Let's Get Foraging!

FORAGING IN THE UK FOR BEGINNERS

Copyright 2012

Allen Jesson

Table of Contents

FOREWORD 4

Chapter 1 8

Let's Get Out There and Change 8

Chapter 2 15

Let's Get Foraging Let's Get Urban 15

Chapter 3 25

Let's Get Foraging Let's Go Bush 25

Chapter 4 39

Let's Get Foraging DownThe River 39

Chapter 5 43

Let's Get Foraging At The Seaside 43

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Cover Image Photography

Tom Curtis

Graham Maddrell

Dan and Dr Joseph Valks

FOREWORD

I have a confession to make. I have the occasional thought about becoming a 'gentleman of the road'. Yes, that's right. Someone who wanders along the highways and byways of the English countryside, without a care in the world. Well, in that thankfully only imagined world, the only cares I have revolve around food, sleep and warmth. Assuming that I am wandering in an all too rare perfect English summer, then the warmth will be taken care of and with the nights being short, I think I could manage a few hours under a tree or in a friendly farmer's barn. Now to food.

Unfortunately, this is where my imagination starts to run a little dry because as I am by birth, an urban child. You probably are too. But undoubtedly, if I were to survive, then I would need to forage to survive. Eat what is readily available in the open fields and woodland.

That's why I thought this book would be a good idea, not in any great preparation for my new life as a 'gentleman', but more of a recognition that I would not know what to eat on my travels. I think it's about time I learned.

Because as you are about to find out, the English hedgerows, meadows, streams and woods and bursting at the seams with free food. So, just before you start on this pleasant journey, please have a quick think about the benefits of foraging for food:

Environmentally Friendly – No ploughed fields, no tractors and trucks and distribution centres. No supermarkets burning energy at all hours of the day

Cost – It's free. Or very cheap indeed. All it takes is your time and that is spent walking in the countryside. Now, there's a joy all on it's own. It's good exercise too.

Healthy – Not only do you get the above mentioned exercise, your diet is naturally improved and packed full with nutritional diversity.

Fresh – You can't get fresher than just picked.

Local – No air miles in shipping in your asparagus from Peru.

CAUTION: However, I must finish this little preface with one word of caution. You should always positively identify what you eat, before you eat it. There is no point in guessing. In fact, it can be downright dangerous, especially with mushrooms. Chance is still on your side because the number of species that will actually do you any serious harm is rather small. Still, let's always play it safe and so, on your rambles, please take these watchwords with you:

“If I cannot POSITIVELY identify this, I will NOT eat it.”

Caution over, let's go foraging!

Chapter 1

Let's Get Out There and Change

You cannot forage in your front room. You need to get out there. In the countryside preferably, but there are goodies to be had in the suburbs, towns and cities too. It's not just about picking off the side of hedgerows either.

Did you know there is a movement called the 'Fregans' who make a point of foraging in supermarket waste bins to remove the readily edible food that has just gone by it's artificially imposed 'sell by' date?

It is clearly insane to throw perfectly good food away when someone dies of malnutrition (effectively starving to death) every 3 seconds. Fregans highlight this imperfection in our system to...err....perfection. They also like free food and I say; “Why not?”.

Now, I know the thought of rummaging around in bins is not for everyone but the latest estimates reckon that if Europeans keep living the way that they do, then we will need THREE planets just to survive. If we live like North Americans, SEVEN planets.

Clearly, something is going to give. However, neither you or I are going to save one of those planets by doing some earnest bin rummaging, but our whole food production process, does need to change. We can't keep doing the same stuff and expect a different result.

Another fine example of waste in the food chain is fish quotas, by species. When you couple this with consumer demand (I only want to east Bass, not Brill or whatever is today's catch) you get a deadly combination. By default, this leads to around 50% of each catch being thrown back (or discarded) into the oceans as 'by-catch'.

Discard and by-catch are, in my humble opinion, dreadful words, because they result in the unnecessary death of 7.3 million tonnes of marine creatures EVERY YEAR. I will repeat that: Based on this discard rate, in the 1992-2001 period, yearly average discards are estimated to be 7.3 million tonnes. Of fish, of crustaceans. Of creatures that just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time and caught under the wrong common agricultural policy.

