View Full Version : Foraging, March 2009
What have you actually found ? Was it good to eat ? was it worth collecting ? :D
atb,
Toddy
HWMBLT has just brought in a huge stash of Oyster fungi, I sliced them up and fried in olive oil and we had it on toast :D Really, really nice :cool:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_P3k-joCv0Zg/SbZW3BWG_aI/AAAAAAAAAaM/HhIGyBXcX1o/s400/04032009062.jpg
The usual list of edible suspects so far this month......
Nettles,
cuckoo flower (not yet in flower, just green leaves that I weed out of the garden, tasty though)
Bittercress.........a permanent weed around here.
Dockens, very small and bright, tangy.
Greater reedmace.
Melissa,
Sage,
cheers,
Toddy
calibanzwei
10-03-2009, 12:18
Cheers for this Toddy - I'm putting together some picture references using all the edibles mentioned in these thread; so I know what to look for/expect when I'm out and about.
I have two photos of these but I'm struggling to embed them in the thread. I'll get there. Meanwhile if you want the photos for your own record and can't save it from here :dunno: pm me with your email address and I'll pester HWMBLT to send them to you.............I'm pretty computer clueless really :o
It's kind of late for these fungi, but they always seem to come out in the worst of weather according to Fiona who used to grow them.
atb,
Toddy
calibanzwei
10-03-2009, 12:26
You can also add Ramson's to the list, tho technically I was chomping on these in February :D
:cool:
I got some then too, just up. There's also another little oniony thing grows with it, I need to suss out exactly what it is though.
cheers,
Toddy
add claytonia to the list, thers plenty of that by the river.
Little miss X has what was called a cookery lesson in my day tomorrow. She has to design and make a salad, so far the ingreadants are baby leaf sorrel, ramsons, forced dandilion (tastes like lettice), beet leaves and sunflower seeds. Apart form the sunflower seeds they are all wild or allotment "weeds".
I had some saute hogweed shoots the other day, I am the only one that likes them. I haven't got round to making nettle soup yet. I am trying to grow burdock from seed, and I can't get the dam things to germinate.
Did you try putting them in the freezer for a few days ?
Maybe not all of them but a couple in a wee pot, just to see ?
Nice one on the salad, I like flowers in mine at this time of year too......primroses, sometimes I find heartease out this early, daffodils are supposed to be good too :)
cheers,
M
calibanzwei
10-03-2009, 13:50
Just daffodil flowers tho yeah? - the bulbs and leaves contain something nasty.
<Quick Wiki!> Lycorine - causes vomiting, diarrhea, and convulsions.
bushcraftbob
10-03-2009, 14:01
Noticed some Jack by the hedge coming through on my way back to work today, and also the first celandine leaves are appearing - spring is on the way woohooo!
All jack by the hedge near me gats sprayed with herbacide, it doesn't kill it, it just makes it go yellow and removes the compatition. I have eaten daffodil flowers, but only the 6 outer petals, don't know if the flowers have the toxins in though (good practice is to check before eating, but i am a muppet). I am going try and get mahonia flowers when doing the school run, if they are got just as they are opening they taste like lemon curd with brussel sprout, wierd but nice.
I'm all about finding Alexanders at the mo, but think I must be too far from the sea... they were all over the shop in Hastings! On the plus side I've found wild garlic already, nettles, baby beech leaves... any ideas on what else I might find this early in the south of England? Ashdown forest to be precise?