Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

AKA: Bread and Cheese, Maythorn, Quickthorn

Where: Hedgerows, especially along woodland. Common throughout UK, except far north. 

What: Berries, flowers, leaves.

When: Leaves: April – July; Flowers: April – June; Berries: July – November, possibly later.

Hawthorns are very commonly encountered as they make up a large proportion of the hedgerows once you get away from the privet wastelands of suburbia. They are easy to spot, either as a hedge or as a freestanding, usually ancient looking, individual tree.

The tree can reach a height of 10m or more, but is more commonly found at 4m or thereabouts in the hedgerow, depending on the maintenance. It has a woody stem, gnarled and twisted, greyish brown in colour with broken skin.

The leaves are fairly thick and tough, appearing in early spring. A glossy dark green in colour (young leaves are a lighter green), deeply lobed into 5 segments some 2-3cm across, and looking a little like a maple leaf. The young leaves are very edible and taste like, well, leaves – slightly bitter, but also slightly sweet – several sources recommend putting them on a sandwich, but they are good on their own or in a salad. Older leaves become a bit chewy and straggly and are perhaps best avoided.

The blossom arrives in late spring (April/early May) and continues until June. Measuring c2-3cm across, it consists of 5 white petals with a pinkish tinge, with a central part of white stamens with a pink end. It is very characteristic and very pretty and is produced in massive amounts, and is also edible! Actually, it’s a very powerful sweet taste, sometimes sickly sweet, and is not to everyone’s liking, but it makes a good syrup, and an interesting addition to spring salads. The unopened flower buds are also edible – get them in spring and eat raw, or in salads (the Hawthorn is often referred to as ‘bread and cheese’ – the bread is the leaves, the cheese is the unopened flower buds)

The most characteristic aspect of the Hawthorn are the haws, the bright red berries that arrive in summer time (July), and can persist until December. The tree is a member of the apple family, and the haws look like shiny red apples in miniature, measuring just 1cm across, and having a single large seed inside, with surprisingly little flesh covering it. Be advised, the Hawthorn is covered in sharp hard spines – the clue is in the name – so be careful when collecting. They can be eaten raw (they are sort of fruity, but plain) but are much better made into a jam or preserve, or better mixed with other fruit and made into a leather. They also make a really good country wine.

Lookalikes: None really, it is fairly easy to spot and there is nothing to confuse it with. 

Hazel (Corylus avellana)

AKA: Cobnuts, Kentish Cobs

Where: Woodland, Hedgerows. Common throughout UK

What: Nuts only

When: August – October

The wonderfully versatile Hazel Nut is a major win for foragers – tasty and useful, and they keep well.

Hazel is a commonly occurring shrub-like small tree, often reaching a height of about 8m but seldom more, and which can be found just about anywhere in the United Kingdom. It has a shiny greyish-brown bark, with horizontal pores and vertical cracks in the older examples. The leaves appear in early spring - hairy buds at first, then small leaves, growing until they reach their mature size in high summer. These measure c.10 x 8cm, and are a rounded or oval shape, broad and coming to a point, hairy and clearly marked with deep straight veins coming from a central rib.

The classic aspect of the tree is the catkin, the cylindrical male flower hanging down in groups. Yellow in colour and made up of tiny sepals, they measure up to 10cm long, and appear in early spring, before the leaves arrive, along with the tiny (0.3cm) red female flowers hidden in buds.

The nut arrives in August, emerging in groups of up to 5, each enclosed in a leafy green ‘cup’, often with reddish highlights. They are rounded or oval in shape with a round rough spot at one end, measure up to 2cm, and are very hard and shiny with striations running down the length of the body – actually very pretty to look at. The immature specimen is a pale green colour, shiny and hard, but these mature into the classic brown nut.

The immature pale nuts are also edible, being vaguely fruity in taste and milky in texture – the advantage here is that animals don’t seem to like them, so they are all yours for the taking. Eat them at once as they don’t keep well in nut form, or process them further, possibly into a pesto, to enable them to last. However, by late September the nuts will be turning that classic Hazel colour – a beautiful deep brown, with a taste to match. Collect them as soon as they are ripe or you will be fighting the whole animal world for them, particularly the squirrels which prize them highly. Sometimes the nuts that the tree produces will be empty, so it is worth opening a few as you go along as a representative sample – if they are empty, move on to the next tree.