Look, I know I am getting way off the beaten track of foraging but the point I am trying to make is that we ALL need to do something. If we forage, we can do our little bit to help. It will make a difference. Now, where's the nearest supermarket bin?

While I am on my hobby horse, did you know that farmers and supermarkets throw away an enormous amount of food? According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK, in 2005:

It is estimated that the wasted food is worth between £8bn and £16bn a year.

"The food sector now accounts for over a third of all the waste produced in the UK, a total of 17m tonnes," says the research, by C-Tech Innovation, a manufacturing consultancy. "About 15% arises from food manufacturing and a further 21% from distribution, retailing and consumption."

It notes that US food wastage is running behind Britain at about 25%, and that 4 million people in the UK "cannot afford a healthy diet and that one in seven people over 65 are at serious risk of malnourishment".

Separate government figures show that some 17m tonnes of food worth up to £20bn a year are being put into landfill, even though approximately 25% of it could be safely eaten by people or animals, or turned into compost and energy. The cost of transporting it and throwing it into landfills is thought to be more more than £175m a year. “

So, in short, we THROW AWAY, around one third of all the food we produce. Can you see the madness in all of this? Just because a cucumber is not slide rule straight, or a red pepper perfectly shaped and shiny, then we throw them away. It's really criminal.

OK, I promise, I will stop preaching and we'll start foraging, but I could not write a book about foraging in the UK without first having highlighted some of the nonsenses in the current system.

In reality, by foraging, we are going to make diddly squat difference to the above problems. However, if we all start to think about these issues and CHANGE what we do, then we may only need TWO planets to survive....

OK, let's get foraging....

Chapter 2

Let's Get Foraging Let's Get Urban

Before we head off on our bicycles into the countryside (you weren't thinking about driving were you?), we should do a bit of foraging in the urban area. After all, according to a recent study; in 1950, the population living in UK cities was 79% - already a large figure - but one which is set to rise to 92.2% by 2030. So, 9 out of 10 of us, living in the city. Better start there then. Where to begin? Well, I guess I should start with the dictionary definition of 'forage':

“The act of looking or searching for food or provisions.”

So, the act of foraging does not necessarily mean grubbing around underneath hedgerows. It's about finding food. Now, I don't intend to spend too much time on this aspect, but I do want to throw in a few ideas about foraging for food in the City:

SUPERMARKETS – I've already spoken about the Fregans but in all supermarkets they do have a system of 'marking down' items that are rapidly approaching their sell by date. There are some days when I just exclusively shop, looking for these marked down items. It's fun, it's random and you normally save around 50% off the normal retail price. It's also a great test of your culinary imagination, as you try and invent that night's menu from an assorted array of ignored and unloved food items. Depending on the foodstuff, some of the purchases go straight in the freezer. Otherwise, use immediately.

BAKERS and SANDWICH SHOPS – They too have a similar problem. Namely, all food shops have to make a quantity of food that inevitably will not get sold within the correct window (please excuse the pun).

If you are a very keen forager, then it's simply a matter of asking the owner what they do with their stale bread or leftover sandwiches. You can always pretend you are a keen pigeon fancier and want bread for your birds.

But generations have known the value of stale bread and the Italians use it in a delicious salad, you can add it to soup and some of my fondest memories revolve around bread pudding or bread and butter pudding when I was growing up.

I have included all of the above ideas in the companion recipe book (the imaginatively titled Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book) and they are well worth trying. Sandwich shops are another ready source of easy food. The major chains especially. They have a reputation to maintain and as a policy make their sandwiches fresh every day.

As a result, they MUST have leftover sandwiches at the end of the day. Some of these do go to the homeless but it is worth asking the question. There's nothing wrong with a day old sandwich and who knows? You could even start a food collection and distribution service for the homeless.

SCRUMPING – In America, there is a whole movement that revolves around fruit foraging. Take neighborhoodfruit.com for example. You can download a map of 'public' fruit trees and when they are in season, you can just go along and pick yourself some free fruit. Swap schemes, or fruit co-ops are also starting to take shape, where bags of fruit are readily swapped. It makes such sense, as one or two fruit trees will usually produce far more than one family can sensibly consume in any given year. The good news is that we have started a similar scheme in the UK. Fruitcity.co.uk covers London and I am sure that other cities will soon follow. If your town or city does not have one yet, why not start one?

