Spring Forward

One of Springs unexpected delights is the sight of Catkins, caught in sunlight, hanging in a hedgerow or dappled woodland, like golden rain. Catkins are tree flowers, commonly a Hazel tree, so later, around September there will be Hazel nuts to gather here.

Hazel Catkins 

The 2026 vernal equinox occurs on March 20, marking the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Equinox means equal periods of night-time and daylight; the tilt of the earth also brings us closer to the sun. We get longer hours of warmer sunlight up until the Summer solstice. Nature adapts according to the increase in temperature and the dwindling hours of night.

Plumb Blossom

One of my favourite and most apparent signs of Spring is the sudden blossoming of Plum trees and the related Blackthorn. Plum trees in city gardens and roadsides are suddenly filled with dramatic shows of creamy white flowers. The blossom also has a distinctive smell, which reminds me of marzipan (made from almonds, and also related), you can even taste it in a plum flower. One of my long time hobbies is the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun and this name translates as "Beautiful Springtime" and the plum blossom is a related symbol. The key thing with plum blossom is remembering where it is, plums in many varieties and colours could be there later in the season. Blackthorn, which is more common in countryside hedgerows, will supply us with Sloes later in Autumn, allowing us to prepare everyone's favourite Xmas liquor, Sloe Gin.

Magnolia Blossom

Another tree that flowers in urban gardens at this time of year, is the stunning Magnolia, their big blousy flowers are showy but also eminently edible, giving a distinctive tase of ginger. There are lots of different Magnolia recipes including various teas and biscuits.

Ransoms

Less showy but just as tasty plants that appear in abundance in Spring include Wild Garlic and Ransoms, which you normally smell before you see them, typically covering woodland banks or in damp hedges the leaves and flowers can be used in many cooking applications including salads, pesto or just for added flavour in a meal.

Alexanders

Alexanders are an often missed Spring hedgerow gem. Tasting akin and related to the carrot family, it has edible leaves and flowers. The delicious flowers can be fried in batter, the leaves can be fried in butter with wild garlic, a tasty supplement to any meal. A word of caution, you need to be very careful with plant identification, if you are unsure, don't pick it. Several very common but extremely poisonous plants (Hemlock and water Hemlock Dropwort spring to mind), can look very similar to the untrained eye. I spent a year observing the differences, through the seasons, before venturing into eating these plants.

Beautiful Springtime

The Regeneration Game

 

Every year (normally at the back of January/February), after I realise the days have got a little bit longer, there comes a day when I feel the warmth of the sunshine on my face. This year I happened to be sitting on a Barbra Hepworth sculpture, eating my lunch. There was a break in the clouds, the sun had clambered high enough to heat my skin.

At moments like these, I sometimes reflect on our distant ancestors worshiping that golden orb and ponder why they dragged those monolithic rocks across the countryside, to create calendars on their landscapes. We cannot understand their mindset, which is part of the beauty and mystery of these unknowable monuments. However, with careful observation we can see a natural calendar in the seasons of plants, trees and weather.

The ground was muddy and saturated du to recent heavy rainstorms. I had noticed that crocuses had flowered under a large oak tree and fresh daisies were tracking sun’s light. Other plants were beginning to send forth green shoots to compete for energy in the form of sunlight.

Interestingly, plants don’t wait until the days get longer, they count the nights getting shorter, combined with a subtle shift in temperature and the fact that there has been a steady period of cold temperatures. During last Autumn, some people reported detecting a “Second Spring” (trees and plants flowering unseasonably for a second time), but plants are opportunistic and will take any chance send out extra seeds to improve their chance of colonising.

Climate scientists have consistently warned about the effects humans are having on the Earth. Warmer wetter winters combined with hotter drier summers, with more droughts and flooding have long been predicted as a result of human induced climate warming. Now gardeners and other people who enjoy nature, are starting to notice subtle shifts in the seasons, and understanding the difference between climate and weather.

Albion, a Spring Song for Blighted Briton by, The Garden Wall. Enjoy!

You might even notice that the songbirds have started to sing, shouting out to rivals to demonstrate their territory.

The Urbane Forage Re-Boot Spring 2026

The Urbane Forage Re-Boot Spring 2026 

Hello foraging fans.