They are a very versatile food, very tasty and as they are up to 60% oil, they are a prized foodstuff for animal and forager. If they are left in their shells and stored in a dark dry place, they will keep for up to a year, so used sparingly (or taken in a huge harvest) they will last until next season.

                                                                                       

Hazel Tree 

Hazel Leaf - Close-up

Hazelnuts - Immature

Mature Hazelnuts - This is what you are aiming for!            

Cakes!

Before adding a new post about Bilberries, I thought I’d quickly give a shout to my awesome friend’s blog – Boocakey (both friend and blog are awesome).

Mrs H and myself have been friends for years, and her blog is amazing – she is a cake obsessive (and bakes a mean angel cake) and is now sharing this through the internet now.

Check it out for recipes and tips from all that is hot in the baking world (pun very much intended).

We're back...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately... we have been away - to Devon and Northumberland. Oh and Cheltenham. Little chance to do much foraging. Devon is full of eating apples, but technically, when the tree is in someone's garden, it's less foraging more, well, scrumping! (or, depending on the person, "stealing apples, your honour"). Saw masses of fruit from the car, which leads me on to the next topic. Everything seems to be arriving early this year - Apples, Plums, Bilberries, Blackberries, even Elderberries, are all available NOW! Seriously, now is the best time of the year for fruit - pick enough now and in the following months, save it and store it, and you can last right through 'til spring time.

Go forth and gather people - information on various fruits to follow soon starting with the Bilberry... ahhhh, the Bilberry. This is hands down my favourite fruit, and we shall be picking it by the wheelbarrow load as soon as we can!

See you in a bit.

Tim & Kate

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Where: Waste ground and cultivated land. More common in south, rarer in north.   

What: Leaves, seeds, young shoots/bulbs.

When: Shoots/bulbs – Spring; Leaves – Spring/Summer; Seeds – late Summer/Autumn.

The Wild Fennel is the same plant that is grown commercially, and can be used in all the same situations, only the wild version is much cheaper! It grows in distinct localised patches to a height of 2.5m in some cases, though half that is more normally encountered. It is a very distinctive plant, easily recognised from a distance.

A hard, but hollow, central stem grows a riot of fine, almost hair-like, leaves. The leaves can grow to a length of 40cm and 0.5cm wide, an comprised of very fine thread-like leaflets branching off a stem in opposite pairs, and each leaf is in turn similarly branched giving a rather chaotic and hairy impression to the plant. The leaves themselves are a bright green or greyish green in colour, and when crushed in the hand release an intense aniseed smell; it is this smell, coupled with the characteristic leaves, that means that fennel is almost impossible to mistake for anything else. Harvest large amounts of leaves and dry them to ensure a supply throughout the off-season.

In early spring, just as the plant begins to show itself, the young shoots and the bulb may be harvested and eaten in the manner of the regular Florence Fennel, though the wild version is much smaller, but still good and nutty in flavour. Removing the bulb, of course, robs you of the plant, but there are usually many more around.

The flowers arrive in summer (June onwards) and last until October time; they are tiny (0.3cm) and yellow in colour, forming groups of 30 –50 flowers in dense umbels measuring over 5cm across. 

From August onwards the seed appear below the dead flowers, each measuring 0.7cm long and about 0.2cm wide, dark and light grey coloured with a grooved exterior. These can be collected and stored to add flavouring to dishes.

The aniseed flavour of fennel leaves and seeds can be very strong, and are not to everyone’s liking (I myself am not a big fan), but they make great sauces for fish, and the seeds added to meatballs impart a flavour even I enjoy. 

Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Where: Hedgerow & roadside, especially disturbed ground. Common throughout UK.

What: Flowers & berries

When: Flowers: May – July; Berries: August – September

The Elder is a very versatile plant, having 2 distinct crops each year – the flowers and the berries. I shall go into more detail abut the berries in the autumn when they appear, and this post shall be concentrate on the flower only.

The Elder occurs as a small tree, up to 6m high, but more commonly as a rather untidy shrub measuring up to 3m in height, and occupying, almost exclusively, hedgerows and roadsides. It thrives on disturbed, nitrogen rich, soils, so agricultural land is especially favoured. It is fairly easy to recognise, especially in the early summer when it is full of the characteristic flowers. 