You see, when fruit overhangs onto public property, such as a public footpath, then that fruit becomes public property, regardless of whether the tree is planted on private property or not.

Now I know that some owners of these trees are not going to be too keen to have the whereabouts of their free and low hanging bounty advertised, as it will inevitably lead to some too keen arms coming over the fence, but all in all, it's a great concept.

It's scrumping without breaking the law. It's free food. It's foraging at it's best. It's great fun for kids too so why not make a family day out of your next scrumping adventure?

By the way, we are lucky enough to have some apple and plum trees on our property. We have a hectic couple of weeks in August where we boil, bag and freeze the plums. Then all through Autumn we peel and freeze the apples.

We use these in 'Jilly's Breakfast Crumble' and that delicious, fat free, low glycemic recipe is included in the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book. I've also just planted a heap of raspberry canes, blackcurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry bushes, along with a pear and cherry tree, so in a few years from now, my fruit foraging trips won't take me very far at all. But that leads me nicely onto my next urban source....

HOME GROWN – If you do not have a vegetable patch, please start one. There is such joy in growing your own. Indeed, I have spent many a happy hour in the depths of February and March, getting my beds ready for the coming onslaught of intensive farming. For the record, I have built raised beds and they are now proudly surrounded by the aforementioned raspberry canes. Even if you don't have space in your garden, or indeed, don't have a garden at all, then even a window box will give you great pleasure. I promise! There is something very 'grounding' about taking a packet of seeds, planting them and then watching them grow.

Of course, you have to nurture them along the way and that only adds to the pleasure and feeling of self satisfaction as the tiny shoots emerge. The other thing to note is that a packet of seeds contains a LOT of seeds, so you could very easily create a nice friendly gift for a few neighbours and before you know it, you could be all be growing a batch of tomatoes, or whatever, on your collective windowsills.

If you compare the benefits of home grown to our normal food production process, which inevitably involves distribution depots and smelly diesel trucks, then there really is no comparison. Home grown tastes so darn good too. Finally, as mentioned before, if you do grow your own, then your foraging trips become shorter and shorter. Usually to the bottom of the garden, or windowsill, and back.

ALLOTMENTS – If you want to take your 'home growing' to the next level, then please consider getting an allotment. What was once a working man's refuge and safe haven has now become quite the trendy thing to do. You also get to swap and barter with the other allotment holders, so you can end up with quite an array of delicious home grown fruit and veg. Some allotments now collectively sell off some of their surplus, which brings me to one of my favourite sources of foraged urban food.

THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – Many home growers sell off their excess produce. We've all seen the signs, usually on a scrap of cardboard, with a scrappy price to match. Spring is the time where they usually sell tomato plants and the like. In Autumn, it becomes a veritable smorgasbord of delight. I know, for example, where I can buy plums, apples, tomatoes, walnuts, asparagus, cucumbers and well, the list goes on. But I am sure you get the idea.

Some people also give their excess produce away and that's always worth looking out for. I haven't done any great study on whether townsfolk or country folk tend to sell more of their home grown but what I do know is that it makes a great excuse for a bike ride, with rucksack on my back, looking for these little and delicious roadside bargains. As always, you can always freeze any surplus to current requirement.

Chapter 3

Let's Get Foraging Let's Go Bush

In Australia, any area outside of the growing urban sprawl, is effectively known as 'the bush'. I hope they don't mind me borrowing their colloquialism to describe us getting out into the country. Because that is what we must do if we are to take our foraging to the next level. Because the real good news is that the countryside is full of free food. Just don't take it from a farmer's field or someone else's private property and you'll do fine. Everything else is up for grabs. Well, having said that, it is not. It's not legal to uproot any wild plant, without permission. Also, if a plant is protected, then you basically can't touch it. On a broader note, only take what you need and always leave some for other birds, animals and other foragers.

By the way, whilst I'm in cautionary mode, I know some people are more sensitive to some foods than others. If that last sentence rings any bells with you, then please try 'before you buy'. Just chew a little, without ingesting, and see if you get any negative reactions. You should be okay with any of the recommendations in this book but if you do have any allergies of any kind, then please be a little more cautious than normal.

