Young Plums (Go For it!)

Beetroot, Pear and Walnut Salad

My wife made a deliciously zingy and very healthy salad, using Beetroot, Pear and Walnut, she also added thinly sliced Turnip, Avocado, crisp Watercress and leaves of Jack by the hedge (Garlic Mustard), from the garden. I supplied the Walnuts and added some Hazelnuts for fun; these nuts were gathered last year during October and September, they keep very well in cool, dry conditions. Apples will also last throughout the Winter, if you store them well.

Walnuts and Hazelnuts

The recent heatwave has kept me out of the midday sun and I decided it was high time to pick the Elderflowers that I have been planning to make champagne with. I got on my bike before it got too hot and cycled over to the local park, beside the river. I got a heady citrus waft off the flowers, as I approached from downwind. I filled my bag in a matter of minutes, getting covered in yellow pollen in the process.

Elder Tree in Flower

The other simple ingredients are Water, Lemons, Sugar, and a dash of White Wine Vinegar. By the time you have this little lot mixed together in a bucket, the kitchen smells terrific and gives you a strong taste of things to come. It is left (covered) in the bucket for 2 days, then the debris is filtered out and the liquid transferred into demijohns for fermentation.

Ready for Fermentation

After a couple of weeks the fermentation should have slowed down enough for bottling in Pressure Safe Bottles - but a word of caution... If fermentation continues too much under pressure, you might, at best, lose half of your lovely Elderflower Champagne all over the room you open it in. Far more dangerous, would be exploding glass bottles, so please, do keep a regular eye on anything you have bottled and always use suitable Pressure Safe Bottles!

Green Cherries

Ongoing observations include, keeping your eyes pealed for immature fruit. If you have identified a likely tree by its blossom, revisit it later, to see if any young fruits are developing. I have already seen young Plums, green Cherries, and tiny Apples and Pears; regular checking will keep you in tune with seasonal developments and ensure you are ready as fruit ripens. I recently noticed Fennel growing out of pavements in the city.

Fennel

Nasturtium are starting to grow in the garden, these are one of the most likeable garden flowers. The leaves and flowers can be eaten, or added to a salad to liven it up. They taste peppery, a bit like Rocket or Water-Cress. The Latin name, Nasturtium, translates as "Twisted Nose!"

Nasturtium 

Definitley May

 

Oilseed Rape

May seems to have brought us four seasons in as many days, including a traditionally cold, wet Bank Holiday, but things are warming up. Bright blocks of yellow oilseed rape fields colour the horizon, dandelions daisies and buttercups add charm to lawns and meadows.

Buttercups and a Burdock

Hawthorn is in blossom; the hedgerows are full of campions and other wildflowers. This floral profusion brings with it the insects, including everyone’s seasonal favourite, the vivid butterflies. Ransoms and Wild Garlick are still available, adding flavour to your cooking, along with Alexanders and other umbellifers belonging to the Apiaceae family.

Hawthorn Blossom

If you are interested in common umbellifers, beware of the deadly poisonous and terribly common, Hemlock and Hemlock Water-Dropwort – AKA Dead Man's Fingers or Fools Parsley due to the similarity of the leaves. If you are new to foraging, spend time (allow four seasons) identifying the different stalks, leaves and flowers, before eating anything you are unsure about.

Butterfly

We should not be surprised that nature has many toxins, and you should only ever eat things that you are sure about. This is one reason I focused solely on fruit and nuts when initially foraging with my son and daughter, when they were young. They were, however, soon able to spot Elderflowers, from a distance.

Elderflower (background) and Hemlock Water Dropwort (foreground)

Elder is truly the gift that keeps on giving. It is fascinating for many reasons but my main interest in May, is the blousy flowers and sweet citrus aroma. I make Elderflower Champagne every year, while my daughter always make Elderflower cordial. These drinks are simple to make, delightful to drink and last throughout the Summer months as a thirst-quenching sunshine staple. Later in the season I harvest Elderberries and make Port wine, to last throughout the Winter months.

Elderflowers

Time flies when you’re having fun, and it seems unlikely that, in the next month, we will be  celebrating Midsummer, while eating delicious ripe, black Cherries, plucked from trees, but I assure you, we will.

Celebrating Midsummer 2025

Finally, I note that NASA has spent billions and billions of dollars, to send a rocket around the far side of the moon, but it was a bit too dark to see anything. A simpler, more affordable way to be the first human to witness something unique, is to bite into a freshly picked, zesty apple (or even one bought in a supermarket). It constantly surprises me; how few people have not eaten fresh fruit straight off a tree. Go now! Do it yourself, and celebrate the miracle that is nature.

Campions and Ransoms

Pandemic ll the 3rd Wave

 We Live in Interesting Times, Still!

We still take lots of lovely walks; the Devil's jumps' are a series of Bronze Age burial mounds, on the South Downs. They align with the setting sun at Midsummer (if it's not too cloudy). So, this was my Father's day walk/picnic.

However, simple fruity foraging trips are just as bountiful and popular as ever.

In the normal order of things we began collecting Elderflowers as soon as they arrived, the season tends to be short-lived, so we got out of the traps early, when the weather was suitable. I have made extra Elderflower Champagne this year (4 gallons), because we always run out. Two of these gallons are an experimental batch with an added tint of raspberries, which I think sounds very tasty. Only time will tell.

My friend Matthew also joined us picking Elderflowers too. Matt makes really good beer, and following my attempts last February, we collected a good crop of nettles and he produced a lovely strong & smoky ale. Next he wanted to try an Elderflower Ale.

It was a good year for cherries, and I gathered a good crop from my front garden tree. Small sparrows seem to have been pecking away under the nets, so I will need to adapt my protection next year.

