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my foraging diary

Omi said:
What's happened, the countryside's gone bonkers :D After the couple of days of sunshine and warmth, everything has grown massively. The Dandelions are in flower, loads of Red Dead-nettle, Chickweed all over the place, larger leaves on the Cow Parsley and lots of new Hogweed. Interesting too, now that Tui eats Cleavers, Tethra does too. Previously he left them, as did his parents :D
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When I went yesterday I was shocked too how much its all grew. Some of the hazel trees have got little leaves growing and the hawthorn is doing great. I'm excited again lol...
 
I took OH for a forage with me yesterday ...he was decidedly unimpressed (he has not been scouring the hedgerows waiting for action like me). Up here we're getting there...mini lots of things (geranium, sticky weed, baby brambles, dandelion, hawthorn)...I've not found hogweed yet (Joey's fave)
 
Omi said:
I'll be very interested to hear your experiences with this. Have you worked out the cost of running it? We have off-peak electricity during the night and I think it would therefore cost me about 70p per 10 hours of running. I wouldn't use it for the rabbits, but would be interested in having dried tomatoes/prunes/apples/pears etc.
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let me know if you want one Omi, I never use mine, I prefer to hang my forage from the curtain rails, on tables etc :lol:
 
joey&boo said:
let me know if you want one Omi, I never use mine, I prefer to hang my forage from the curtain rails, on tables etc :lol:
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Thanks :love:

My feeling atm is that tomatoes and plums would be better dried in the sun for the full development of the flavour. And of course we do not have good enough sun in this country. So to use a dehydrator for that purpose would possibly deliver a different, possibly poorer, result at around the same cost as buying them in the shops. So for me, I think, the only benefit would be that I would find it a fun thing to do, which iwould not be a good enough reason. This is why I would be interested to hear how w&s gets on with hers.
 
Is forage pretty much always safe so long as it isn't taken from outside a nuclear power plant? I've seen a tonne of Herb Robert by a footpath near my house but it wouldn't surprise me if passing dogs pee on it. Does a good wash suffice as a general rule? It looks lovely and fresh!
 
Beapig said:
Is forage pretty much always safe so long as it isn't taken from outside a nuclear power plant? I've seen a tonne of Herb Robert by a footpath near my house but it wouldn't surprise me if passing dogs pee on it. Does a good wash suffice as a general rule? It looks lovely and fresh!
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Frances Harcourt Brown reckoned a bit of dog pee never hurt a bun :D
 
MightyMax said:
Frances Harcourt Brown reckoned a bit of dog pee never hurt a bun :D
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That would be my view too and I don't even wash forage unless it's obviously very muddy. The only thing I always check for is that there are no bird droppings on it.
 
I also agree with Omi. If I miss bird poo then buns just leave those bits as well, and mine aren't very smart...!

Interesting to see which hawthorns are in leaf, just emerging and only budding on my walk to work yesterday!
 
ive put some dandelions in my dehydrator for know, im still going to be drying it in my usual places when its warmer but it will be handy if i run out of room. I had nowhere near enough stored for winter this year and pepe has had a dodgy bum again with veg. i have had to give him a bum bath a few times and cut his fur. Im hoping next winter to not have to buy veg at all.
 
The dandelions took between 2-3 hours on 40 degrees. Its well worth it just to do them. I'm fixing the aviary/shed roof tomorrow so can't go foraging but I'm going to try some cow parsley next.
 
Have been using my twigs way book, only in my garden as bun is still so young but have identified goosegrass, sow thistle and dandelion :). I do have one I'm not sure about though, it's super soft, similar layout/ height to a dandelion but smaller rounded leaves which are soo soft, nothing appears to be growing from the centre, at least not yet anyway
 
Leannean27 said:
Have been using my twigs way book, only in my garden as bun is still so young but have identified goosegrass, sow thistle and dandelion :). I do have one I'm not sure about though, it's super soft, similar layout/ height to a dandelion but smaller rounded leaves which are soo soft, nothing appears to be growing from the centre, at least not yet anyway
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Well done :) It becomes addictive once you start. I get most of my forage from my garden.

If you want to post pics of any plants you haven't identified, we can have a try for you. It becomes very much easier once the plant flowers.
 
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