my foraging diary

[keletkezes]

Our (cultivated) raspberries have flowers coming even though the leaves are only just fully forming! I'm at the stage where I won't pick anything with flowers on because there's so many bees about. Getting massive stalky cowparsely though There's one spot that used to be frequented by the wildies that was awash with, at that time, mostly stumpy ribwort plantain, and now it's full of lush clumps. Except it's on the opposite end of the route to hogweed, so they either get plantain or hogweed :lol:

 

[Omi]

Its getting exciting now, baby brambles & a few raspberry leaves. Hogweed is taking its time though. i must remember to do most of my foraging for Winter in Spring - before the nettles & spittle bugs take over in summer

Yes, I think there is more of a bumper forage fest in Spring rather than Summer. Everything looks so much fresher too.

 

[joey&boo]

Its getting exciting now, baby brambles & a few raspberry leaves. Hogweed is taking its time though. i must remember to do most of my foraging for Winter in Spring - before the nettles & spittle bugs take over in summer

we'll call that a semi fail or partial success.

Can anyone explain why the vast majority of my dried leaves are lovely & green but plantain & apple leaves always go a bit brown - variably so

 

[Omi]

we'll call that a semi fail or partial success.

Can anyone explain why the vast majority of my dried leaves are lovely & green but plantain & apple leaves always go a bit brown - variably so

I've no idea why that would be

 

[joey&boo]

I've no idea why that would be

i don't get it either. Googling images of dried apple leaves the majority look brown but only one place seems to be selling brown plantain. when i got some for Mouse it was green.

 

[joey&boo]

Hello

Bob has raided his dads allotment & brought home hazel. pear, apple, rosemary & sage ...does anyone know can buns eat sage?

 

[Omi]

Hello

Bob has raided his dads allotment & brought home hazel. pear, apple, rosemary & sage ...does anyone know can buns eat sage?

Yes, they can eat Sage

 

[joey&boo]

Yes, they can eat Sage

Thanks. They just had a sample - said its very tasty. My rosemary I'm mainly using to try & take more cuttings. I loved that huge rosemary I had (til I killed it by watering during freezing winter)

 

[Omi]

Foraging in the garden is very productive at the moment. We have dandelions, chickweed, plantain, dock, cow parsley, lemon balm, red campion, red dead-nettle, common mallow and ground elder. The apple trees are finally losing their leaves and so the bunnies are getting handfuls of those everyday. Grass seems to be growing lush too!

 

[joey&boo]

4-6 weeks til Spring forage comes in

 

[Pets mum]

4-6 weeks til Spring forage comes in

Yay ! I have no one to forage for these days, but I still get excited :lol::lol:

 

[Omi]

4-6 weeks til Spring forage comes in

Less than that here.

 

[joey&boo]

Sun was out when I finished work so I decided to take my foraging route home. I've been a right lazy cow getting buses & taxis everywhere up til now.
I got modest amounts of brambles (old) & baby dandelions, herb robert, dock, geranium, cow parsley & sow thistle. There was some tiny sticky bud but not worth the effort to pick (I've changed / gotten old)

With winter dried rations I got it just right last year - they've about 2-2 weeks left & I've not had to reduce portion size or buy any tops up at all

 

[Omi]

Sun was out when I finished work so I decided to take my foraging route home. I've been a right lazy cow getting buses & taxis everywhere up til now.
I got modest amounts of brambles (old) & baby dandelions, herb robert, dock, geranium, cow parsley & sow thistle. There was some tiny sticky bud but not worth the effort to pick (I've changed / gotten old)

With winter dried rations I got it just right last year - they've about 2-2 weeks left & I've not had to reduce portion size or buy any tops up at all

You did well. Most of those plants have been present most of the winter here, apart from geranium and sow thistle. You always seem to find more geranium than me though anyway. What I have been pleasantly surprised about is the amount of available fresh grass in the garden. I've been cutting good amounts most days.

 

[joey&boo]

You did well. Most of those plants have been present most of the winter here, apart from geranium and sow thistle. You always seem to find more geranium than me though anyway. What I have been pleasantly surprised about is the amount of available fresh grass in the garden. I've been cutting good amounts most days.

I think its prob been about here all winter too, but brrrrrrr Yes there are many, many geranium patches round here (& my brain holds an excellent forage map of this & surrounding area yet can barely tell you what day of the week it is :lol

 

[Omi]

I think its prob been about here all winter too, but brrrrrrr Yes there are many, many geranium patches round here (& my brain holds an excellent forage map of this & surrounding area yet can barely tell you what day of the week it is :lol

Yes, mine too, which is useful because we've got lots of Cow Parsley, but also patches of Hemlock. It means I don't need to carefully ID them each time.

