A Quick Quiz

I have decided to post a little quiz, to help keep all you readers tuned in, until the Elderflower arrives with the start of Summer.

A keen sense of observation is the main weapon in the foragers arsenal; so here are a couple of questions for anyone hungry for esoteric knowledge and hoping to find a good spot for future fruitfulness...

Take a good, long, careful look at the following two photos, does this look like a good spot for foraging?

Photo 1

 Is there anything here that might indicate forthcoming fruitfulness?

Photo 2

If you have looked and are still not sure what to search for, here's a clue... It's not always the foliage that tells the truth of the tale.

Spoiler Alert!

Look below for the answer...

Last year, in the moth of July, this pathway was over hung by a huge amount of delicious, multi coloured plums. 

There was such an abundance of fruit that one branch was bent so far that it eventually snapped under the weight, You can still see the sawn off branch, but this was not the answer to the question or the clue...

Many of these juicy fruits fell onto the pavement, where they were crushed by passers by, nobody cleared away the squashed fruit. 

The acidic fruit juice leaked all over the pathway and, over time, the surface of the tarmac has become bleached as a result of this continuous seasonal exposure. Now have a look back at the first two photographs and the markings will seem obvious.

Foraging Book New Kindle Version

We picked a massive amount of delicious Raspberries, Redcurrants, Blackcurrants and Tayberries from our allotment. The rustic fruit-cage doing its level best to prevent the birds snaffling our soft fruit.

We made Raspberry milkshakes and I also predict a seasonal super fruit favourite, Summer Pudding.

Meanwhile, on the foraging front, Cherries are ripening on the trees and the early trees are already fit for picking. Plums are getting very close too and we will arrange a Plum Picknik very soon, so keep a keen eye on this blog.

We are also delighted to announce that our lovely book, the Urbane Forager: Fruit and Nuts for Free, is now also available on Kindle at the very favourable price of just £4.99.

The more traditional paperback version is still available from all good bookstores (probably some bad ones too), as well as all the normal online outlets.

I also have a couple of spiral bound and laminated field-guide versions, please contact me personally if you would prefer one of these.

This lovely book is packed full of beautiful photographs, seasonal information, recipes, identification sheets, and good advice on how to find, harvest and prepare fresh, free, fruit and nuts. Order your copy now and get ready for the first flush of fresh free fruit of the year!

Sloe TV

It is that time of year again, when we start to think about gathering Sloes. In Celtic folklore, the Blackthorn occupies a dark and possibly even sinister area concerning Samhain (the precursor to Halloween), and facing your own mortality. Certainly, once the leaves come off the trees, they can have a somewhat foreboding skeletal look about them.

You can make many interesting things out of the wood of the Blackthorn tree but the most popular use for the Sloe Berry is deliciously plummy Sloe Gin. You should get your Sloe Gin started by mid November, if you want to have it ready in time for Xmas. It can make a very welcome gift, especially if you store it in decorative bottles. Lore states that you should ideally wait until the first frost, before you pick them (alternatively, sling them in the freezer). After this these highly astringent fruits apparently ripen and taste sweeter.

Obviously, the name of the Blackthorn contains a barely veiled warning, it can be a prickly business, but picking these bloomy blue/black babies brings its own reward. To make Sloe Gin, simply immerse your Sloes in Gin, add some sugar, to help bring out the juice. Leave the mixture to steep for at least a month giving the jar a regular shake (every day for the first week, then every week for the following month or so). Some people recommend piercing the sloes with a thorn first but my experimentation has shown this to be unnecessary. 

I picked mine during lunch-time walks and ferried them home each day in my sandwich box. I already knew where the bushes were because I had spotted to Blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows in March. I filled a large Kilner-jar with berries and then topped it up with gin and a little sugar. I taste it regularly, just to check, then filter off the debris before decanting it into bottles. All that is then required are some decorative labels.

To get a bit more product from your efforts, another top tip, is to reuse the gin soaked sloes by pouring red wine over them, I'm using Elderberry Port from 2013). Leaving them to soak further, produces a fortified wine, ideal for the winter months. I like experimenting, and can't see any good reason for not giving this a go. I then intend to take this a stage further by using the resultant brew to make mulled wine!

