Plum (Prunus domestica, etc.)

AKA Greengage, Bullace, Damson, Cherry Plum

Where: Woodland Edges, hedgerows. Throughout UK, but more common in south.  

What: Fruit

When: September – November

The Plum – fantastic fruits, versatile, and often occurring in huge quantities on single trees, they can be used 1000s of recipes, as well as being preserved for later use.

Now, there are dozens of inter-related species that come under the heading Plum, but for the UK, and our purposes of ‘wild food’, we will be dealing with the Greengage (Prunus domestica ssp. italica) - which is rarely found outside of gardens, but which can very easily escape, and the Damson (Prunus domestica ssp. institia) otherwise known as the Bullace, as well as the true Wild Plum (Prunus domestica). Also included here is the Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) which differs very slightly, although there is no real difference in terms of the fruit. However, for the sake of simplicity (and at the risk of annoying plum fanatics the world over) I shall treat them as a single plant species, whilst noting any significant differences so that you can at least identify the species on which you are chomping.

Growing as a small tree (max. 9m) or shrub, the varieties of plum occur mainly on woodland edges and in hedgerows, and often near habitation (as escaped cultivars).

The pointed oval leaves appear alternately on the stem in spring time, often after the blossom has arrived, and measure a maximum of 6cm by 3cm with fine toothed edges. They are ribbed with a slightly hairy underside, and are a dark matt green in colour, though often by fruiting season they become a mottled yellowish and/or brown-red flecked in places.  The bark is a grey brown in colour, and smooth at first, though becoming cracked with age, and whilst most species are thornless, some aren’t, so check before climbing about.

The flowers occur in April/May time, though much earlier with the Cherry Plum tree, typically in March/April. They are a typical tree blossom: made up of 5 delicate white petals with a yellow centre, and measuring 2.5cm across, they occur singly, or in groups of up to 3, sometimes in huge quantities giving an explosion of white amongst the spring greens.

Now, the fruit. For most Plum trees, they arrive in September, and last into October, however, the Cherry Plum, comes much earlier, usually in July. They are typically smaller than cultivated varieties – usually about 6cm give or take – and are an oval or round shape, with the characteristic groove down the side. It has many different colours ranging from the classic dark purple plum colour, through red, yellow or green, an every combination in between. The skin is peeled to reveal a yellowish flesh that can either be quite tough or very soft, depending entirely on tree, variety, ripeness, etc. Similarly, they can be beautifully sweet and juicy, or horrifically astringent and sour – there is no way of knowing without trying; each tree will be uniformly of the same taste, so my advice is if you find a ‘good’ tree, stick with it, although you will be fighting birds, and other foragers for its bounty. All Plum trees, but especially the Cherry Plum, can produce a mass of fruit in great bunches so that they resemble vines laden with grapes, and will often break branches under their weight. Happy hunting!

What to do with them once you have collected them? Well, they make good eating on their own – as you would a normal plum. You could dry them completely in the oven or dry breezy place as one does with apple, etc, and eat them like that or add them to cakes, breads, scones, etc. Or you could partly dry them and add to a syrup to make prunes - love ‘em or hate ‘em, they will keep you regular! I have a recipe for a plum curry which I’m dying to try – it will either be amazing or… well, I dread to think! And of course, there is the ubiquitous wines and gins to try and make. Of course, the classic way of enjoying them is stewed in a pudding, or, even better, as a Damson jam. A big regret of mine is that I never got my Nan’s recipe for Damson jam – all I remember is that it was sweet, big on flavour, thick, and had huge lumps of Damson in it. Let that be an object lesson for you all – get the family recipes whilst you still can, for once they are gone, they are gone forever.

The mess below the tree - often a great way of identifying Plum trees!

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

AKA: Wimberry, Blaeberry, Whortleberry, Huckleberry, Blueberry.

Where: Hilly areas, moorland, covering areas of heath - prefers acid soils. Particularly in North.

What: Berries only

When: July – September, occasionally later

The Bilberry. Ah, the Bilberry. What can we say about this shiny black berry. It is definitely my favourite fruit and I have great childhood memories of picking Bilberries in the hills above Macclesfield with my family. It is a relative of the larger North American Blueberry, but is superior in every way, especially flavour, and is criminally underused as a fruit, being relatively unheard of despite being relatively common – I still have people, smart worldly people, pull a blank face when I mention the Bilberry.