The leaves are formed from 2 or 3 pairs of opposite leaflets with a single terminal leaflet. Spear-shaped or broadly elliptical, they are a deep green colour, paler underneath, clearly veined and shiny with a serrated edge, and measuring up to 10cm long and 5cm wide. The tree has grey-brown bark, with deep vertical cracks, and is fairly soft to the touch.

The pale yellow flowers that are so visible from late May to mid-July are umbrella-shaped, face upwards, and measure up to 20cm across. These umbels are, in fact, made up of 100s of tiny individual flowers, each measuring less than 0.5cm across, and comprised of 5 yellowish-white petals with tiny yellow stamens in the centre. They have what is described as a ‘heady’ fragrance – vaguely fruity, the smell can be quite sharp with a hint of must and floral notes… or something. Other people say it smells like death and cat wee! The smell is particularly strong after a few hours in the sun, so pick according to how much you like it – I personally am not totally convinced about the taste/smell, I keep trying it, but… Kate, however, loves it!

It is these flowers that you will need to pick if you want to make your champagne or cordial, so get picking. Pick only the bright yellow-white coloured umbels; they go a darker colour to brown as they age, and develop an insipid stale flavour that is not pleasant, and use them immediately as they do not keep. Alternatively, place them in a warm dry place to dry them, and then store in jars, etc. ensuring a steady supply of Elderflowers long past the season. For those of you, like myself, who are not sure whether or not you like the flavour, try mixing different fruit into to recipe for cordial – we tried orange, which can be recommended. If anyone has any other suggestions, let us know via the ForagersGuide email, and we can publish the recipe. 

Elderflower (Sambucus nigra)

Raspberry (Rubus Idaeus)

Where: Hedgerows, woodland margins and clearings. Common throughout UK. 

What: Berries.

When: Mid-June – August

By late June, if you are lucky enough, then you may be able to forage Raspberries. Related to the Blackberry, and superficially similar looking, the Raspberry plant is smaller that your standard bramble and is often overlooked lurking in hedgerows, or simply mistaken for a slightly odd version of it’s cousin. 

The plant can grow to a height of 1m, but is usually much lower to the ground, and has a thick, yellow-green, stem trailing throughout the hedgeback and climbing on other plants. This stem looks very thorny, almost hairy (especially compared with the Blackberry), but these reddish coloured thorns are soft, and so picking the fruit is not the trial it is with brambles. The leaves are a mid-dark green, occasionally shiny on the upper and pale below, and are slightly hairy on the upper, more hairy below. They are oval in shape, clearly veined and often taking on a wrinkled appearance, have a serrated edge, and occur in groups of 5 or 7 leaflets, with the longest, terminal, leaflet measuring up to 10cm long and 6 cm wide.  

  

The flowers, arriving in April/May, are white and are small (max. 1cm across) made up of 5 delicate petals with green triangular sepals separating them, and with a centre comprised of white stamens with reddish tips.  

By the start of June, you should be able to see the fruit growing – pale green and hard at first but slowly turning orange, and finally the classic warm translucent red. The berry itself is soft and juicy, perhaps a little sharp tasting, but still sweet with that wonderful flavour. The fruit is smaller than the shop bought variety, measuring just 1.5-2cm, but is in the classic shape, and looks just like an unripe red Blackberry. The berry hangs down underneath the leaves, usually in groups of up to three, so you have to go looking for it, literally turning plants upside down, and whilst not growing in the same quantities as the Blackberry (actually, depending on the plant, fairly sparsely), they are well worth the effort.

Use the berries in any way you see fit – pies, salads, breakfast, juice them, add them to chilled white wine for an evening drink… hell, just pop them in your mouth and chomp! They freeze well, but are a tad mushy when defrosted! In a wonderful display of irony (and with a sense of mischievous glee), my main Raspberry plant is in my local supermarket car park, and whilst they are currently having a sale on Raspberries (£1.99 for a punnet), I can get mine for free!

Elderflower Champagne

Ingredients:

The flowers from 6 elderflower heads

2 lemons, sliced

4.5 litres of water

750 grams of sugar 

2 tbsp of cider/white wine vinegar

Fizzy drinks bottles 

Make sure your bottles are sterile, once you have washed them you can either use a sterilising fluid or crush up a campden tablet in some warm water to dissolve it and then give them a good rinse with the solution. Make sure your hands are clean throughout the process!