You will be pleased to hear that we're re-booting the Urbane Forager blog.

Growing your own food.

Making your own drinks.

We will start posting in earnest in the Spring of 2026. We never stopped, we simply got busy with our family and other projects.

Growing your own food.

I'm posting some images of this year's various harvests to show what can easily be achieved, as an introduction for new followers.

Feel free to ask questions.

We will be seeking out sponsors to help further our engagement and arranging public foraging walks in the city.

 2024 - Blossom Walk and Volunteering Opportunities in Mansbridge Community Orchard

TBA

Cherries and the lovely little Boat Club in St Denys

Our daughter is back from university, and on a sweltering sunny day, she asked if I wanted to go for a walk around the park after I returned from work. 

As we were crossing the bridge over the Itchen river, it occurred to me that it was time for ripening cherries (we have a small but prolific tree in our front garden).

I suggested a short detour through St Denys, where we had collected cherries before. The tide was low but it would return the next morning.

Our luck was in and the timing was perfect, the trees we looked at had lots of ripe fruit and the birds were starting to pick them off, making a mess on the pavement. We grabbed a few by reaching up as high as we could and shoving them directly into our eager mouths, then vowed to return the following morning, armed to the teeth with fruit pickers.

Bright and breezy the next day, we filled our collecting box to the brim, whilst still stuffing our greedy mouths with whatever we could manage. We then zipped out for a lovely paddle board down the river, joined by our son, before finally bringing home the booty, or what was left of it any way.

2022

It has been another busy year for us. Our daughter has been preparing for university and our son is out of school and into college. I'm delighted to say that we do still have plenty of fun picking fruit together, and we always enjoy getting out and about in the Autumn months to see what we can find.

Earlier in the year, I popped into a local school fete, and took a gamble on a random selection of chillies and peppers. They were only very young when I bought them, so I had no idea what would develop, but I'm pleased to report that they are still producing fruit in November. We already had enough chillies to make, sweet chilli jam, which is a house favourite, and the peppers are now long, yellow, pointy and sweet.

My allotment produced its normal load of delicious soft fruits but the veg (and I) struggled with the drought conditions and my lack of attention, so this will be my last year there. A sad point here, is that an apple tree, grown by our son from a pip, has been producing loads of very nice apples that keep well and are good for eating. We will leave it for the next occupant.

I am now working at the local university and have taken advantage of their beautifully landscaped campus during lunch breaks, including the mulberry tree, which produces a different fruit from the red ones we were familiar with, so I froze the fruits while I consider their best options. I think it might be a white mulberry, good for feeding silk-worms apparently. There is an interesting historical story about this, elsewhere on this blog.

During a crazy day or two in September, the kids and I went out to pick pears and apples in huge quantities, we then had a nice apple day in the garden, inviting friends and teenagers to help press and drink the golden juice, the rest is steadily fermenting into cider in my shed!

Along with my good friend Lou, we also organised an Apple Day at the Mansbridge Community Orchard. It had been a couple of years since we had been able to do hold this annual event, so we were unsure how many people would turn up. However, we soon had a substantial crowd of helpers, participants roamed off to gather fruit and returned with bags full of bounty. Back at base camp the keen team smashed and pressed the fruit into delicious juice, which was gulped down and used to fill drinks bottles to take home.

Red & Ready Summer Berries

Visiting my allotment I realised it was time to start harvesting my Summer berries. I started with the Raspberries, which always taste divine, straight off the plant.

Then I moved onto the tart little Redcurrants, which always add a bit of bite to the sweeter fruits in puddings and also help when making jam.

Then it was the Tayberries, as long as my thumb on occasions, and always a tad more risky to pick due to their fine thorns..

Finally my favourites, the lusty Loganberry, tasty sharp, sweet and large. The only drawback is that they can get over-ripe quite quickly.

I also picked some Blueberries because they were getting ripe, before returning triumphant with my large box of soft fruit, ready to be scoffed with ice cream or added to muesli for breakfast.

As I arrived home I realised that I also needed to begin harvesting my Cherries. On close inspection, I realised that something had been eating them before they were fully ripe...

I laid in wait to discover the culprit...