The Bilberry prefers acid soil and the hillsides and peaks of sandstone areas, and are much more common in the north and midlands, and especially in the Peak District and Cheshire Pennines where the environment is perfect. The bush is low, measuring up to a maximum of 70cm, and whilst can occur in isolated patches, is usually to be found in vast swathes. 

The leaf is small, measuring up to 1cm, pointed oval in shape with a slightly toothed edge, and is a mid green with occasional brown or black dots, quite thick, and has a prominent mid-rib. Taken as a whole, the plant is quite straggly looking and somewhat sparse, being tough and wiry like heather, with which it shares the same environment, and has thick brown stems, and green twiggy new growth with reddening tips.

The small (<1cm) delicate flowers arrive in spring (April/May) and are a pink, white, and purple mix, and, hanging down, they resemble lamps, drooping with a central dark stamen. These disappear by June, when the berries appear. Starting small and red, but gradually growing to 1cm and darkening to a shiny deep purple with a whitish bloom and a prominent calyx by late July/August, they resemble small blueberries of the kind you can buy in supermarkets. Although they are an autumn fruit, I have picked them in mid December before now, so keep checking your areas. Taste wise – oh man! Fruity, but with a depth, subtle and deep sweet, but also tart! Just pop a few into your mouth and taste for yourselves, but be warned their purple juice stains like nothing else… it’s like being tattooed! They are great in tarts and pies (a favourite of mine), as a jam, they make great sorbets and fantastic wines.

People often complain about the amount of work that goes into picking the Bilberry – a lot of effort for little gain. I say rubbish! You are not finding the good bushes! Keep looking, and you will find the ones that are literally dripping with fruit. That’s no to say that picking isn’t backbreaking at times. There are Bilberry pickers – like combs with a collecting box underneath – but you end up losing more than you collect, which seems incredibly wasteful. No, far better to grin and bear the back pain… it will make you appreciate the wondrous bounty all the more!

Dog Rose (Rosa canina, etc.)

DOG ROSE (Rosa canina)

AKA Wild Rose, Briar Rose, Dogberry, Sweet Briar.

Where: Hedgerows, especially in woodland and wasteground. Throughout the UK. 

What: Petals, Hips.

When: Petals = May – July. Hips = August – November, potentially later. 

Roses have come and are now going, leaving behind Rose Hips of all shapes. These are to be seen all over (especially the large Japanese Rose) and all are edible.

Also included in this section are the less common Field Rose (Rosa arvensis) and Japanese Rose (Rosa rugosa). There are many varieties of Wild Rose throughout the UK, all of which conform to the same basic description, and all of which are suitable for our needs, but the Dog Rose is probably the most commonly encountered.

Often lurking within a hedgerow, mingled with other hedge dwellers, the Rose sits fairly innocuously until spring when it bursts into life with the flowers for which it is justly famous. Growing to a height of 1.5m, but can be larger, it drapes itself over the surrounding plants and trees with a long trail coming from a thick central stem, both hard and covered in sharp hooked thorns.

The leaves of the Dog Rose are oval to a point with a finely serrated edge, bright green upper and pale green underneath, and measure up to 3cm in length.

The flowers begin to show in May and becomes common in June to August  and are made from 5 petals. In both the Dog Rose and the Field Rose, the flowers are white with pink tinged edges and yellow stamens in the middle and up to 2cm wide, the Japanese Rose is a dark pink to purple with a pale purple centre and are slightly larger (up to 3cm). The petals are very delicate, especialy from July onwards, and can be gathered with just a tap. Add them to salads or ice cream for a delicate aroma, or they can also be made into rose petal water, or even Turkish Delight.

From August onwards, following the shedding of the petals, the hips grow from the remains of the flowers, leaving a crown on top of the brigt red bulbous fruit. Up to 4cm long, and oval or rounded in shape, they are very difficult to miss in the Autumnal hedgerow, and can last until Christmas, although by this time they become slightly dog-eared and tired looking. Beware of the small, and very sharp, spur that lurks beneath the leaves by the hip. The hip itself is fairly soft and when split reveals a hollow filled many seeds and covered in tiny hairs. A word of caution; these hairs are a powerful irritant and need to be removed before the hip can be eaten. This can be done on an individual basis, individually, simply scraping out the centre, thus leaving the hip intact to be used as a fruit proper, or more efficiently by boiling and mashing the hips. Rose hips contain more Vitamin C than any other native plant, as well as truck loads of other really good vitamins and minerals, and werer recommended by the Ministry of Health during WWII as a way of combating concerns about scurvey. The main, and most famous, use for the hips is the delicately flavoured Rose Hip Syrup, but they do have other uses – pies for example, or used with other fruits in a variety of different ways. Note that the Japanese Rose hips are much larger than those of the Dog or Field Roses, and consequently produce larger yields of fruit.