I would advise against using glass bottles. Once the fermentation process starts in the bottle the high pressure can cause the bottle to explode and a hole to appear in your favourite partitioning wall/shed. 

1.Pour 4.5 litres of water in to a container which has a lid (or can be cling filmed)

2. Add the flowers of 6 elderflower heads (shake off any bugs first but don't wash the flowers as this will get rid of the natural yeast and you will have no fizz. Bear in mind that your hands will get covered in pollen so if you are a fellow hayfever sufferer DON'T rub your eyes!)

3. Add the 2 sliced lemons

4. Whilst in the mixture give the lemons a squeeze to let out some of the juice

5. Put the lid/cling film on and leave for 24-36 hours

6. Strain the liquid through a clean cloth/ muslin into a container

7. Add 2 tbsp of cider/white wine vinegar

8. Add 750g of sugar and stir until dissolved

9. Pour in to fizzy drinks bottle and put the lids back on (not too tight though)

10. The champagne will start to fizz over the next few days. Over the next week or so keep checking the bottles frequently to make sure that the pressure hasn't built up too high. If it does very gently unscrew the bottles slightly to release some of the pressure.

After 1-2 weeks the bubbles should slow down. When they do screw down the caps tightly and it is ready for you to drink.

The longer you leave it, the more alcoholic it will get as it will continue to ferment but keep in mind that by three months it will probably be too dry. 

Ramson Pesto

Using the Wild Garlic leaves collected, make a very simple, but fantastically tasty, pesto sauce for pasta dishes or to add flavour to stews and soups.

Ingredients:

Generous Handful of Wild Garlic

Olive Oil

Grated Parmesan (or similar hard cheese)

Salt & Pepper

Lemon Juice

1)       Finely chop the Wild Garlic leaves, and add to a pestle or bowl.

2)       Add a teaspoon or 2 of olive oil, add salt, pepper, lemon to taste, and grind together to make paste.

3)       Add a good sprinkling of grated Parmesan and stir in.

This is the basic paste – I have deliberately left the quantities vague as personal preference plays a role, and it’s all about seasoning to taste! The pesto should be added immediately to pasta, stirring thoroughly through spaghetti for example, as it doesn’t keep longer than a few days - the Ramson takes on a bitter taste. Mix with left-over chicken or bacon, for example, or even halved cherry tomatoes, to create a more full pasta sauce, or just experiment as the garlic and parmesan taste goes with just about anything.

The pesto can be frozen very successfully – try using ice cube trays, as a single cube of frozen pesto does for a single serving of pasta, and it will keep for many months – certainly past the Ramson season, and perhaps into the next! 

Ramson (Allium ursinum)

AKA: Wild Garlic

Where: Shaded woodland, especially damp places. Common throughout the UK.

What: Leaves.

When: March – June

Very common, very plentiful, and very very tasty, the Ramson is a wonderful blessing to we happy foragers. Favouring the woodland clearing, and particularly damp areas (stream sides, ponds, etc), the Ramson often occurs in huge swathes; by mid-May it’s presence within a wood will be unmistakable, and by late June, it may be overpowering!

The leaves are fairly characteristic, up to 25cm long, emerging bright green and vibrant in March/April time from a single stem. Smooth and vaguely lined with a slightly coarse upper, and a smooth shiny underneath, they are thin, and taper, spear-like, to a point. These are what we want! Pick them, place them flat in a bag or basket, and use them fast – they don’t keep, and begin wilting almost immediately. The taste, though unmistakable and pungent, is more subtle than it’s more common and somewhat gauche cousin. It can be used as you would a regular bulb of garlic, but it can also be placed in a salad without fear of overpowering the other flavours. Generally, it is better to pick the leaves before they flower, as after the flowers emerge they become, I think, slightly bitter and insipid. The flowers themselves, incidentally also garlicky and edible, arrive in April onwards, and are white, 6-petalled, <1cm across, with a green centre and reddish stamens, and occur in large groups of 15 or more at the top of a single stalk. The root, also tasting of garlic, is available all year round, provided you can find the plant, but is in truth probably more trouble than they are worth.

All parts smell strongly of garlic, so there are no problems with identification, and although several species can be superficially similar to the leaves, it’s just a matter of crushing and sniffing!

