what do you forage?

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what do you forage?
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gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9456
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 25 12:47 pm Post subject:
Brambles beginning to ripen in my garden..good thing I didn't clear them from the bottom of the garden

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9984
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 25 3:41 pm Post subject:
I have stopped picking blackberries as now have more than enough. Here it is another bumper year for blackberries, I only pick the ones I can reach without getting scratched or stung, this leaves plenty for all the other critters. Hedgehogs seem to like living in the bramble patch.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 7:16 am Post subject:
Brambles are a good place for wildlife as they provide cover and often food. We have found birds nests in bramble patches and I think small mammals like them too. Not only do they provide cover, but food too, in the form of flowers for nectar, berries (either go climbing or what falls) and even insects for things like hedgehogs and omnivores.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9984
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 7:44 am Post subject:
yes the brambles seem very popular with butterflies too - both flowers and fruit. The bees love the flowers. it makes me feel better about how much of my garden and fields is brambly !

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44721
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 9:07 am Post subject:
englishman's grape was how the normans described it better than grape for lots of things and easier to tend imho

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9984
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 25 3:52 pm Post subject:
I love to put my nose into the picking bowl of blackberries, just to smell the lovely winey smell. To me it smells of Autumn. I don't drink much these days, so no longer make booze from them. My favourite is chocolate and blackberry crumble. mmmmmm mm!

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9456
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 25 8:03 am Post subject:

Three large shopping bags of apples from a tree just over the road. Picking easily, but it is one that ripens off the tree. As far as I know from talking to older neighbours, it must have grown from a discarded apple core and is like a Kidd's red.
Only fit for juicing, but makes a good and nicely coloured juice. A handy one to have as it is a late flowering tree so tends to avoid frosts

Neighbours like them picked to remove ammunition from the local small herberts who throw them at car, people, houses.....

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 25 2:38 pm Post subject:
You are lucky it gives good fruit Gz. We had 2 wildings in our garden, presumably from apple cores; one was useless as just pulpy, small, and no flavour, but the other is OK, but small. We cut one down, but even the wood was pretty useless for carving. The other is still with us and gets cut down sometimes as it interferes with the quince.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9984
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 25 7:59 pm Post subject:
the interesting thing is quite often uninteresting apples for eating, make good juice. I have a couple of sown from an apple core trees I inherited with the house, I don't care to eat them, but the juice is lovely. We've done the first pressing of the year, a really good sweet apple crop and ready now as they are dropping from the trees.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 25 6:15 am Post subject:
Sounds good Nicky. These weren't any good for juice either. The texture was like a flexible dryish sponge. Very little juice. Only good thing were the flowers, but we have plenty more at that time of year.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Sep 13, 25 3:41 pm Post subject:
It seems our big crab apple tree in the woods has produced lots of apple this year, which have fallen to the ground (no chance of picking as it is very high). I feel crab apple jelly with some added rose geranium leaves coming on.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Fri Sep 19, 25 7:39 am Post subject:
Picked up some crab apples in the wood. Looks as if small animals have been having their fill too. Near an inhabited dormouse box, so they might have been having a little nibble. Also got a reasonable haul from under a wilding apple tree in the garden, so crab apple jelly to be made. Good thing I got a big bag of sugar.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9456
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Fri Sep 19, 25 8:23 am Post subject:
Gradually getting the apple stock up enough to get juicing, as I like to blend them. I haven't picked many brambles this year as I haven't finished what is in the freezer. The elder I planted as a cutting in the front garden is now growing well and fruiting... only a dozen umbels, but a great start.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16750

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 25 7:33 am Post subject:
Elder is useful, both for the flowers and fruit. The pith comes out quite easily too, so the twigs are useful if you need a hollow tube. It is quite short lived though, which is why there are sometimes gaps in hedges where elder bushes were.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44721
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Sep 21, 25 12:34 am Post subject:

green buds/leaves and the twig they are on are surprisingly effective if made into a water based tincture, apply via rinse and in the dressings

why, burn meds

i had a nasty hot metal accident, fast relief(well next day) , no secondary issues, a lot later there is no record of a 2 / 3 deep burn on my cooked thumb(my silly , season a wok to red and fail to hang it up in a sensible way while it is hot)

burning human does smell of cooking pork, i was too busy squeaking to try the taste

prevents infections, reduces pain a lot , promotes healing in super style

for minor ie deep and nasty but not massive in size it proper works
it might work well for full scale, i would choose to try it if i had to be doing that stuff off grid style

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