At the allotment the summer raspberries have had an exceptional harvest, which made up for a poor show from my Loganberry and Tayberry bushes. The thornless Blackberry is going to be so impressive that I will soon need a bigger freezer.

I am looking forward to doing some work with the Scouts and other groups and  hoping to organise some public foraging trips, to promote the Southampton parks, in the late Summer or early Autumn. Who knows?, we may even be able to run our traditional Apple Day in October.

Bluebells Blossom & Beltain

I once before wrote a post here called Blossom, Beltain and a beautiful game. That was quite a while ago and then Saint's were moving from the Championship into the Premiership. Since that time they have just about stayed up.

The Bluebells are looking magnificent this year and it's well worth taking a lovely, long walk through a local wood, simply for the pleasure of gazing on this wonder.

I have spotted early Elderflowers, waving their blousy, citrus blooms to herald the onset of Summer. Yes, that's right, the warm season will soon be upon us and I'm already wearing my shorts in preparation.

Plums are gradually fattening on the branches, Hawthorn is flowering in the hedgerows and everything is growing like crazy.

This year, as normal, I will be visiting Butser Ancient Hill Farm, with the children for Beltain. The celebration culminates with burning of their truly massive Wicker Man; the kids have been, quite literally, looking forward to it all year.

Elder Flower & Other Forage

Summer finally seems to have arrived. The hedgerows are heady with the smell of Elderflower and we have been busy bottling our cordial and champagne.

Elder Flower

We also collected a load for the Unity Brewing Co, to flavour their, Été  Summer Saison range. 

Elder Flower

This year, I have also been investigating some other, non fruit, forage. Expanding my knowledge base has been a good thing to work on during the Spring.

Jack by the Hedge 

Jack by the Hedge is one of my favourite plants to nibble on while out walking. Its leaves have a lovely peppery taste, perfect for pepping up a salad, and is actually related to mustard. When they ripen, the seeds explode out of the pods on touching.

Jack by the Hedge 

I have also identified Horseradish in the wild, which will add an exciting new dimension to our cooking and diet. The root of this plant is spicy enough to make your eyes water, as well as your mouth.

Leaves of Horseradish

Last year a friend wanted to obtain Angelica root, to help flavour some gin. Understanding this plant meant that I needed to investigate the Umbelliferous, carrot family (Apiaceae) further. 

Alexanders and Cow Parsley

This is very common hedgerow group is made up of many similar but subtly different plants. Alexanders, Ground Elder, Hog Weed and Cow Parsley can all add tasty dietary variations. 

Water Hemlock Dropwort

However, picking and consuming them, at all, is complicated by surprisingly common and lethally toxic Hemlock varieties. For this reason, it is best to learn to identify these plants by their various traits over a whole cycle of seasons, before picking them (using at least three id points), or eating any at all. The main thing that you understand by doing this, is how little you actually know. I was genuinely astonished at how common Hemlock was.

Spring Blossom

Spring is definitely here now, and my lunchtime walks are filled with wonder. Everything seems to be happening at once. 

I spotted a lovely pair of kestrels, soaring above in the azure. I decided to take some photos to remember the day.

Blackthorn, spires blooming and towering skyward. Pretty but also prickly.

A delightful and very old ornamental Cherry blossoming by the roadside.

A healthy looking cluster of Plum blossom in a hedgerow.

Elder, buds breaking through already, getting ready to begin flowering any day soon.

Elderflower Everywhere

You know that Summer is coming, when the Elderflowers begin to pop their snowy white heads up through the fresh green hedgerows. They add a delightfully subtle, citrusy aroma to city park and countryside walks.

My kids always get excited, planning for their cordial and can spot a suitable bunch of flower-heads at 100 yards. Although we will be harvesting together, this year, as normal, I will be leaving them to their own devices when it comes to making this.

The kids and I got on our bikes and whizzed up to the common for a reconnoitre, but the flowers were not yet open. We spotted some on the way home and planned to return to the common the next weekend, to get picking!

I will be needing to gather rather more than I normally do. I always make Elderflower Champagne, this however, only requires a few big flower-heads. This time around, I will be helping to make a new seasonal beer as well.

Following on from my successful collaboration with Jimmy Hatherley at Unity Brewing Co. The Spring ale, named Printemps, employed stinging nettles for their unique flavour, but this time around I will be collecting Elderflowers, towards a Summer Saison Beer.

This is Apple blossom.

An Elderflower Adventure

We had just returned from a trekking/camping holiday during half term (more on that expedition later) and the kids had been spotting Elderflowers.

They decided it was time to make some sweet, delicious, thirst quenching Elderflower Cordial. However, I was just thinking about making Elderflower Champagne.

Elderflowers are virtually everywhere in the parks and streets at the moment, so we thought it might be fun to go by boat, just for the hell of it.

At St. Deny's Sailing and Rowing Club on the river Itchen, we saw that a blackbird had nested in the lower eves of the clubhouse and was feeding two tiny fledglings.

We soon had life-jackets fitted and launched Tern, our favourite family sized rowing boat and even though both children can row, I was given the job of pulling on the oars.

We saw our first Elder straight away, just yards from the pontoon and we were soon filling our bag with fresh citrusy Elderflower heads.

Further upstream we found other bushes hanging over the river, or in amongst the reeds and I even set the kids ashore to harvest from one particularly busy tree they spotted. As I predicted, with two pickers and one rower we had soon gathered more than enough.

On the way home we bought 5 lemons and one Kilo of sugar, which was enough ingredients to make 3 litres of Elderflower Cordial and 6 litres of Elderflower Champagne.

All the rest was done by the kids in the kitchen and it didn't half look a mess when they had finished but, to be fair, they did tidy up when I explained that I would ferment the lot if they didn't get cleaning.