Now, I have on my desk, the MacDonald Encyclopedia of Mushrooms and Toadstools. It boasts 420 different fungi in colour, along with descriptions et al. It is beyond the scope of this book and my knowledge to detail all 420 species to you in any great detail but it does bring me onto a very important point:

If you cannot POSITIVELY identify a potential food source, then leave well alone.

Sorry for shouting, but it is an important point, especially when it comes to our first source and that unsurprisingly is:

MUSHROOMS: As mentioned before, MacDonald detail 420 different species, so if you are thinking about getting into 'mushrooming' in any serious way, I would recommend that you also buy that handy pocket size book. Especially if you plan on 'hunting' in woodlands. Actually, if you do, your picking season is dramatically lengthened as edible mushrooms can be found through spring and summer in the woods. However, the different species of mushrooms are notoriously hard to identify so I would also suggest that you go along with an expert on those initial trips, or even take a course.

However, the good news is that as this is a 'foraging for beginners' book I am going to focus on one of the simpler 'fruits in abundance', namely the field mushroom. This is definitely an autumn delight and it's one that I never fail to take advantage of.

Field mushrooms naturally occur when the first cool mornings start to take shape after all those baking hot summer days we have to suffer in the UK. Putting the obvious irony aside for one moment, it is on those 'first chill' mornings, after a decent downpour, you start to see little white spots of joy popping up all over the place.

In fact, we're quite lucky, because we have a few on our back lawn and I make a habit of NOT picking those because they act as my early warning system, telling me it's time for me to put on my Wellington and head to the fields. Actually, field mushroom hunting is a morning affair.

Before the sun, the birds, the worms and other pickers have had a chance to ruin your delicious supper. So, how to identify your field mushroom? Number one, they smell like a mushroom. They are very closely related to the commercial variety so you can usually tell by instinct that you have found a 'real' field mushroom. The gills will be brown, not white and they should not be any yellow on the stem. The taste is mild and pleasant, as is the odour. The thick flesh is white,sometimes turning slightly pink or reddish when cut but never staining yellow.

Caution is required when identifying them for eating, as the Field Mushroom resembles some poisonous fungi, but the latter always bruise colourfully, have yellow or white gills, carry shingles on the cap, or smell strange.

Again, I need to warn you. If in doubt. Leave it there in the ground and walk on. But if you can POSTIVELY identify it as a field mushroom, then pick away. You will not taste finer and I've a couple of lovely recipes for you to try out in the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book.

By the way, if mushroom foraging has whetted your appetite, then I'd like to recommend you head on over to:

wildmushroomsonline.co.uk

(they too have a warning about positive identification so I do hope you've got the message by now). They go into a lot more detail and include a list of edible mushrooms in the UK, such as Morels, Ceps, Ink Caps, Wood Blewits, Chanterelle, Hedgehog Fungus, Chicken of the Woods and the unfortunately named “The Jews Ear”. If you get lucky you may also find the Black Truffle, the White Truffle, the Charcoal Burner and the Horn of Plenty.

So, there you have it. Our fields and woodlands are literally bursting at the seams with edible fungi. The only problem is, some of them are poisonous or at best, not very good to eat, so it is a definite recommendation to take an identification book with you or even better, someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to positive mushroom identification. Happy hunting!

WILD GARLIC - Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) grows and can be found in woodlands, usually in near or among bluebells, and is identifiable by its garlic-like smell and long lush leaves, which are similar in appearance to those of Lily of the Valley. It grows from late winter and throughout spring. Towards the end of the season it bursts into bloom with white flowers.

Foraging for wild garlic in woodland is fairly easy and straight forward, as it is found in semi-shaded, moist conditions. If you're unsure of what you've found then its smell is the ultimate give away. Although found commonly around woodland and river banks, wild garlic is easy to cultivate in most soils and wild garlic plants can now be bought on ebay and in some of the larger nurseries.

Wild garlic is valued in the kitchen and unlike domestic garlic, wild garlic is championed for its leaves rather than its bulb. Although the bulbs, along with the flowers, are edible, they are much smaller in quantity. Wild garlic has a very similar taste to domestic garlic, yet slightly milder. The leaves are delicious raw or cooked and work well in salads and soups.

