Purple Reign

Bluebells

March filled our world with vivid shades of green. April now introduces a different colour pallet. Birds are more vocal, singing to attract mates or proclaim territory, and starting to build nests.

Wisteria

This month is more commonly known for enchanting woodland displays of Bluebells, and wisteria wrapped cottages, but you cannot eat these plants.  

Cherry Blossom (White)

April also brings us Apple and Cherry Blossom. If you are familiar with these trees, you can be sure of where the first fruit (Cherries) will turn dark red and ripen in June. Similarly, with Apple blossom, you can easily spot where the trees are, but they might not be ready to pick until later in the year, around September.

Apple Blossom (Pink)

Japan is so famous for its cherry blossom season that it has created a tourist over-population problem. Fortunately (for some perhaps) in the UK, most people don’t even notice it ;-)

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Incidentally, the song, Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White – is quite misleading! Cherry trees with pink blossom are often ornamental hybrids, bred purely for the flowers not the juicy fruit we all desire.

Jack by the Hedge

More significantly, my favourite foraging edibles in April are Wild Garlic, Ransoms and Jack by the Hedge, commonly known as Garlic/Mustard. These tasty plants are often easier to detect by their pungent smell, particularly in woodland settings. The leaves are very simple to collect and make easy additions to cooking. The flowers or buds can be pickled to make tasty capers. You should not dig up the bulbs but leave them for next year.

Rhubarb

Our purple sprouting broccoli is looking and tasting very nice too. Also, I’m now on my fifth Rhubarb crumble! I noted that the stalks in the garden were quite thin this time, so I gave the plot a copious watering. We’ve had three months of rain followed by three months of no rain at all, making gardening more complex. We should be recognising signs of Climate Change, as well as signs of Spring.

Ransoms

Everything's Gone Green

Garden Grown Grapes

The Urbane Forager Project encourages active travel, reduces reliance on commercially transported food, and strengthens environmental stewardship (Mansbridge Community Orchard). It also supports public health: spending time outdoors, connecting with nature, cycling or walking between sites, and engaging with local green spaces all contribute to better mental and physical wellbeing.

Spring Moss, For Fun - Not Eating

By teaching others to identify, harvest, and use urban fruit, the project highlights important scientific concepts including seasonality, biodiversity, ecological cycles, and the environmental impacts of food production and transport.

Wild Garlic

To help people with early tree identification and mapping, I created the free seasonal id cheat sheets, which can be downloaded as pdfs or printed off. The Urbane Forager: Free Seasonal Tree id Sheets.

Seasonal Garden Broccoli and Cavallo Nero

Blossom spotting is one of my favourite ways of locating future fruit; I like it partly because of the joy it brings after the bleak days of Winter, but you need to be quick off the mark. The flowers often do not last long and are soon replaced by the bright green of new foliage. The Plum bloom has already faded and next on the menu will be Apple, Pear and Cherry blossom.

We Pick Hundreds of kgs of Free Apples

Needless to say, other options are available, and yes, there is indeed an app for that. Falling Fruit draws on cutting-edge citizen science collaboration. I contributed early mapping data to FallingFruit.org, a global, crowd-sourced fruit map built by an international team of scientists and developers. This open-access platform now allows anyone to find and contribute geospatial data via smartphone, expanding public engagement with ecological information. The Falling Fruit map/app is currently being re-developed and updated, so we should see some improvements soon.

The Falling Fruit Map/App

In slightly less technical language, you can click a button and locate fruit and nut trees, as well as other edibles, close to your location. You can also discover the condition, abundance and seasonality of the nutritious food sources. The app also makes it simple to photograph, locate and  contribute your own discoveries, for others to find.

Rhubarb

Tangentially, Rhubarb crumble is another of my seasonal favourites, it has been growing strongly in our garden and I've already made (and eaten) two tart and tasty treats. I like to add a small amount of ginger to make it perkier still (as recommended by Delia Smith).

