Cherries

My son and I made a quick reconnaissance mission to check out the state of our favourite Cherry trees, it's always good to be well prepared. Cherries are always the first fruit that we pick each year and it is always a totally tasty treat when something that was sour last week, bursts onto your tongue with flavour filled sweetness.

Most of the trees were looking healthy with fruit near to ripeness, but annoyingly we found that the birds and squirrels (our fruity competitors) were also already checking them out. We planned excitedly to get back the next weekend, in an attempt to beat our avian foe to the fruity booty.

We did find one tree, one of our favourites with exceptionally large Cherries, with mainly ripe fruit so we hastily set about picking as many as we could reach and quickly filled a couple of big containers to bring home. 

The next weekend, we returned to the trees, the birds had been busy but we still picked a couple of good containers full to bring home for the family. We have been greedily stuffing our faces with juicy Cherries ever since. 

 There are still lots out there, for those prepared to look and friends of ours recently located a big tree, full of ripe free fruit, near the airport train station.

Cherry Flowering

The Plum blossom is now beginning to fade and hopefully it will soon start to turn into immature Plums.

The Blackthorn bloom is still going strong and it looks as if it should be a good year for Sloes, which will ripen in the Autumn.

The Cherry trees are now taking their turn to come into flower and the good news is that they will be the first fruit to ripen around June.

The children and I always enjoy this time and we stake out our favourite trees, keenly awaiting the time when they are ready to pick and stuff into our greedy mouths. Sometime, we even harvest enough to take some home to bake with.

Wild Garlic and the related Ransoms, are also flowering in dappled woodland  shade (frequently near Bluebells) right now. You can create a delicious pasta pesto with leaves from these plants. We found some growing around our allotment site and successfully transplanted a few onto our site, where they are now happily flowering.

Ransoms, Very Tasty Leaves and Flowers

My Cherie Amour

Who doesn't like Cherries? Everyone in our family does and we have been champing at the bit, waiting for the moment when they ripen and are ready to pick because this signals the start of our Summer of fabulous, fresh, free fruit foraging in the city.

We walked back to our favourite local cherry tree this week. Last week the fruit still looked a bit red, but on this attempt, we marched over Cobden bridge and our timing was perfect. The tree was laden with fat, juicy, sweet, black cherries.

Some friends came along with us and I don’t know how much they gathered but it did not take us more than half an hour to fill our own containers with 5 Kgs of perfect fruit. We did pick more than that but consumed a fair bit en route.

We still had quite a lot left from last week, so the Head Chef pitted and boiled down a big load into compote. This turned out to be a perfect midsummer pudding with soft, smooth vanilla ice-cream. The remainder was frozen to use at a later date.

I also added quite a lot to a big jar of vodka and this now smells like a curiously tantalizing mix of Cherry and Almonds/Marzipan. I have a good feeling about the final result.  I also think that when we filter the fruit out – that too will be rather popular with the adults, over ice cream, naturally.

Looking at the trees, I think it will soon be a very good year for Cherry Plums too. Anyone for a Plum Picknik?

Summertime Foraging Fun

Summer is finally establishing itself in Southampton. We went for a meandering walk with friends along the river beautiful Itchen. I was pleased to spot a nice looking apple tree by a car park in Shawford before we set off; I duly added this to the Falling Fruit map. The atmosphere was heady and the smell of Elderflowers hung heavily in the air.

The route took us up-river past Compton Lock, which is always a fabulous place for a fun swim. We used to cycle to this spot during teenage summer holidays. 

We passed under the M3 motorway and watched swooping swallows catching bugs under the bridge. Despite the wonderful countryside surrounding us, the kids seemed to enjoy being under the massive bridge and hung around here for some time. 

Then it was a short but extremely steep climb up the ancient hill fort of St Catherine’s with the sunshine hammering down from above. The view over Winchester and the water-meadows is truly spectacular. 

We saw several Walnut trees, some of which seem to have had the ends of the branches somehow damaged. People had been having fires on top of the hill amongst the beeches, which must be nice, but some idiots had been setting a fire in the bowl of one of the largest trees – It is difficult to believe the stupidity of this action.

I also noticed a couple of Juniper bushes clinging to the steep ramparts. I have seen Junipers at Figsbury, Danbury and Winchester Hill forts. We found Walnut trees at Badbury Rings as well as here. Walnut (and Apple) trees were introduced to Britain by the Romans and Juniper is thought to be the only native fir tree in the UK. These are curious connections, well worth wondering about.

After a picnic and a run around the mysterious Mismaze atop the hill, we set off back down the Itchen. After a sweltering ramble in the Summer sun, Compton Lock always seems an impossibly perfect place to cool your jets. Wild Swimming is all the rage now and the water is deep enough in places to invite leaping into the cold river for a frolic with the fishes.

The shock of the chilly water will certainly refresh you after a long hot walk but the children were soon shivering like leaves in the wind. We dried them off and set off for home, pausing only to grab a bag-full of Elderflower heads to create thirst quenching Cordial and Champagne on our return. 

We also spotted that cherries are ripening. At last, after all the stress of finishing the book, the free fruit foraging fun finally begins...

Cherry, Apple and Pear Blossom

"I know very little about the distance between stars or about the motives of Pepys, but I can always smell the Summertime at the latest by early Spring."

This evocative little lyric comes form an obscure song that I enjoyed as a teenager. It has always stayed with me and seems to become more pertinent with time.

