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!

Hawthorn and Hedgerows

Hedgerows make me happy.

Not just as part of a patchwork landscape, but in the way they are used to define borders, in our gardens and parks. In our cities hedges do a great job of softening hard landscape, muffling urban noise, reducing pollution and providing a home to all those birds I hear singing on my way to the office.

At this time of year, hawthorn blossom - known as May - is blooming, and brambles are putting out new shoots; a promise of hedgerow harvests in the autumn. New growth is beginning to cover bare branches, and birds are taking advantage of the cover and starting to nest. 

Photo credit Colin McEwan CC BY 2.0

Hedgerows provide an invaluable service to our biodiversity, and are an essential habitat for many plants and animals; this includes 130 Biodiversity Action Plan species. They provide a living highway for many creatures, butterflies, birds, bats and hedgehogs to name a few; over half of our mammal species use hedgerows.

They also provide what are known as ecosystem services; services that nature provides which would have a real impact on our economy if we had to pay for them. These include pest control, preventing soil erosion, regulating flood water, carbon storage and reducing air pollution including dangerous particulate matter.

A hedge can be hundreds of years old and contain many different tree species. Sadly many were ripped up post-war to make way for agriculture and building. More than half of the remainder are in poor condition, due to pesticide use and neglect. Many are brutally cut at the top and sides, but left unmanaged at the base leading to large gaps as the trees grow. The ancient craft of hedgelaying  prevents this problem by laying down the hedge to create a living barrier with no gap at the bottom, that will not only prevent livestock getting through but also last for up to 50 years before it needs doing again!

Look after the wildlife in your own hedges by avoiding pesticides and not trimming in nesting season. Planting native hedge species in your garden will encourage wildlife; the addition of some blackthorn or dog rose can provide painful deterrent to intruders! Looking after a hedge like that can be its own reward, as you toast the fruits of your labour with a sloe G&T while you watch the butterflies and bees dancing around your greenery.

A version of this was article was first printed in Sheffield Star 23/5/2016 and can be viewed on line at
 http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/today-s-columnist-claire-hanley-opik-a-bustle-in-your-hedgerow-1-7925985

Spring smells funny...

Huzzah! Spring has sprung (despite the snow) and foraging is creeping back to the forefront of my mind.

I'm off to Leeds today to see what may be available to point out to the lovely ladies of Buns and Roses WI when I give them a walk and talk next month, and I'm really hoping to find some wild garlic (ransoms).

With that in mind, here's something I wrote on the subject (first published in my column for Sheffield Wildlife Trust in the Sheffield Star), along with a rough guide (it's really not organised enough to call it a recipe) to making your own wild garlic pesto.

Enjoy!

‘Spring smells funny...’

I love foraging. Partially because of blackberry crumble, but mostly as a frugal opportunist who hates waste.

I can’t help myself. I started as a child picking berries, but grew to include anything I could make alcohol with (sloes, crab apples, plums). The thing about looking for fruit trees is that you soon want to find more; I was once told you only pass on the location of a damson tree in your will! This means you walk through the countryside craning your neck, checking branches for telltale spikes indicating sharp sloes to come, or blossom that may mean hidden fruit later on.

So for half the year it’s easy to get in your recommended exercise quotient, as you peek through hedgerows and wander round parks. You can’t help but notice the nature on your doorstep as you become familiar with the foliage around you. The problem for foragers is that most fruit comes into season around the same time of year – late summer. What are you supposed to do for the rest of the year? Well this is the best time of year to go and find some of the early greens for soup and salads, like young nettle tips or my favourite, wild garlic. 

Wild Garlic. Photo copyright Don Sutherland

Walk along any wooded river bank, and you may start to notice a pungent smell emanating from underfoot. Looking down, you might see clusters of long green leaves with a pompom of white flowers delicately balanced on a single stem. Early in the season, there might not be any flowers to help identify the plant (also known as ransoms), and the leaves could be confused for those of the bluebell, but crush a piece of leaf between your fingers and you will be left in no doubt. 

The taste is mild; leaves and flowers can both be eaten raw in a salad. My favourite way to use this spring bounty is in a pesto. Simply take a handful of wild garlic leaves, a pinch of rock salt, a handful each of walnuts and parmesan, then crush (or blend) into a paste and add enough olive oil to loosen the mixture. It obviously goes well with pasta, but try mixing it with mayonnaise to liven up a sandwich; a great excuse to eat your lunch outdoors!

And remember; forage responsibly; take only a small amount, leave plenty for the wildlife that depends on it, and never eat something you are not certain of!

• This is a version of an article first published in the Sheffield Star, which can be found online at http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/today-s-columnist-claire-hanley-opik-nature-s-bounty-is-delicious-and-free-1-7869460

Tunnel Vision

Last week we went on one of our regular routes, and it occurred to me that if I wasn't careful I could spend all my time looking closely at the shrubs and ground cover instead of the bigger picture. So in favour of balance, have a lovely picture of part of our walk.
I don't always forage on my walks. Sometimes the walk is enough, although usually I do have a bag in my pocket 'just in case'. I find it difficult to walk past without picking. The thought of something going to waste 'bothers my nose' as Mum would say!

Fat sloes

 Even when not actively picking, I've always got my eye on what's coming up. Further along this path, at the end of the tunnel where there is more light, the blackthorn bushes are smothered - or as we'd say 'snided'- in sloes.

Ideally we'd wait to pick them until after the first frost, but my fingers are twitching - and I do have a freezer. I must resist - there is a lot of other fruit in need of picking first!