Foraging walk

I've really been interested in foraging since last year we picked some winberries and blackberries, I bought a book "Food for free" by Richard Mabey that I take it out with me sometimes to try to identify any berries I see. I don't want to poison myself so I always double check on google that what I've picked is edible.

What's been good about going out walking Max everyday is that you really notice any changes in park. It was mid August when I started to see that there were lots of bramble bushes and the blackberries were beginning to ripen (it seemed earlier than usual and last year I really struggled to find any blackberries on 7 acres at all I picked most of mine from longsight park). This year there has been an abundance of them I put it down to what a good summer we have had and from August to now they have been ripening and I have been picking them. I am a bit obsessed I have filled my freezer with them, made a jam, cakes and put some into apple crumbles - I find it very difficult to walk past a ripe blackberry without picking it! I also picked a handful of raspberries which I will definitely look out for in July next year.

Last week we went for a walk up to Rivington Pike and again there was an abundance of wimberry bushes but as it was coming to the end of season it was getting harder to find them still we managed to find about 250g - enough to put in a cake. 

The more I walk in 7 acres the more I'm looking around at trees and noticing berries or fruits. I noticed some small apple like fruits on a tree, I took one home research it and discovered they were crab apples. I also noticed some elderberries that were green so I've been waiting for these to ripen so I could pick them too, and I noticed some purpley berries and found out that they were sloes - I have been told I must make sloe gin apparently its lovely! But don't try to eat them straight off the tree they taste sharp and it makes your tongue very dry! Yes I did have a go! 

      Blackberries, elderberries, sloes and crab apples all foraged from 7 acres country park

It was a lovely surprise that when I was out walking in 7 acres I noticed a poster for a free foraging walk being held by the 'friends of 7 acres' group and we signed up for it straight away.

It was great, held on last Sunday morning 10.30am - 12.30pm we met at the 7 acres environment centre across the other side of the park to us, there was about 10 adults and about 3 children. 

It was really informative as well as learning about food that is in season now we found out about what to look for in other seasons and discovered how to identify plants, we saw burdock plants of which roots can be used to make dandelion and burdock. We saw a hazel tree without any hazelnuts (apparently there are a lot of squirrels on 7 acres!). Tried the seed of a Himalayan balsam which is high in vitamin c and tastes a bit like watermelon.  Sampled some Haw berry Turkish delight that sounded very easy to make and tasted much nicer than real Turkish delight. Learned that uncooked elderberries have cyanide in them! Thankfully it's only a little bit and it's only harmful if you eat in great quantities! Smelled the leaves of a plant called sweet which smelled of licorice and is high in pectin so good for adding to jams, sampled some (very strong) birch sap wine and learned how to make it. And also told us about rowan berries and rosehips both good for making jams or jellies. Unfortunately the heavens open halfway round and we got drenched but we met some very nice people and had a lovely time. We even made it onto the website - http://www.7acres.org.uk/

I now have lots of ideas of what to forage and what to make next. 

Thanks for reading, 

Abigail xxx

Food for free!

In August purchased a collins gem book called 'food for free'  a guide to foraging. I have always liked the idea of foraging for food but worry about poisoning myself I decided to start with something easy like berries, when we were younger I remember going picking winberries (also known as Bilberries ) from around Entwistle reservoir and enjoying it so much, they start to ripen from late July. So when we went for a walk late August we didn't expect to find many and there weren't very many around Entwistle but we managed to pick lots from Rivington pike. All in all we got about 500g and bright purple hands but it was good fun.

So what to make with them?? I froze half and made a cake from my hummingbird bakery book, Blueberry and sour cream loaf but substituting wimberries for the blueberries and very nice it was. I still have the other batch of wimberries in my freezer which I think I'll eventually make into a small wimberry pie because my mum is desperate for me to make it because it reminds her of her childhood.

Just after we had got Max obviously we were walking more and I kept seeing more and more blackberries ripening so we took a bag out one weekend when we took Max for a walk at the nearby Longsight park. We managed to pick 800g which I washed in salt water to kill any bugs that may have been in them then rinsed them through and froze them until last week when I was off for half term, I found this recipe on the BBC good food website http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11750/angelas-flexible-jam-recipe it needed 1kg blackberries for the recipe so I added apples to make it up, this meant I had to cook the fruit for longer but it really does add to the flavour. I had made Jam before but this time I treated myself to a jam thermometer which I then went on to reading wrong and thinking that I had let it boil for too long because it went past 105 but I looked at Fahrenheit instead of Centigrade so I took it off the heat. Luckily it must have been at the correct temperature because it set really well. I called it 'Abigail and Mum's blackberry and apple jam.' because we picked the blackberries together and then we made the jam together too.

I made five jars of it all together and it tastes lovely on toast...

..or in donut muffins...yum!

I think we did well for our first attempts of foraging!