NETTLES - Every child's worst nightmare is to fall into a patch of stinging nettles so from an early age, we all know what they look like. But, with a decent pair of gloves, along with sleeves to cover any exposed skin, young nettles are a great source of vitamin c and will make a tasty addition to any meal. Of course, they MUST be cooked before use and I've included a couple of recipes the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book. By the way, the wild relative of the prized artichoke; thistles, are also edible but thankfully, I've never been that hungry :)

HAWTHORN - Crataegus monogyna is one of the most common species used as the "hawthorn" of traditional herbalism, which is of considerable interest for treating cardiac insufficiency. The plant parts used medicinally are usually sprigs with both leaves and flowers, or alternatively the fruit. It is a good source of antioxidant phytochemicals, especially the extracts of hawthorn leaves with flowers. Hawthorn has been used medicinally since ancient times. Roman physicians used hawthorn as a heart drug in the first century AD. During the Middle Ages, hawthorn was used for the treatment of dropsy, a condition we now call congestive heart failure. It was also used for treating other heart ailments as well as for sore throat. It is also used in herbal and supplemental blends targeting arrhythmia, heart attack, cardiomyopathy, hypertension, and many forms of cardiovascular disease. This is not some old wives take either. Clinical studies have been undertaken and have proven the red berries efficacy. That's why I've included a recipe for Hawthorn jam in the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book, as yes, I do care about you, and your heart, my wonderful and treasured reader :)

ROSE HIPS – Staying in the hedgerow, rose hip syrup was one of my mother's mainstays in her medicine cupboard. Whenever one of us kids started to sniffle it was out a teaspoon of rose hip syrup. Of course, we didn't mind because rose hip syrup is quite delicious and I'm not whether Mum knew this or not, but it does have around 20 times more vitamin C than oranges. That's why I've included a recipe for rose hip syrup in the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book.

Blackberries – I am always amazed by the amount of people who do NOT pick blackberries. That amazement is often mixed with gratitude because it means more for us. My wife and I spend many a happy hour picking these little black jewels, any time from August to October. We pick and freeze them. Unwashed as they are. Then defrost and wash and use in Jilly's Breakfast Crumble. We also use in the classic 'apple and blackberry' combination and have been known to make cocktails, dessert crumbles, pies and the like, all from this wonderfully free fruit.

As a kid, we used to head off on our bikes and after we'd collected a plastic bag full, cut off the corner of the bag for a delicious and thirst quenching spurt of fresh blackberry juice. Highly recommended (but not if you're wearing you're wearing your 'never to be stained' favourite white ensemble. On that note, blackberry picking is a messy business and at best, your fingers will turn a well earned inky colour. If you're careful, that'll be all, but it is worth dressing down for any blackberry picking adventure.

ELDERFLOWERS – The wonderful blossom of the elderberry is really the harbinger of summer. You know that once you see the elderflower on the hedgerow summer is just about here. However, if you are planning on making elderflower champagne (and you should), then do not hang about. The flowering season is all too short and as the champagne is relatively easy to make the word is out (on the vine) and elderflower pickers can come out in force. So, grab your trug, or big bag and get picking. You'll need around 30 heads to make your first batch of delicious fizziness (recipe in the Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book).

ELDERBERRIES – But, please don't pick all the flowers, leave some to ripen to full berry goodness. Elderberries make great red wine and the depth of flavour would fool most wine drinkers into thinking they are slurping on a grape varietal. Highly recommended and not too hard to do!

SLOES – Personally, I am not a great fan of winter as I love the sunshine but one of the good things about winter is making sloe gin. You have to wait for the first frost (or pick early and put in the freezer) and then it's simply a matter of adding sugar and gin and leaving in the boot of a car to slosh around for a couple of months. Normally ready for a sampling at Christmas with the remainder not lasting through January. Delicious!

I do hope this little excursion along the hedgerows has encouraged you to get out into the countryside.

If you set out early enough then you might be lucky enough to spot a rabbit or pheasant that didn't quite understand the highway code, or is that taking foraging a little too far? Only you can decide on your way out to the countryside. But while you're there, we should also look at the rivers as a potential food source....

