Richard Dye
master brummie
What does the sugar do?
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Growing wild that is edible in the UK?
- Thread starter Strawberry Hunter
- Start date
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
Not sure where I took this picture but Rosebay willowherb, Chamerion (or Epilobium) angustifolium can be found all over Birmingham
“(VN: Bombweed, Fireweed, Ranting widow). Something has happened to rosebay over the past century. What had been a comparatively scarce woodland plant has turned into one of the most successful and colourful colonisers of waste places - car parks, railway embankments, roadsides, even cracks in chimneys. The records track the change, but do not by themselves explain it.”
“The young shoots as well as the underground stock are used as a vegetable; the shoots can be treated like asparagus. Leaves can be eaten as salad or as a vegetable. The leaves dried by the sun can be used as a herbal tea.”
“(VN: Bombweed, Fireweed, Ranting widow). Something has happened to rosebay over the past century. What had been a comparatively scarce woodland plant has turned into one of the most successful and colourful colonisers of waste places - car parks, railway embankments, roadsides, even cracks in chimneys. The records track the change, but do not by themselves explain it.”
“The young shoots as well as the underground stock are used as a vegetable; the shoots can be treated like asparagus. Leaves can be eaten as salad or as a vegetable. The leaves dried by the sun can be used as a herbal tea.”
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
White dead-nettle, Lamium album
“Is a common perennial of waysides and rough ground in most of Britain. Most country children know that a small drop of nectar can be sucked from the base of each flower, but a less benign game is occasionally played with this plant: Boys used to pick the flowers off dead nettles and chase the girls pretending they were real stinging nettles."
The young shoots and leaves (March to April) can be used for salads or mixed with spinach or other leaved vegetables. Young leaves can be added to soups or sauces”
“Is a common perennial of waysides and rough ground in most of Britain. Most country children know that a small drop of nectar can be sucked from the base of each flower, but a less benign game is occasionally played with this plant: Boys used to pick the flowers off dead nettles and chase the girls pretending they were real stinging nettles."
The young shoots and leaves (March to April) can be used for salads or mixed with spinach or other leaved vegetables. Young leaves can be added to soups or sauces”
Some freeze the sloes, others jab them with a thick needle or knife point.
Brummie a long time ago
master brummie
This is true. I have never been keen on alcoholic drinks, a quirk in my tastebuds makes them too bitter for me. So I am not familiar with the various terms for such drinks. When Julie announced some time ago in a good sloe year, that she was going to make some sloe gin, I heard it as slow gin, and was fascinated as to how this would proceed. Would it take longer before she glazed over ? She does not use much sugar in her recipe, whereas a friend tends to shovel it in.
Sloes are terrible here this year, hot weather has shrivelled them on the stems.
Andrew.
Sloes are terrible here this year, hot weather has shrivelled them on the stems.
Andrew.
Strawberry Hunter
master brummie
I'm quite fascinated by all of the information on this thread, amazing, thank you. I don't drink alcohol, but I'm interested to hear about how to make it! Fascinating to think how people made use of things years ago.
Richard Dye
master brummie
Julie has a great approach, Andrew! I had a busy meeting day and am embracing a Knob Creek, Kentucky Bourbon entombed in ice cubes
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
This picture of the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) was take near Compton but they can be seen all over.
“Before the fruits are used for culinary purposes the seeds and with them the short brittle hairs (used as itching powder by schoolboys) must be removed. The fruit can be used for marking jam, syrup, soups and superb wine and liqueur.”
A bit more for interest…”An old riddle, 'The Five Brethren of the Rose, gives an effective way of identifying roses of the canna group. It is a folk-riddle that has been passed on orally since medieval times. This is a version transmitted through a line of distinguished gardeners, from Canon Ellacombe to Edward Bowles to William T. Stearn:
On a summer's day, in sultry weather,
Five brethren were born together.
Two had beards and two had none
And the other had but half a one.
(The brethren' are the five sepals of the dog-rose, two of which are whiskered on both sides, two quite smooth and the fifth whiskered on one side only.)”
“Before the fruits are used for culinary purposes the seeds and with them the short brittle hairs (used as itching powder by schoolboys) must be removed. The fruit can be used for marking jam, syrup, soups and superb wine and liqueur.”
A bit more for interest…”An old riddle, 'The Five Brethren of the Rose, gives an effective way of identifying roses of the canna group. It is a folk-riddle that has been passed on orally since medieval times. This is a version transmitted through a line of distinguished gardeners, from Canon Ellacombe to Edward Bowles to William T. Stearn:
On a summer's day, in sultry weather,
Five brethren were born together.
Two had beards and two had none
And the other had but half a one.
(The brethren' are the five sepals of the dog-rose, two of which are whiskered on both sides, two quite smooth and the fifth whiskered on one side only.)”
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mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
no nore i Andrew some thing about it makes me fall over
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
watercress sanies.and watercress soup
foragerchef.com
only harvest from very clean natural springs and riverswatercress sanies.and watercress soup
Watercress: Harvesting, Cooking and Recipes
Everything you wanted to know about watercress: when and how to harvest it safely, and ideas for cooking it.
foragerchef.com
Foraging for Wild Watercress – Mother Earth News
Foraging for wild watercress: Turn a summer hike into a grocery shopping expedition with bushels of free food for the gathering. Originally published as "Watercress" November/December 1982 MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
www.motherearthnews.com
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mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
mushrooms fried or made into mushroom soup
but be vary carful what you pick some are pisonouse toadtools if in doubt ask or leave them well alone
How can you tell a toadstool?
