Foraging

Sorry if this is in a different section!

How is everyone getting on with foraging this year?

I went to pick blackberries today and well it was a bit of a disaster compared to last year. This time last year all the bushes were practically ripe, however this year a lot of them are beginning to die off and the berries that are ripe, are mostly wilted away. There are still a lot of red and green berries but the bushes themselves look in sorry state, I had to drive and walk around a lot of our farmland to find a few bushes still in good order, could it be the weather?

 

The blackberries cropped earlier this year, or at least by me they did. Still a good few pickable, but a lot are the smaller berries.
The mushrooms seemed to be very short season, too dry I suppose.

 

I should have kept a closer eye on them really, was awfully disappointed as the bushes are thick with wilted ones and they grow in such a way that they are easy picked, I would have got kilos of them if I had been on time!

But we have lots of sloes out now in our area, something I would never have thought about before trying sloe gin. Is there anything else I can use them for? Should they be ripe now or should I leave them a bit longer? They taste awful raw so Its hard to gauge

 

Found these today , must get a bottle of cheap Gin from Lidls.
2 lb Sloes, 1 x 2kg bag of sugar and a bottle of Gin. Wash and prick each sloe a few times with a needle and add to a glass bottle with the sugar and the Gin. Keep in the dark and shake or stir daily until all the sugar has dissolved. Leave it 'til Christmas and sup when it's cold outdoors!
Jenny

 

Not doing a lot this year, only a small kitchen and no freezer

 

Sloe and Crab Apple jelly.

The blackberies round this way are all but finished, they started very early, cropped heavily, slowed down and had a brief revival about a week ago, but it's now only worth picking a few to eat for desert. I got really stuck in when they were at their peak. The damsons were also weeks earlier than normal.

 

Ive got about 3kg or so of blackberries in the freezer and got a great recipe off Scrungee for some wine which I need to get my finger out and actually make!

I was never the biggest fan of gin but then again tried it years ago,, but sloe gin I thought was delicious! I read that simply freezing is enough to rupture the fruit evenly? even a touch of almond but im sure there are millions of variants

 

I have never seen Damsons around my way unfortunately, do they grow wild normally or mostly old orchards etc? My part of the world is most definitely not an arable or fruit growing area

 

I'm off in search for Sloes tomorrow,they were very thin on the ground last year and very small too.

 

They are in abundance here so no shortage, just the expensive bit of buying Gin!

 

All finished, or all taken?

 

I love your very small Sloes

 

What else can you do with sloes apart from put them in gin? I've got tons growing on the plot and don't know what to do with them or what they taste like for that matter.

Also any advice on harvesting walnuts?

 

They're handy when you'm coming back from a party and you haven't brushed your teeth Jane, a few of them will take the skin off your teeth

They've found pits full of the stones at Stonehenge, archaeologists reckon we used to eat them. I reckon it was more for the above reason