Foraging

The internet is a wonderful thing.  You can hear a snippet of something from friends, colleagues, the TV or radio, and you can immediately look it up and either store it away for future use, act on it immediately or disregard it completely.   And this is how I started on my foraging obsession.  It was either a TV chef or, more likely, Countryfile, that revealed what could be foraged and used in cooking.   Once you have that information, it's then really easy to look up recipes on line also, no need to head to the library or to the book shop.  It's all good.  

The other great thing about the internet is also being able to identify the plants or leaves that you're after - I would be much less confident looking for goodies if I haven't printed off a large picture of the item beforehand to pop into my pocket and refer to.   The other essential item needed for foraging is ..... poo bags!   I'm sure the residents of Norfolk are a little concerned about Finn's digestive system when they see us striding along, me with his lead in one hand and half a dozen poo bags in the other - full of goodies!  

So far this year, I've got quite a haul of goodies, although I've been a bit disappointed in others.  Blackberries for example.  We've had such a wonderful summer - lots of sun but very little rain, so, although the blackberries were colouring up nicely, they weren't getting any hydration to fatten them up.  Luckily though, I picked tonnes last year and still had some in my freezer for just such a famine.  I did, however, get way more sloes than I usually do, so I now have some of those in credit for next year's sloe gin.

Another fruit I've learned about this year is rowanberries.  I had no idea they were edible.  And this year we've had an enormous glut of them.   Apparently it's been a very good year for nuts and berries, according to the Met office and foragers.  Something to do with the very long winter and then the fab summer we've had.  I don't really understand the physics of it, I'm just glad I can make use of it!   So, I foraged a few pounds of rowanberries from the trees outside the Hewitt School in Norwich, and I foraged the cooking apples I needed from my freezer!  It's always good to have fruit in reserve - while searching through the freezer, I also found lots of rhubarb too, so I've still got rhubarb chutney on my list of things to make.  That will be for the new year I think.  Anyway, back to the rowanberries and apples - I made a few jars of jelly.  Rowanberry jelly is apparently very good with venison or lamb, or cold meats.  I'm hoping it will be a fruity alternative to cranberry jelly on Christmas and Boxing Day.  

Because of the very good summer we had, Mum and I managed to grow tonnes of tomatoes.  Towards the end of September, when it was evident that it really wasn't sunny enough to ripen up the remaining tomatoes on the vines, Mum gave me a load of her green tomatoes to make tomato chutney.  And I had a few to throw into the mix too, but I was just a few short to make up the weights, so I must admit I did resort to buying a few red ones to make up the numbers.  

I always feel very virtuous when I've been making up batches of jams, jellies or chutneys and the house smells wonderful - especially with the cloves I threw into the chutney.  The vinegar smell does tend to hang around a bit though - so I always try and make chutney on a day when I can throw open all the doors and windows to get some fresh air in.   Really rewarding and potential Christmas presents too - what's not to love?!