Don't forget to put, the Urbane Forager book on your Christmas present list. 

Order your copy now!

You can buy this lovely book for your friends and family from all good book-stores or Amazon.

the Urbane Forager: Fruit and Nuts for Free

Author: Alan Gibson

ISBN: 978-1-78507-300-7

The best Urbane Forager images are now on Pinterest. Please follow & share.

Organic Fruit & Nuts For Free

Regular readers of this blog will know by now that we pick a colossal amount of Apples (as well as other fruit and nuts) from public ground around the city and all of it is available for free, but only for those willing to seek it out and collect it.

You might be tempted to think that because we harvest so much, there will be none left for everyone else who is interested, but nothing could be further from the truth. There is still a great quantity of fruit out there, waiting to be picked.

With this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to show just some of the trees that we have not picked any fruit from. They are ripe and waiting to be harvested, or ready to drop on the ground and be heartily consumed by Mother Nature (which is also good). In these times of enforced austerity, where we are constantly bombarded with news of food poverty and food banks, I have been known to make bold proclamations about the democratisation of food.

Mostly what we do is explore our environment and then pick free fresh fruit and nuts because they are available and to prevent it being wasted. It is nice to be outdoors and we do have a great deal of free fun. However, despite the huge amounts that we pick, there is still far, far too much for us. This is why we want to engage and inspire other people, to do similar things. WE aim to enable anyone else to do the same for themselves; hence the open access global fruit map and free Seasonal id Sheets.

We are fortunate to have steady employment and often buy food in the shops, like everyone else but we will not be buying Apples, Pears, Blackberries, Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Apple Juice etc. this Winter, because we have stacks stored away. It does surprise me when I see people crushing fresh fruit under the wheels of there large vehicles, as they queue in dense polluting traffic in order to get to the overcrowded, overpriced sterile environment of the supermarkets.

These people could be out in a field, enjoying the open air and gathering organic Fruit and Nuts for Free, but the fact that they are not, means that there is always plenty left for those who are making the effort to forage.

Don't forget to put, the Urbane Forager book on your Christmas present list. 

Order your copy now!

You can buy this lovely book for your friends and family from all good book-stores or Amazon.

the Urbane Forager: Fruit and Nuts for Free

Author: Alan Gibson

ISBN: 978-1-78507-300-7

We now have our best images on Pinterest. Please follow & share.

Choose the Best Jacket

Well the solar eclipse was a bit of a damp (cloudy) squib where we were, but never mind there's a lunar eclipse in September and another solar one coming to the UK in 84 years or so...

Meanwhile, something that requires more immediate attention is choosing your favourite book cover from the 3 images below. 
Please leave feedback and select your favourite, there will be a free signed book in the post for the most helpful comments, when they actually arrive.

Number One, Seasons

Number Two, Cherries

Number Three, Illustration

We hope you like the look of these book jackets. 
Please do leave comments, it really helps. 
I think it is a difficult choice, but that is a good thing.

Birthday at Badbury

It felt like the first day of Spring, and we made the most of it. The incessant rain and relentless wind had abated and, as if by arrangement (it was February and my birthday), the sun came out. You could feel the warmth of it on your face or back... What a blessed relief.

I had often wanted to visit Badbury Rings, an ancient hill-fort with archaeological antiquities dating back over 6000 years. It is fairly close to the small town of Wimborne Minster and has very well defined, steep embankments. The central area is now wooded with Oak, Pine and even the odd Walnut tree. Badbury is magnificently well preserved and it’s easy to see why it is a very popular spot with local dog walkers and children.

When we arrived we ran straight up the central axis of the fort, clambering up and tumbling down the banks. Once we reached the central area, where the trees are, we also found a couple of ponds. The children wandered off, to find a suitable tree to carve their names into. 

I took a scenic route and wound out in the opposite direction to the encircling rings. I figured that if I walked the circumference, I would find them eventually.

