Some Basic Wild Foods
So the nights have finally started drawing in and the days have a definite chill in the air, at least in the northern hemisphere, but before you all start reaching for the blankets and hot soup and resign the autumn and winter to the hardcore mountaineers there are still things to be done and found, this time of year is when some of the easiest wild food comes out.
Although I will show some of these wild foods it is always best to go with an expert to find wild foods, especially mushrooms and remember to stick to the law when collecting any wild food.
One of the easiest wild foods to identify is the blackberry, not the mobile phone, where I live there are huge blackberry bushes all over the place with hordes of people raking the berries off, these berries can be eaten as they are or more commonly mixed with apples and baked into a pie, I personally think that everyone should try blackberry picking at least once, trying to convince kids that they are perfectly safe despite not coming from a supermarket is a much harder matter however...that`s for another blog though
Elderberries are still in season although care must be taken as there are many varieties some of which if uncooked are toxic, easily recognisable these berries have many uses including wines, cordial and marmalades, there are also many folklores surrounding the elderberry, most people will be familiar with this fruit due to the wood being mentioned in a series of books featuring a certain boy wizard or though a liqueur flavoured with berry which also uses it latin name Sambucus
Although crab apples by themselves are edible they are extremely sour and wouldn`t be good for this purpose, they are however are excellent source of pectin and can be used as a preserve, the wood like most of the apple family can be used to smoke meat.
(yes the tree is behind a security fence)
Acorns can also be used for a particular reasons but as they haven`t yet turned brown I cant use them yet.
As I mentioned above the wild food most people think of this time of year is mushrooms and I cannot stress enough that before going mushroom picking you should go with an expert and for this reason I will not be showing any of them on this blog. There are other wild food avalable at this time of the year and throughout the year, I have chosen the examples above as they are some of the easiest to recognise
On a different note as a business I am sponsoring a young lady going to Tanzania in Africa with camps international where she will be helping out building school houses/house, as well as giving money I have also given her a micro fleece with the business logo on, as I receive update I will post some on here.
please note I will not be writing a blog next week as I`m off on holiday to Scotland for my birthday.
Follow the link below to go to the Lone Wolf Mobile Bushcraft website.
No comments:
Post a Comment