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Now that the blackberry season is well and truly kicking off, lots of us will probably do a bit of foraging over the next few months, so I thought it might be good to have a thread for anecdotes, questions and advice...
On one of the streets we service on Friday is a little delicatessen. Yesterday, I spotted that they were selling little tubs (the sort of size you get hummous in, probably holding 100g at most) of "Hand Picked Wild North Yorks Brambles". Blackberries. At a quid a tub!
The previous evening I'd picked about a kilo on my way home, just by walking through the nature reserve and past the builders' merchant with the random bramble growing through the fence. I hadn't even been very thorough, just picking the best and easiest of what is going to be a bumper crop I think. They are in the freezer now, and I'll harvest more as they come ripe until I've got enough to make jelly and jam.
I'm fortunate to work on a nature reserve formed on what was a landfill site, where they used to dump the fruit pulp waste left over from making pastilles and gums at Rowntrees. So there are various feral apple, pear and plum trees. I've also spotted some promising rosehips, and a row of ornamental/crab apple trees outside a local supermarket. All of this on my walk home from work, more or less. I've done bramble jelly and jam before, but I'm going to experiment with plum, apple and rosehips (and maybe haws, as we have plenty of hawthorn trees too).
I don't really think about the monetary value of what I collect as a bonus - I have to buy sugar for preserving, and I don't really save money on jam because I tend not to buy it otherwise. But I like making preserves, and I like giving them as gifts, and the 'freeness' of the fruit is an added bonus and talking point.
So, there's my opening essay, anyone else got any foraging thoughts?
On one of the streets we service on Friday is a little delicatessen. Yesterday, I spotted that they were selling little tubs (the sort of size you get hummous in, probably holding 100g at most) of "Hand Picked Wild North Yorks Brambles". Blackberries. At a quid a tub!
The previous evening I'd picked about a kilo on my way home, just by walking through the nature reserve and past the builders' merchant with the random bramble growing through the fence. I hadn't even been very thorough, just picking the best and easiest of what is going to be a bumper crop I think. They are in the freezer now, and I'll harvest more as they come ripe until I've got enough to make jelly and jam.
I'm fortunate to work on a nature reserve formed on what was a landfill site, where they used to dump the fruit pulp waste left over from making pastilles and gums at Rowntrees. So there are various feral apple, pear and plum trees. I've also spotted some promising rosehips, and a row of ornamental/crab apple trees outside a local supermarket. All of this on my walk home from work, more or less. I've done bramble jelly and jam before, but I'm going to experiment with plum, apple and rosehips (and maybe haws, as we have plenty of hawthorn trees too).
I don't really think about the monetary value of what I collect as a bonus - I have to buy sugar for preserving, and I don't really save money on jam because I tend not to buy it otherwise. But I like making preserves, and I like giving them as gifts, and the 'freeness' of the fruit is an added bonus and talking point.
So, there's my opening essay, anyone else got any foraging thoughts?
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