Chapter 4

Let's Get Foraging DownThe River

Unfortunately in the UK, you need a licence to fish in the rivers and streams of this beautiful country. However, opportunities for a free feed are available and we should not ignore a chance to walk by the river bank and grab that night's dinner.

As usual, I am going to start with a few words of caution. Rivers can be polluted so only harvest from rivers and streams that look clean. If there is a film, or litter or something else that looks untoward, then best find a new hunting ground.

DANDELION – Of course, not just restricted to the riverbank, the dandelion grows everywhere. You can use the roots to make a dandelion coffee (or tea) and the leaves will make a bitter addition to any salad.

SORREL – The whole plant has a lovely taste and can be used raw in salads and cooked like spinach. Makes a lovely creamy soup too. It also, rather surprisingly, makes a good addition to puddings and turnovers. CAUTION. Do not confuse with Cuckoopint or Lords and Ladies. They look similar and the latter will not do you much good at all.

WATER CRESS – Wild water cress is an obvious place to start. Once you know what you are looking for, you will see it in a lot of places. It needs shallow running water to thrive and once you've found that, then the cress should not be too far way. I'd always cook foraged wild water cress and it can be a great base for grilled salmon and the like.

WATER MINT – A different experience to it's domesticated cousins but well worth a try should you spot some.

PIKE, TROUT, PERCH, CARP and EEL – If you've a fishing rod and a licence and a suitable stretch of water then all 5 species are edible. I have personally despatched over 1,000 trout to their maker and have enjoyed every one of them. I have never tried carp although I know some nations have it as part of their staple diet.

FRESHWATER CRAYFISH - This delightful delicacy takes a little more effort to get because you need to get written permission from the Environmental Agency in order to trap them.

You also need to know the difference between our poor downtrodden domestic species and that bullying invasive species, because it is illegal to catch one, but not the other. Still, I think, if you can get access to a suitable river, with the landowner's permission, then this adventure would be well worth the investment in time and money.

Just get your licence and buy a couple of legal traps, bait them up and you're ready to start fishing. All summer long. Who knows? If you have a foodie restaurant nearby, the chef would probably jump at the chance to buy freshly landed crayfish.

Chapter 5

Let's Get Foraging At The Seaside

To finish off our foraging story, we should head to the coast. This is quite interesting for me because I grew up in Northampton, which I think is the furthest major town from any of the UK's coastline. Still, I've made up for it now and live on a beautiful part of the Essex coast. So, let's get foraging:

Samphire – This salty delight is now in such high demand in top restaurants and as a result, certainly on this island, there are prominent signs warning that samphire pickers will be prosecuted. So, as always, please get the landowners permission if you see any samphire growing. Well, worth the hassle as lightly blanched, drizzled with some oil and freshly ground black pepper, you have a very tasty snack or accompaniment to almost any fish dish

Seaweed – Lots and lots of seaweed is in fact, edible. It's packed full of nutrients and with over 650 species to choose from, you're spoilt for choice. As always, caution is advised and please check the local situation as to rules and regulations. There are around 30-40 species that are quite common and edible so it is worth familiarising yourself with those. Fergus Drennan, the forager extraordinaire, is quite passionate about his seaweed, so this site is well worth a visit if you're planning a seaside trip any time soon:

wildmanfood.co.uk

Shrimps, Mussels and Oysters – If you get out early and at low tide, you will be amazed at what you can find on the rocks or in the rock pools. Just watch out for that incoming tide and slippery rocks and you'll don just fine.

OK, so that's about it for this book. I never set out to write the exhaustive guide to foraging in the UK. My more modest ambition was to inspire a few of you to get out there to start foraging. I hope I've done that. If so, altogether now:

Lets Go Foraging!

All the recipes mentioned (and so much more) can be found in the companion book entitled:

The Let's Get Foraging Recipe Book.

Table of Contents

Copyright

FOREWORD

Chapter 1 Let's Get Out There and Change

Chapter 2 Let's Get Foraging Let's Get Urban

Chapter 3 Let's Get Foraging Let's Go Bush

Chapter 4 Let's Get Foraging DownThe River

Chapter 5 Let's Get Foraging At The Seaside