Cherry Blossom

We are experiencing an unseasonably warm April, not that I'm complaining. The Cherry trees have been springing into flower and the blossom filled branches are stretching skywards. Pruned Cherry trees are normally kept to a few metres height but they can reach far further when left to their own devices.

It Will be Difficult to Pick These Cherries

Cherries are a native tree in the UK but it never ceases to amaze me how many there are in the parks, woodland and hedgerows. We started spotting the florid limbs poking up through the hedges along the motorway recently, not that I advocate advising picking them from the verges of arterial roads. 

Cherry Blossom

Cherries are the first fruits that we pick in the Summer. There are plenty to be found in the city's lovely parks and the pavements of quiet streets. We even pick them from industrial estates at the weekends, when they become peaceful places.

Pear Blossom (I Believe)

The exceptional Spring weather is also bringing Apple and Pear trees into bloom, which makes me think that I should organise a Blossom Walk at the Mansbridge Community Orchard fairly soon.

In other news... We have finished putting the final touches to the new Urbane Forager book and will soon have an approximate release date for you. This blog has received over 100,000 page views and now contains over 250 posts! A Great Big Fat Thank You to all our readers, please tell your friends and help spread the word...

I Spy Cherry Pie

We have been taking advantage of the sunny weather and collecting more Cherries in St Deny’s.

They're Big

This time the children and I found a lovely tree, laden with big fat ripe fruit that was just right for picking.

They're Tasty

We could reach some by hand and my daughter and I used pickers for the higher ones.

They're Easily Reached

My son, who enjoys climbing was placed into the lower branches, from where he scrambled up and proceeded to drop any Cherries that he could not fit into his mouth, into our pickers.

They're Coming Home!

It was only a short while before we were trooping off, back over Cobden Bridge; our faces and fingers smeared with juice and bearing our trophy of a large Tupperware box overflowing with tasty red fruit.

Cherry Aid

The Elderflowers are in full bloom now and the sweet smell of pollen is in the air. So, I hope you are all making cordial and champagne…

Elderflowers

Cherries are ripening on the trees now too and you’ll need to keep a close eye on them – there’s a fine line between the bright yellow/red sharp fruit that the birds will gobble and the darker sweeter ones that we want to scoff ourselves. I even saw a squirrel gorging himself in a tree the other day!

Easy Picking

We have already been eating cherries off the earlier trees and they are very nearly there. The tree outside my office and the big one at St Deny’s Community Centre are often the first local trees to ripen and I use these as a barometer to know when to start searching in earnest.

Delicious

My son and I picked a bucket-load of big fat juicy sweet ones in St. Deny’s the other day. You could see from the leaves on the ground that other people had been picking them too, which is good news because the main purpose of this blog is to promote just this kind of behaviour. I have been keeping an eye on the B&Q crop too.

Cherry Plums Ripe Soon

Of course, when it comes to cherry pickers, we have secret weapons… Our telescopic Apple pickers also work very well with cherries and plums, which will be coming soon too. We will be back in St Deny’s, fully tooled up, very soon, we spotted a tree that was absolutely laden with dangling red jewels, which were almost,  but not quite fully ripe….

I Spy Cherry Pie

Cherries in St. Deny’s Save Many Pennies

Tragedy…

My first batch of Elderflower Champagne has gone all gloopy!

I tested a bottle to see how the pressure was building up, it fizzed appropriately, it smelled delicious but it was far too glutinous. A quick search on the web showed that my experience was not unique and various people offered differing advice.

I deferred to my friend Kevin, who is a virologist, he has a very powerful microscope and knows what he is looking for. Kevin said it was a bacterial problem and so I sadly poured all two gallons down the sink (it did clean the stainless steel beautifully), rather than risk testing it for toxins on myself. I have since managed to pick enough to start a third batch using Campden tablets and champagne yeast, as I did on my second batch (which has already popped one cork and tastes delicious).

On a lighter note, my children only have one fruit on their minds recently, Cherries!

I picked a sandwich box full of sweet, dark cherries, in Hedge End, during my lunch hour and had also spotted a large bunch of super-sized beauties in St. Deny’s. I planned to come back with the children and a picking pole, to reach the high fruit and my daughter took no persuading, as we filled a large Tupperware box in about 20 mins.

Yes, they do taste as lovely as they look!

Anyone for Cherries?

I am a very regular user of the St Deny’s Community Centre, and I had been keeping a close eye on the ripeness of the cherries on the big tree in the front garden. The fruit on this tree often ripens early, a week or two before the other local trees and you need to be prompt if you want to beat the birds to it.

It was Midsummer when we rolled up outside the Junction Inn, with our fruit picking equipment boxes and lucky cherry socks. The first stage was to install the smallest members of the gang on the roof of the car, which we had conveniently parked directly under the tree.

Our friends soon joined us, bringing their own children along to help. We then set about filling up our containers with beautifully sweet, ripe cherries. Of course, quite a lot of the dark red fruit didn’t make it past the hungry mouths of the children (and adults).

It didn’t take long before the local kids got wind of the fact that these red things were not actually poisonous berries (despite my best efforts to convince them) and we soon had a little gang asking if they could help and more specifically to share our booty. Not that I mind, and actually, I positively encourage them to go and find more trees around the neighbourhood, there are plenty.

The regulars of the Junction Inn also seemed quite interested in the goings on. By the time we had finished, I had worked up quite a thirst myself but first, I had to get home with our fruit and get the children fed and up the wooden hill. No prizes for guessing what we had for dessert that night...