If you go down to the park today...

The lovely ladies (and accompanying gentleman) of Buns & Roses WI

Last Thursday I ventured up to darkest Leeds, put on my trusty foraging hat, and led a few members of Buns and Roses WI around Roundhay Park for guided walk and talk about wild food.

After a grey day, the sun made an appearance just in time for our evening stroll around Roundhay Park, a gorgeous site which is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe (as my legs pointed out afterwards)! We started at the Tropical World entrance, then made our way down to and around the lake and back (my pedometer assures me the round trip is more than the minimum recommended 10,000 steps a day).

 Photo credit Emma Briggs

The crew soon got used to my verbal shorthand - 'an acquired taste' usually means I've tried it and don't like it. It didn't take long before another theme emerged. You see, I learned most of my foraging because I like making (and drinking) what are referred to as 'country' wines. So yes, most of the edibles I pointed out can also be used to make a very decent wine;  I'm not so sure Wild Garlic flower wine is a good idea, but may give a small batch a go anyway - for SCIENCE!

I was originally worried that a managed parkland location might not have much for the forager, but I needn't have worried - there were plenty of goodies to point out and talk about. Although many of the hedgerow species I am used to down here were missing, this was more than made up for by some magnificent mature trees, including a pair of walnut trees which I expect the ladies to make the most of! Other useful tree species in the park include lime, cherry, beech and oak; if you've never tasted oak leaf wine then I urge you to do so. 

Wine and wild garlic in the woods. Photo credit Emma Briggs.

We also found the ever present nettles, brambles, chickweed, cleavers and dandelions, but also garlic mustard, wild garlic, common sorrel,  and raspberries (flowering but not yet fruiting) - the park definitely holds the makings of a decent meal. We paused a couple of times for examples of the fruits of foraging; one stop to taste wild garlic pesto, which went down quite nicely, and another to taste last year's blackberry wine. It's lovely, with a fruity bouquet and a kick like a donkey good depth of flavour. I gave everyone a couple of wild garlic recipes to try and promised to hand over my recipe for the blackberry wine, so although it's a bit early in the winemaking year, it's at the end of today's blog.

Finally I'd like to thank Buns and Roses for being so welcoming, and asking such interesting questions! It was a real pleasure to be able to pass on some of what I've learned, and I hope that you will all continue to keep an eye out for wild food; remember, what has been seen cannot be unseen!

Recipe:  Blackberry Wine

Ingredients

4lb blackberries
3lb Sugar
Optional - cup of strong black tea, raisins and juice of half a lemon.
6 pints of water (just boiled)
Yeast (you can buy a sachet of wine yeast from many chemists, I often just use bread yeast)

Method

1. Put berries in a bucket, and crush them (a potato masher is ideal for this). Add the optional ingredients if you like at this stage.
2. Pour on the hot water. (If you want to add the yeast at this stage you can, but wait until the liquid has cooled to blood temperature).
3. Keep covered to prevent flies getting in. I use a clean tea towel if I don't have a lid.
4. Stir up once every day for 4-5 days 
5. Strain off juice and add the sugar (and yeast if not done in step 2).
6. Pour mix into a demijohn or jar with an airlock, top up to base of neck with cool boiled water if necessary.  Put somewhere dark, and warm if possible  - airing cupboard is ideal but you may want to wait until the fermentation has slowed down as it can bubble over!
7. Within a day or two it should be bubbling away. Ignore it until it stops bubbling. This can be anywhere from weeks to months. Patience is a virtue!
8. Siphon off into another demijohn to leave the sediment in the bottom of the fermenting vessel. You can taste at this stage if it's ready for drinking yet, and see if it's clear. If not, put an airlock on and leave it for another few months. If it is, bottle it into clean sterilised bottles and label - unless you want wine surprise!

It's been a bit busy in the FF household over the last couple of weeks. What with that and the weather the foraging went a little quiet. It did give me time to start producing goodies from the bounty though!

Cherries may be my new favourite thing to make things from. I've been determined to make the most of the lovely flavour and try to save it for a hit of summer in the depths of winter. So, cherry jam for starters. I did make five jars but only have one left as it's ever so popular with my friends! I used the wrong sugar (preserving rather than jam if you're interested), so it didn't set hard, but ooh it is good on a scone.

I used 4lb of the lovely fruit to start a cherry wine. I really hope the flavour comes through in the finished product, but I'll just have to wait and see. I don't use artificial methods of stopping my fermentation (as I'm allergic to sulphites), so it will probably be next year before I find out! As I'm impatient though, there are a couple of bottles of cherry liqueur on the go (one vodka, one brandy) which will be ready by the festive season. I'm picturing a good book, a roaring fire, and me getting gently sozzled thinking of summer!

I do have a few cherries left in the freezer (both wild and morello) so I can extend my cherry-fest a little longer. I also bought a new toy, so had to try dehydrating some cherries. I may have taken them a bit far as they are now rock hard, but I reckon that will just make them able to soak up more of the brandy I plan to rehydrate them in!

Cherry stem in her mouth she could tie with her tongue*...

You don't need to go yomping off into the great wild yonder to go foraging. Blackberries grow almost everywhere. There are apple trees along many roads thanks to all those cores thrown out of car windows. I still wouldn't pick directly next to a busy road (although I'm less concerned since the advent of lead-free petrol), but in my opinion a few apples from the side of a quiet residential street are not likely to harm you, especially if you wash them before eating. However, always do your own research and most of all, use your common sense.

An often overlooked food resource is gardens. Many gardens, especially in older properties have a few fruit trees, raspberry canes, or gooseberry bushes. Now I'm not suggesting you go scrumping, but if you have a neighbour who seems to not be doing anything with their bounty, why not just ask? The worst they can say is 'no', and you'll still have met your neighbour (apparently, some people out there don't talk to their neighbours)! 

Offering to repay their kindness with some produce is only polite and can build up a lasting friendship. I have one bloke who lets me have cooking apples from his garden every year in return for an apple pie, and someone with an old orchard who gets a bottle or two of plum wine. The fruits of my labour from their fruit! 

My favourite cherry variety- Prunus cerasus v.Freebius

Anyway, what got me on to this blog today was cherries. My sister-in-law recently moved into a house with a lovely garden. With a cherry tree. Best of all...she hates cherries! Win! These are not the small wild cherries like I was foraging last week, but big fat juicy beasts. The tree is small, so all the branches were easy to get get to (no crook required), and really heavily laden. I got 9lb (just over 4kg) off in a short space of time, and now my fridge is groaning. 

The cherries are quite sharp, so they're more for cooking than eating. I have enough to make a batch of wine, some jam, and some cherry vodka. My sister-in-law has some on the go and it smells just like maraschino cherries - divine! 

*yes, yes I can