The undersurface of the cap of a true mushroom is covered with narrow flanges called 'gills'. In a young mushroom these are pink. As the mushroom matures they turn brown to almost black. Toadstools or poisonous mushrooms have gills that remain white throughout their entire life
en.wikipedia.org
grocycle.com
edited for safety reasons. Please! be careful out there
but be vary carful what you pick some are pisonouse toadtools if in doubt ask or leave them well alone
How can you tell a toadstool?
The undersurface of the cap of a true mushroom is covered with narrow flanges called 'gills'. In a young mushroom these are pink. As the mushroom matures they turn brown to almost black. Toadstools or poisonous mushrooms have gills that remain white throughout their entire life
Edible mushroom - Wikipedia
What Is A Toadstool? Toadstools vs. Mushroom | GroCycle
What is a toadstool? I'll explain what a toadstool is, how they might be different from mushrooms as a whole, where the term comes from, and more.
grocycle.com
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Godber
master brummie
I’d agree with that 100%. I walk my dogs in woodland that has many varieties of mushroom throughout the year, and looked online to identify them. Some are very easy to spot, Fly Agaric for instance, but many are easily confused with others. A mushroom can look very different at various stages of its life which makes it even more difficult. Bearing in mind that half a Death Cap mushroom can contain enough poison to kill you…unless you REALLY know what you’re doing, I’d give them a miss.
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
As mentioned
In response to this post from Stokkie I thanked him for bringing attention to the fact that some plants are not edible and in fact poisonous, so we have to be careful. He highlights that the sea kale should be washed.
The title of the Thread says “growing wild” and therefore wild watercress would be subject to whatever the stream or brook contains.
As for mushrooms better to be safe…
In response to this post from Stokkie I thanked him for bringing attention to the fact that some plants are not edible and in fact poisonous, so we have to be careful. He highlights that the sea kale should be washed.
The title of the Thread says “growing wild” and therefore wild watercress would be subject to whatever the stream or brook contains.
As for mushrooms better to be safe…
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mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
Wild Plants in the UK: British Hedgerow Food & Foraging Guide
Forager's guide to edible and poisonous plants growing wild in British hedgerows, woods and fields. When to look and what to look for.
www.wildfooduk.com
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Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
Common mallow (Malva sylvestris)
Other names Bread and cheese. This is a common and widespread perennial of road-verges, footpaths, farmyards, beaches and waste places of all kinds. It can become a rather straggling bush up to four feet tall (and with a habit of picking up dust on its hairy leaves), but the flowers are beautiful - deep pink with darker stripes, as sculptured as bone china, and often staying in bloom right through the autumn. (In 1993 I saw a plant whose petals had an almost pure white ground colour on a road-verge in Eriswell, Suffolk.) The leaves are edible, though rather mucilaginous, and quantities of the pollen have been found in excavations at the Roman fort at Bearsden, just north of Glasgow. The leaves, flowers and seeds were all eaten by the Romans, both for food and as a kind of preventative medicine. (Pliny said that a daily dose would make you immune to all diseases.) As the pollen has been found only in the Roman levels of the excavation, it is possible that it was deliberately cultivated by the legion.' British children still nibble the small, round seeds, which are widely known as 'cheeses' because of their shape. They have a bland, slightly nutty taste. In Norfolk they are called 'pick-cheeses'. (Richard Mabey)
“Young leaves and shoots can be used for soups and as as a vegetable.”
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
“Ground-elder, common names, Gout-weed, Bishop's weed, Dog elder; Goat's foot, Devil's guts, Seven-toed Jack, Housemaid's knee; White ash. Ground-elder is best known as one of the most ineradicable of garden weeds, and many of the popular names refer to the daunting persistence of the roots: Devil's guts is another name for ground elder…Housemaid's knee is, I imagine, a fairly modern gardener's tag, referring to the likely effects of trying to weed away a plant which can occupy three square yards in a season.
Ground-elder was almost certainly introduced to Britain from continental Europe as a pot-herb and a medicine against gout. Its herbal use and popularity as a vegetable eventually declined, but the plant itself did not… Eating the leaves, boiled like spinach, is one way of reaching a modus vivendi with the plant. They make a strings but tangy dish. The other way is to learn to accept it in the garden…”
(Richard Mabey)
“Ground-elder, common names, Gout-weed, Bishop's weed, Dog elder; Goat's foot, Devil's guts, Seven-toed Jack, Housemaid's knee; White ash. Ground-elder is best known as one of the most ineradicable of garden weeds, and many of the popular names refer to the daunting persistence of the roots: Devil's guts is another name for ground elder…Housemaid's knee is, I imagine, a fairly modern gardener's tag, referring to the likely effects of trying to weed away a plant which can occupy three square yards in a season.
Ground-elder was almost certainly introduced to Britain from continental Europe as a pot-herb and a medicine against gout. Its herbal use and popularity as a vegetable eventually declined, but the plant itself did not… Eating the leaves, boiled like spinach, is one way of reaching a modus vivendi with the plant. They make a strings but tangy dish. The other way is to learn to accept it in the garden…”
(Richard Mabey)