 

[PaddyPaws]

Due to increasing food costs and the fear of what they do to our food, we ought to give our rabbits wild foods which wild rabbits eat.
I have been amazed that my bunny will devour small twigs from trees to the last morsel. Bunny loves hawthorn which is so easy to identify in the hedgerows and is incredibly common everywhere. Clip the new young shoots with scissors around the end of March - thorns are not developed or are still soft (but bunny can actually cope with the thorns). During the rest of the year I give bunny hawthorn clippings, 5 or 6 inches long of the new years growth and if there are hard spines I cut them off.
Other trees which bunny will eat are crab apple, birch, willow and hazel. These are not difficult to learn to identify except crab apple which you need to memorise in your local landscape in autumn when the apples are on the tree so that you know where they are for the rest of the year. You can't harm you rabbits with these trees and they really are quite easy to identify.
My bunny lives off cowparsley from the end of March right through to Christmas. You need to be confident in your ID because it has relatives which are poisonous. My approach would be to find a patch which you are confident about and then introduce small amounts to bunny so that there is no ill effect. Near livestock, farmers are likely to have eradicated the poisonous relatives because obviously they don't want to lose stock.
Another prickly customer is the wild rose which bunny devours spines and all.
Finally there are two climbing hedgerow plants which rabbits love. One is the vetch or wild pea which can have purple or yellow flowers and is available from mid summer to autumn. The other is the hedge bindweed which bunny loves and is available mid summer to autumn.
The best approach is probably to add to your knowledge of plants one at a time as you get confident. We as humans have lost so much knowledge that our ancestors took for granted which is a shame: you can't eat a computer chip but humans like rabbits can eat much from the hedgerow and wild places.

 

[Omi]

Due to increasing food costs and the fear of what they do to our food, we ought to give our rabbits wild foods which wild rabbits eat.
I have been amazed that my bunny will devour small twigs from trees to the last morsel. Bunny loves hawthorn which is so easy to identify in the hedgerows and is incredibly common everywhere. Clip the new young shoots with scissors around the end of March - thorns are not developed or are still soft (but bunny can actually cope with the thorns). During the rest of the year I give bunny hawthorn clippings, 5 or 6 inches long of the new years growth and if there are hard spines I cut them off.
Other trees which bunny will eat are crab apple, birch, willow and hazel. These are not difficult to learn to identify except crab apple which you need to memorise in your local landscape in autumn when the apples are on the tree so that you know where they are for the rest of the year. You can't harm you rabbits with these trees and they really are quite easy to identify.
My bunny lives off cowparsley from the end of March right through to Christmas. You need to be confident in your ID because it has relatives which are poisonous. My approach would be to find a patch which you are confident about and then introduce small amounts to bunny so that there is no ill effect. Near livestock, farmers are likely to have eradicated the poisonous relatives because obviously they don't want to lose stock.
Another prickly customer is the wild rose which bunny devours spines and all.
Finally there are two climbing hedgerow plants which rabbits love. One is the vetch or wild pea which can have purple or yellow flowers and is available from mid summer to autumn. The other is the hedge bindweed which bunny loves and is available mid summer to autumn.
The best approach is probably to add to your knowledge of plants one at a time as you get confident. We as humans have lost so much knowledge that our ancestors took for granted which is a shame: you can't eat a computer chip but humans like rabbits can eat much from the hedgerow and wild places.

Hello :wave: There are a few forum members, who post regularly on this thread and so we warmly welcome another contributor You are speaking to the converted with what you have posted. I feed all of what you have recommended, although rarely come across Crabapple. We do have a few Apple and Pear trees in the garden though, so our rabbits get those. We also feed Cow Parsley most of the year. In addition, in our garden we have Red Deadnettle for most of the year. Vetch is less common here, but we feed it when it's found.

I would also recommend tree leaves in the Autum for the trees you have mentioned. I also feed Ash, Alder and Field Maple. For the times in the year, when there is little else available it's also likely that some Bramble leaves can be found.

 

[joey&boo]

Due to increasing food costs and the fear of what they do to our food, we ought to give our rabbits wild foods which wild rabbits eat.
I have been amazed that my bunny will devour small twigs from trees to the last morsel. Bunny loves hawthorn which is so easy to identify in the hedgerows and is incredibly common everywhere. Clip the new young shoots with scissors around the end of March - thorns are not developed or are still soft (but bunny can actually cope with the thorns). During the rest of the year I give bunny hawthorn clippings, 5 or 6 inches long of the new years growth and if there are hard spines I cut them off.
Other trees which bunny will eat are crab apple, birch, willow and hazel. These are not difficult to learn to identify except crab apple which you need to memorise in your local landscape in autumn when the apples are on the tree so that you know where they are for the rest of the year. You can't harm you rabbits with these trees and they really are quite easy to identify.
My bunny lives off cowparsley from the end of March right through to Christmas. You need to be confident in your ID because it has relatives which are poisonous. My approach would be to find a patch which you are confident about and then introduce small amounts to bunny so that there is no ill effect. Near livestock, farmers are likely to have eradicated the poisonous relatives because obviously they don't want to lose stock.
Another prickly customer is the wild rose which bunny devours spines and all.
Finally there are two climbing hedgerow plants which rabbits love. One is the vetch or wild pea which can have purple or yellow flowers and is available from mid summer to autumn. The other is the hedge bindweed which bunny loves and is available mid summer to autumn.
The best approach is probably to add to your knowledge of plants one at a time as you get confident. We as humans have lost so much knowledge that our ancestors took for granted which is a shame: you can't eat a computer chip but humans like rabbits can eat much from the hedgerow and wild places.

Welcome to RU Paddy Paws, its great to have such an avid forager on board

 

[joey&boo]

well i feel a bit hard done by :lol: Been visiting today & the forage in both Preston & Warrington is looking amazingly lush. The hazel has leaves, ribwort was flourishing, hogweed was out, baby brambles were in proper clusters. None of that here yet & I'm jealous