Recent content by Hairy Steve

The thing to watch out for is over-cooking - we mostly eat them with past so we steam them until they just open, barely a minute, drop them into cold water to stop the cooking, finish the rest of the dish, chop them up and warm through in whatever sauce we're having.

I've used straight veg oil to run chainsaws commercially with no problems. We had to watch how much oil went through the saws initially, adjusting the oil pumps as necessary - it is thinner so it goes through faster and you don't want to run out of oil before you run out of fuel! And we had to...

Cockles, mussels, clams, razor clams, the odd scallop and oyster, prawns, crabs, fish (mostly sea bream, bass, mackerel), lots of mushrooms (over 40 species tried so far, usually manage enough in the autumn to last about 6 months), crab apples for jelly, apples for drying and chutney...

Making time to get out - always seem to find something else that has to be done before I can play. For years I had the fire making skill sof an eskimo too, but I'm getting better!!

I'd add the edible seaweeds - proper crispy seaweed or fresh greens sushi are both excellent. and I'd have nettles in the 5 star list

Just a cheap and cheerful LED headtorch. Collected oysters and razor clams - about a dozen of each, and a handful of large cockles. Sometimes I get the odd scallop too, but none this trip.

First try at midnight foraging for me, after shellfish on the lowest tides of the month. Working during the day, so the midnight low was the only option. Good trip too - nice heavy swag bag on the walk back!

Early morning fishing session this morning - no Gilt-head Bream sadly but an unusually early showing of Chicken of the Woods on the walk back out - first I've found in Cornwall

Sheep's sorrel in our hedges now - nice munch when you're walking. Last week's extreme low tides gave us at least 7 different shellfish - great treat Haven't found a decent Morel in years

shrew perhaps?

I haven't worked on that island but I have worked on 2 others for up to 6 months at a time, and in some remote places onshore too, with just a few other people for miles in every direction. In my experience it can be really intense, and sometimes took me out of my comfort zone, but I don't...

I think Poplar is the usual timber for match making so should work for spills

Birch up to c. 6" at breast height coppice very well, and now (before the sap flow starts in earnest) would be a good time to do it. Larger stems may be very slow to re-grow, but are likely to produce something eventually. You don't need to leave a 6-8" stump for birch to re-grow: 4" will...