I love Ramsons, I really do. Free garlic… c’mon, that’s excellent! 
Check out the recipe for a delicious Ramson Pesto in the next post.

Ramsons on the banks of Colden Brook, Hebden Bridge.

Close-up showing flowers (photo credit: Kurt Stüber via Wikipedia)

About ‘The Forager’s Guide’ - A Mission Statement of Sorts

Right then. What is this here ‘Forager’s Guide’?

Well, as the green subtitle states, it aims to be “The complete guide to the edible flora, fauna, and fungi of the UK… and much more”.

The simple concept behind this Blog, and indeed the whole Forager’s Guide project, is that there is simply masses of tasty and healthy food waiting to be foraged in the wild – a simple, easy to use guide and a little encouragement is all that is needed to get people out there.

A Green and Pleasant Land?

We in the British Isles live in one of the greenest and most fertile lands in the world, surrounded by many many edible plants, fungi and animals. Yet every weekend we are happy to spend a few hours in a sterile supermarket, picking up the same expensive meat and vegetables, with very few of us giving any thought to what is available in out native landscape. This is a shame, but there are two perfectly valid and understandable reasons for it, and of which, we are all guilty

The first, and probably the most pervading, is drilled into us from childhood – don’t eat what you don’t know. Now, this is actually good advice; although a good proportion of the wild plants and fungi are edible, many more are inedible (that is they contain no nutritional value or taste), and of those, a small, but significant, proportion are poisonous (having a negative effect on our bodies). But that does not mean that all wild food is deadly! This fear is a big one to get over – it is, in effect, a fear of the unknown, and it can only be overcome by knowing what to eat and when. Taking my daughter to school a few years ago, I heard one mother say to her child, who had innocently picked a Blackberry, “put it down, I could be poisonous”. Well, it could be, but it isn’t. It’s all about knowledge – and this is where the Forager’s Guide comes in.

The second is laziness! It is, of course, far easier to do the weekly shop. I admit that, and also use my local supermarket - one cannot, easily and conveniently, live off the land… and more importantly coffee does not grow wild in the UK! But really, we should all get out there and use the beautiful countryside around us! A simple walk in the local park will produce, depending on the time of the time of year, fruits, nuts, leaves, flowers, seeds, berries, and roots – all ready for the foraging. It also allows us to enjoy the country, and gives an excuse for a walk in the park.

We at the Forager’s Guide believe that it is important to get out and forage your own for the following reasons.

It’s healthy! Fresh, free range, and organic, it doesn’t get better! Eat immediately, or, by following the Blog or website, processing and storing. Plus, there is the added benefit of being outdoors, walking, hiking, foraging and, if you are like me, getting lost in the woods!

It allows an understanding where food comes from. Real food is not pre-packaged, plastic-wrapped trays of greens all the same, or perfectly uniform fruits, unblemished and clean. It has to be sought, found, uncovered, dug up, shelled, picked, harvested, plucked, cleaned, scrubbed, checked, and felt, smelt, and prepared.

It’s great fun. Out in the countryside, enjoying it, and, in a sense, reconnecting with it. We have been removed from the land by convenience and ease, let’s get back into it again! Rain or shine, winter or summer, it’s beautiful. Go on, go for a walk. Have fun, enjoy the outdoors, take a new path, explore, ask yourself “what’s down that path?” and remember – always take a guide and a bag or a box, you never know what you might be eating for dinner!

It’s immensely rewarding. Honestly. Sitting down and eating a meal containing ingredients found by you, tucking into a salad that was, 20 minutes earlier, growing innocently in a field, or helping yourself to a third glass of wine that you made yourself, or even spreading home-made jam onto your morning toast, it all gives a real ‘feel good’ sensation – triumph and satisfaction mixed with a sense of well-being… of course that may just be the wine talking!

The last reason... well, ultimately, it’s free food! It costs nothing to collect, and is there for the taking.

Go on then, what’s stopping you? 

Out there in the wilds, nature is providing... go ahead and enjoy!

Welcome to The Forager's Guide!

Ok. So this is the first post, of my first blog!

I'm hoping this all works!

I will of course be fiddling with this thing for weeks, tweaking and changing, so bear with me.

I will, as soon as I get time, go into more depth about the blog, the website, and all the other ideas I have, but right now this post is just to say "hello", and to tell you to watch this space.

Tim