Lookalikes: Nothing that is easily confused with the Dog Rose, although certain ornamental flowers can have berries that are superficaly similar to hips. As always, just make certain of the identification.

Medlars!

So, some friends of ours have a Medlar tree in their garden – lucky them! They live in the wilds of Lancashire (Wigan to be precise), and inherited the tree from the previous residents. Interestingly, it had been grafted onto a Hawthorn tree at some stage, rather than grown as a tree in its own right, so someone had really, really, wanted Medlars! Anyway, as they are quite uncommon, here is some information about Medlars. Thanks Joy and John.

Medlar (Mespilu germanica)

Where: Woodland edges, hedgerows, sunny hillsides. Mainly in south.

What: Fruit

When: October – December

The Medlar, like the Quince, is one of the lesser known fruits due to its relative rarity growing both in the wild and as a cultivar. Once widely consumed by all and considered a delicacy (Shakespeare mentions the fruit), it is now confined to ‘those in the know’… and now you!

Growing either as a tree proper, or more commonly in the UK, rambling shrub, the Medlar can reach the height of 6m, though usually 4m or thereabouts. The leaves grow alternately on thorny branches, measure up to 12cm (occasionally more) in length, and up to 4cm wide, and are a relatively narrow long, spear-shaped, elipse in shape. They have a finely toothed edge and are a light green colour, with greenish brown ribs and veins and a lighter, downy, underside.

The bark is a greyish brown, with erratic vertical fissures and large flakes, not unlike that of the Wild Service Tree. The flowers occur in May and June, measuring up to 3 cm across, and usually shorter than the green sepals underneath, they are made up of 5 white petals with a yellow centre.

The fruit, whilst occurring in August, is edible from October onwards, and is brown to reddish brown in colour with a rough, slightly hairy, skin. It has a flat top with a crown made of the green sepals below the flower. The flesh is not unlike a hard apple, and contains 5 seeds measuring c. 1cm in length. Because they are not a native to this country, though they are naturalised, the fruit does not get a chance to ripen properly, and whilst they can be eaten when they are unripe, they are best picked and consumed once they have started to rot on or off the tree – ‘bletted’ is the correct term – usually after the first frosts in November onwards – keep an eye on them until they become soft and edible

The unripe, or unbletted, Medlar tastes sharp and astringent, and has a distinct sweet apply flavour. However, it is with the fully bletted fruit that you can appreciate the flavours – subtle and certainly unique, it is not unlike a sweet apple mixed with caramel, with hints of spices (cinnamon?) and a sharp taste. Look, just try it will you! People do say it’s an acquired taste, but I love it.

I spend a lot of time working on the island of Crete where the Medlar is a delicacy and is known as μούσμουλο (Musmulo) – the word itself is Turkish and is a hangover from the Ottoman occupation of Greece. And whilst we are on the subject of etymology, it was in cruder times, once known as ‘open arse’ – for obvious reasons – and its welsh name ‘afal tinagored’ means the same, whilst the French name, 'cul de chien', means dog’s arse. So now you know.

Enough arsing about, and onto the recipes. It makes a great jam/jelly, good in a tart (see photograph), and can be eaten raw – apparently the best way is to suck the bletted interior from the fruit like a vampire. It can also be turned into a wine, although this, one assumes, if you are fond of sweet wines.

Apologies... once again!

Well, let's just say that it's been a while since I posted anything!

Alas, real life has a nasty habit of getting in the way of things that you really want to do...

Since our last post I have embarked, properly, on a new career (teaching), I have concentrated on my wood carving and the Green's Woodcraft side of things (website to follow soon), and have been travelling a bit (France), and just consolidating our lives in Glossop. All this at the expense of the Forager's Guide. 

So there, apologies over with - now onto the cool stuff! 

With us hurtling towards Autumn we are about to hit harvest time when everything comes alive with fruit and foodstuffs, so in keeping with this we will be uploading masses of info over the next few days, including recipes and new experiments (cheesemaking anyone? Plum wine?) as well as the usual descriptions and stuff!

Cheers for now

Tim & Kate