mussels too. (I also keep meaning to borrow my Bro's fishing tackle, which would also be "foraging" of sorts!). I sometimes find nice leaves to take too - sorrel, wild mint, watercress. And there is a ditch close to their house with wild strawbs, although I haven't got those in recent years. And a crab apple tree in a field about 2 fields away from the house. (She doesn't live on a farm, but we used to roam over the neighbour's farm relatively freely when growing up and found a few things that he had no interest in).

I just got a foraging book and a mushrooms book last week to see what else I can get for free.

Oh, forgot to add that I don't generally find too many edible nuts, occasionally have found hazelnuts, but beech nuts are rather tasty little things and I have used a lot of those over the years.

[phil the shed]

I am lucky to live in an area with huge military training areas all around, perfect for foraging, we go mushrooming regularly when in season mainly for the ones that are good for drying, and it has all the usual berries.

Last year I 'found' an old fruit garden that used to belong to a long demolished convent and is now just wasteland, there was at least five types of plum, mulberry, fig, sloes and damsons. Needless to say I didn't mentioned the location to too many people.

i know what you mean, it may seem silly but we used the places my dad took me in the past.... when i was younger.
now i have a few precious places for blackberries and raspberries and a great location for ceps where i have never seen anybody walking.
other regular foraged items
sloes
rose hips
plums and damsons.
wild garlic ( national trust property)
usual mushrooms aswell.
is it that peolpe can't be bothered to hunter gather though in our current throw away world.
will become defenders of our turf when the eco sysytem goes @rse up

[Llamas]

I forage year round for both flora and fauna. Sloes, elderflowers, ramsons, pigeons, rabbits, puffballs and nettles are my favourites.

[Alison]

Not as much as I'd like to but forage mushrooms (loads, still have a couple of bags of dried ones from last autumn), berries, elderflowers etc. Need to get better at doing leaves but do cook nettles a fair bit early in the summer - had a lovely mushroom and nettle lasange the other night . Reasons for doing it are simply why wouldn't you, you don't get much for free and it's easy to learn what to do properly if you use a bit of common sense. Basically, if you're not sure then don't eat it but there are loads of things you can start on and work up a bigger larder over time.

[taff]

I forage for things I recognise, and I've recognised quite a few cherry trees around ehre since I've been looking, and the birds haven't eaten hardly any of them yet....yayy!!!
Field mushrooms, tree mushrooms, blackberries, wimberries [in wales when i go home], wild garlic [grows up by the lake], and anything else available really, including the neighbours rhubarb

[coreopsis]

Yes,mainly for berries and mushrooms

[always digging]

im always on the lookout for anything going ,i cycle so there is always lots about ie elderflowers apples sloes just try to collect the produce away from main roads to avoid any muck from traffic

[newbieveggie]

Ive been on a foraging course here in Guernsey. We are so lucky as we could do rural and seaside foraging in one day. Since then I have viewed alot of my so called 'weeds' in my garden in a different light. Its great fun and I have encouraged my children and their friends to forage as well (under strict guidance of course)

[glaw5]

Can anyone recommend any good foraging websites/books? Would like to do more than just pick blackberries!

Thanks for any help!

[gazh]

i was talking to the mushroom foraging expert at Hughs river cottage over the weekend and asked him 'if i was likely to die'!! he just laughed and said maybe! then explained that there are so many mushrooms and a lot that look very similar that you would need a very comprehensive guide. He then tried plugging his book so i left it at that ;-) lol