Another Crumble

Apple Blossom, Pesto & Rhubarb Crumble

The sky was blue and the birds were in good voice, so we took a walk down to Mansbridge to check on the progress of the Community Orchard blossom. En route we passed the Pitch and Putt course, which is sadly now closed due to a lack of funding by our ever more squeezed council.

We are pleased to report that the Apple trees were in magnificent shape and looked fantastic in full bloom. We also noticed signs that other people had been helping prune off dead wood to enhance the health of the trees.

While we were exploring, we managed to open up access to a couple of new Apple trees and continued to cut back brambles to keep them out of the branches.

Later that night we made Pesto for our pasta using our stash of Hazel and Walnuts from last year and Basil. 

The wonderful weekend continued in fine fashion as the Saints (Southampton Football Club) won their final few matches of the season with a flourish, to finish on record points and higher up the Premier league than ever before. 

To polish off the proceedings (after I had finished running around the garden celebrating), we made one of my favourite seasonal puddings, Rhubarb Crumble, made from the first fruits of our allotment. 

Simply delicious!

Abundance at the Allotment

Our inaugural year as allotment owners is finally bearing fruit (and vegetables) and it is doing so with a great abundance.


The Rustic Fruit Cage, Beans, Sweet Corn, Beetroot and Onions

We have now got bags of early potatoes, and onions. We have gathered small amounts of peas and broad beans too.

Courgettes

The courgettes of various colours and sizes seem to be popping up on a daily basis. The little yellow ones are especially nice sliced (raw) and inserted into sandwiches. The Head Chef likes them lightly salted with Olive Oil but to me that’s too much faffing about.

The Tayberries, Raspberries and Blueberries, all safe in the Rustic Fruit Cage are giving us plenty to nibble on while we slave to weed water and pick everything under the relentless heat-wave.


Tayberries

Rhubarb is growing well, Squashes and Cucumbers are blooming nicely and hopefully, we should get a decent crop of these too.

Nice Weather For Slow Worms

Beetroots are finally flourishing under nets, which seem to have stopped whatever it was that was eating the leaves. The Runner Beans are running up the poles and flowering and the Sweet Corn is looking healthy.

Piles of Potatoes



Have a Dangerous New Year

 It’s a jungle out there kids, danger lurks under every leaf and every single stone...

Beautiful Bees Won't Sting You if You Don't Threaten Them

Unless you wash your hands without touching the soap container the germs might get you (according to TV adverts). Even water can dehydrate your delicate skin (apparently). Nowadays your brittle hair and fragile nails are under constant assault from the sun, rain and wind – the Horror!

Stinging Nettles Can be Made Into Beer

I do occasionally get asked about the potential dangers of foraging and yet, with a couple of common sense precautions, it is no more dangerous than getting out of bed in the morning, going downstairs and eating breakfast…

Beware of Children

Granted, I might get up, dozily step on a stray Lego brick, fall down the stairs and crack my head. Then, in my stunned state, I could accidentally pour bleach on my cornflakes, but I'm pleased to report that this has not happened, yet...

Don't Get Prickly

I have been stung by nettles and insects; brambles, prickles and thorns have drawn blood, but all of this can happen in the garden or park. I am always careful when climbing trees or encouraging my children to. This is because branches of fruit trees are prone to suddenly snapping. Naturally, I need to make sure that the kids are operating in a reasonably safe environment but then, they also need to learn basic risk assessment and management for themselves; these are essential life skills.

The World Is Out To Get You!

There are lots of poisonous things out there and if you go about randomly eating berries of unknown bushes or consuming strange mushrooms, you will pretty soon come a cropper.

Do Not Drink!

These things might look fascinating, but so does Cillit-Bang, and you don’t put that in your mouth! Commonly occurring trees, like the yew, contain some of the most noxious natural poisons found in the UK but we know not to eat them.

Frog's Legs With Rhubarb

One part of a plant might be very good for you but another part of the same thing might kill you. Rhubarb stems are great with custard but the leaves are highly toxic and whilst elderberries and flowers can be made into some lovely drinks, ingesting the leaves and twigs can put you in hospital.

