Foraging - anyone tried it?

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Caveat

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Maybe the term is a bit misleading sometimes - I just mean gathering food wild, for free.

I suppose fruit followed by mushrooms/fungi are the obvious choices. Fruit I wouldn't bother with, mushrooms I don't know enough about to risk it.

Anything else? I'd imagine there must be great satisfaction in preparing a meal that was largely 'wild'.

I'd love to give it a go - if it's feasible
 
I love the idea of foraging. I grew up in the country side so we always picked field mushrooms, puffballs, blackberries, wild garlic etc. I would still pick those things. I've also gathered mussels but because they are wild, they are on the sand and so would be gritty. I love showing the children wild fruit to pick because that's the way I grew up. Little things too, like sucking the nectar from fuschia or cooking fish that their father caught. Again, living in the country side we would often be given pheasant or wild salmon ( lobsters once) that neighbours or friends caught/hunted.

I've watched a few programmes where people went foraging and came up with all sorts of plants that I'd never heard of though. Wouldn't mind to find out more about it but I'm not sure I'd base a whole meal around it.
 
Don't rule out fruit, you can eat it fresh or use for pies,tarts, jams, sauces etc

These are the things i have foraged (squirrel-like isn't it?)



blackberries

crab apples

damsons

hazelnuts-the fresh nuts sort of slide against your teeth when you bite into them. lovely!

wild strawberries - tiny, but lovely

those tart little reddish purple berries you get on the mountains.

mushrooms (but we wait for local farmers to let us know they're out, and where)

spanish chestnut (not very common)

there's watercress, wild garlic,rose hips, mint and many other wild herbs but i don't know much about them.

And at the coast you can find periwinkles, dillisk and other seaweeds and no duobt other shellfish. Dillisk is lovely, it has a very distinctive flavour and texture.
 
Thanks.

We're big mushroom fans - any varieties that are very obvious to a novice?
I think oyster mushrooms are very distinctive for example - look like pinkish ears and grow on the sides of trees?

Am I right or are there any potentially poisonous decoys to worry about?

Are puffballs always OK to eat too for example? as again, they are pretty obvious.

Wild hazelnuts - wow - never considered that!

We live right in the country too - now that is, grew up a 'townie' so ignorant to these culchie ways ;)

Seriously though, there are probably loads of things on our doortep we could be eating but don't realise it!
 
I used to pick and eat ink caps (the pointy rocket type mushrooms) but they will not keep long. I had a book called "Food For Free" which was very good.
 
Are these anything other than snacks to relieve boredom i.e. we've nothing to do, lets pick fruit or nuts ?

I.e. can any portions of nutritional value be picked ?
 
Sloes - very bitter
"those tart little reddish purple berries you get on the mountains. " fraughans - delicious
Road-kill
 
Caveat said:
Thanks.

We're big mushroom fans - any varieties that are very obvious to a novice?
I think oyster mushrooms are very distinctive for example - look like pinkish ears and grow on the sides of trees?

Am I right or are there any potentially poisonous decoys to worry about?

Are puffballs always OK to eat too for example? as again, they are pretty obvious.

Wild hazelnuts - wow - never considered that!

We live right in the country too - now that is, grew up a 'townie' so ignorant to these culchie ways ;)

Seriously though, there are probably loads of things on our doortep we could be eating but don't realise it!
Click to expand...

culchies! the cheek. :D

i can't help with the mushrooms, we have some local farmers who let us know when the mushrooms are out and which fields they're in.

hazelnuts- absolutely delicious. And this year i bought a hazel bush, it's only a small one but it produced a few nuts so i was pleased.

setanta, it depends on the fruit and the crop really. Mushrooms for example, we've filled large baskets at times. you can use any excess to make mushroom ketchup.

wild strawberries, well you'd have to gather a lot of them because of the size.

fraughans. thanks, i'd never have remembered that name. they're wild blueberries aren't they?

blackberries can also be picked by the basket load. And can be frozen for tarts later in the winter. yummy.:)
 
For anyone in the South Dublin / Wicklow area interested in foraging, there's a on Saturday.
 
I would very much like to attend a course or field trip on this type of thing? I know that Cavistons used to organise mushroom collecting field trips both here and abroad. Thanks delgirl for the link.
 
roker said:
I had a book called "Food For Free" which was very good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation, just ordered it on Amazon (the 2012 version with glossy pics!), plus a book on mushrooms, I live right next to the Dublin mountains and often see wild mushrooms while out exploring trails and woods - but never knew what you could pick and trip on eat safely :D
 
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