The children and I also explored the set of three barrows nearby. On the way over to them we found lots of empty walnut shells, presumably collected by rabbits. Curiously, we also found Walnuts on St Catherine’s Hill near Winchester, a couple of years ago.

After we had eaten our picnic lunch we set off to see another interesting site that I had spotted on the map. Knowlton Henge did not disappoint. It is a considerably smaller and a much more kept site than Badbury, but no less impressive. A low bank surrounds the area and in the centre is a tiny ruined Norman chapel. Very atmospheric.

At one end there is a yew tree that hippies have decorated with ribbons. And nearby is a large mound with trees on it, it looks too big to be a barrow, but not on the same massive scale as Silbury. Apparently, the visible Henge is only a small part of a much larger structured landscape and barrows that existed before the local farm was established.

I spotted a chap with home-made dowsing rods, something I had not seen or even heard of since I watched Blue Peter as a child. I asked him if he would explain what he was doing, to the children and he kindly let them have a go… Soon my son was scampering about tracking ley lines and getting caught in power vortexes.

Pretty soon though, I grew tired of Michael’s post-modern grab bag of internet based conspiracy theories and slipped off to take some photos; here though, I found people apparently worshipping trees! 

Finally we popped into Wimborne Minster, for a quick look around before going home. It is a lovely little town stuffed full of independent shops and smiling people; maybe the ley lines and energetic chakras keep them happy. Either way, the henge site and town look well worth a return visit at some point. Obviously, I will need to make some dowsing rods first...

Busy Bees

During walk in Hedge End today I very nearly trod on a lovely frog. He was crouched in some grass and I stopped to photograph him. When I paused, I realised I could hear the background buzz of busy bees.

I saw a bank of blackberry bushes and wondered if it could be covered in bees looking for nectar. On closer inspection, there were a few but not enough to make the noise that I could hear.

I glanced around and spotted a large oak tree with a small (about 10cm) hole in it, there were one or two bees flying around the opening. It looked to me like an old woodpecker’s hole.

Then, I looked further up the trunk and there was another, similar hole… A huge mass of bees were swarming around the aperture, zooming in and out and crawling all over the entrance. It looked like a very safe place to have a nest and I think that these wise bees are going to keep all their honey.

Rustic Fruit Cage Continued

I was positively delighted with my initial surge of construction; I had the basic cube shape secured and it all seemed reasonably straight (apart from one corner), considering it had been built by eye and out of sticks.

Now With Added Door Frame!

I’m a believer in being faithful to my original thought (stubborn); rustic was the way and I didn’t want to buy anything unnecessary. Fortunately I had saved a couple of pretty sturdy and true hazel staves, so I bashed these in to form a doorway, they also helped stiffen up the whole structure.

A Beautiful Shirley Ponds Willow

It didn’t take long however, before people started mentioning the door/entrance, which would be needed once the netting was fixed over the framework. Various ideas, such as leather straps or hoops of rope were helpfully suggested.

Allotmet Gate Keeper

In the back of my mind though, I knew that there was no need for hasty decisions. Lack of planning has been the downfall of many idiosyncratic schemes, just as often as lack of knowledge or ability, and the netting won’t even be needed until June. So instead of rushing off to purchase inappropriate hinges at the local hardware shop, I paused, pondered the possibilities and then - I looked at my own garden gate for inspiration.

Rustic Gate Planning

I dug out an old piece of balustrade that I found in my shed as the back edge for the door. I then copied the frame of my garden gate, including diagonals to stop the structure from sagging when hung.

Rustic Joints

It was never going to be exact, so I left all fixing and the opening edge until it was in place. I laid it all up on some decking at home, chopped out where all the joints would go and bought some gate hinges. These were cheap enough for me to bend by hand and I actually wrapped them around the balustrade once it was on site.

Ta Dah!

Finally fitting the door did require a fair bit of innovation (bodging), inspiration (swearing), improvisation (hewing with a penknife) and making it up as I went along; some of the joints are temporarily held in place with garden wire for instance but I was pleasantly surprised by the end result and I believe that Heath Robinson would have been suitably impressed.

And - It Actually Opens Too