Elder Berries Forming

Castor oil is used for all kinds of useful things (including sore ears), the plant is commonly grown in gardens and yet the seed of this shrub contains the lethal poison ricin. This substance was used with fatal effect during the Japanese subway atrocity in 1995; it is 1500 times more deadly than cyanide and 500 times stronger than cobra venom! For the record, the only poisonous snake in the UK is the adder or viper and they are so rare that they are protected. In any case, they will not strike unless threatened and even then, they are very unlikely to kill you.

Always - Only Eat What You Are Sure About

Fortunately, you can negate all complications by only picking and eating things that you are familiar with. Most people already know what cherries, plums, apples, pears, blackberries, hazelnuts and chestnuts look and taste like (see Urbane Vs Urban). There’s not much that can go wrong here, unless you have some kind of allergy and you should know about this already.

Only Touch If You Are Confident

The scariest moment I have met while out and about, was being attacked by a large dog, which was appalling but this could equally happen outside the supermarket. I now know that the best way to deal with aggressive dogs is to put your hands in your pockets and look away! This seems counter intuitive but dogs see eye contact and waving arms as a threat (I was not aware of this when I was attacked).

Two Wheels Good - Four Wheels Bad!

Some people think that cycling is risky but it is actually less dangerous than walking, it gives great pleasure, is often quicker than driving and it keeps you fit. Remember, being fat can kill you too.

My Safer At Night Retroreflective Bike

So people, throw your Wii through the telly, get a map, a compass, a penknife maybe - just in case and go outside...

Keep It Real in 2012!

(Don’t forget your helmet)…

Winter Warmers

Zesty Orange and Lemon

Now that it is starting to feel cold at night, I thought it might be a good idea to start making some Winter Warming Wines. I started off with an old favourite flavour of mine, Ginger. Not much foraging involved with this entry but the spirit is just the same.

Must Get A Lemon Squeezer Geezer

After pealing the zest off two oranges, two lemons the house was soon humming with exotic aromas and this was soon added to by my boiling the bruised and battered ginger in water and Demerara sugar.

Add the Rasins and Zest

I have made ginger wine before and it was very successful but I always feel a little bit mean when I smash the ginger root – I grew one once and it had lovely delicate leaves. I used the Head Chef’s stone pestle to prepare this.

Sorry!

We do not have a lemon squeezer apparently, so I cut the remaining skin off the fruit and sliced them into the mixture, this looked as agreeable as it smelled and I then proceeded to crush the juice out with my bare hands.

Smelling Rather Nice Now

In a dangerous manoeuvre I combined the boiling hot liquid with the fruity juice in a bucket and left it to cool down. When the mixture was luke-warm, I added the previously activated yeast and left it to ferment.

Fermenting Away Nicely

It is now bubbling away like a witches brew in my airing cupboard.

I might also try Rhubarb Wine, if I can collect enough from the garden…

Never Rob Another Man’s Rhubarb

Like most people, my first experience of foraging (other than in the garden) was picking wild blackberries in the garden or during trips to the countryside.

As a youngster, I was a keen tree climber and I enjoyed scrambling up trees to pick fruit. This was as true for trees in our garden, as it was for those in other people’s properties, although you naturally had to be more careful if you were trespassing.

Scrumping, as it used to be known (stealing and eating apples off someone else’s trees), was something of a rite of passage for many young children. It was generally seen as mischievous as opposed to a seriously crime although one could expect a clip round the ear if you were foolish enough to get caught.

As kids we used to delight in sneaking through other people’s properties unseen, or exploring as we used to call it. Naturally, during our intrepid expeditions we would occasionally need to stop and try some of the local produce (borrowed from our unwitting neighbour’s vegetable plots) en route, in order to stave off potential starvation and as a healthy precaution against things like scurvy.

Personally, I blame Peter Rabbit.