UKC

So, how's your foraging and wild-food-scrabbling going this year?

I'm finding a lot more fungi than usual in NE Wales and I can't go outside without tripping over Ceps at the moment.

I've also got a few kgs of Bilberries in the freezer - I need to nip down to Lidl for some cheap vodka to make use of them all!

Lots of blackberries still around, and the Rowan berries are looking good.

How about you?

Here (Sweden) it's been an amazing few weeks for Ceps. They're everywhere! Looking good for sloes and lingonberries, but not great for blueberries/bilberries at all. The funnel chanterelle season should start soon - I got some great hauls last autumn:
https://twitter.com/MikePeacock86/status/931919408557121536
https://twitter.com/MikePeacock86/status/909071232976539648

49 pounds blackberries.  Most will be turned into wine (with some elderberries and damsons in various ratios).

Try blackberry whiskey.  I have, with 2 bottles whiskey.  Started last year, strained the other month.  Already incredibly brilliant.  I then squished the blackberries through a sieve and have a tub of whiskey/blackberry puree in the freezer ready for a snazzy trifle (don't think this would work with vodka).

I've ended up taking my camera out on every dog walk now - I keep coming across prize specimens that'll be perfect for future guidebooks etc

I've tried it before - it works really well. I've also found that fruit liqueur concoctions work equally well with cheap alcohol as they do with expensive stuff, which certainly encourages experimentation.

Just waiting for the damsons as they are not quite ready yet...

I usually end up turning my gin-soaked sloes into chocolates by combining them with metled choc, almonds, and sloe gin, but that sounds a good idea too.

I had to check google as to what to do with rowan berries - I thank you for that.

(always under the impression they were poisonous, only when uncooked it has now been revealed to me)

Yummmm....  I have 1 demijohn of damson and sloe vodka and 1/2 demijohn of sloe gin, both ready to strain, and like you idea for the chocolates, and will add pureed dates for more umptiousness(?).  Tell you what, the concoction will be frozen and turned into truffles in December - that's half my xmas pressies sorted !!

To All:  anyone done any Rose Hip stuff, either wine or infusion?  I've read they can be very hairy and pippy, but fancy a bash.

Also, a few years back I made a dandelion wine.  My expert bro-in-law said it had a taste of sherry and, since it was already 15.5%, added the minimum required brandy to reach 20%, added some French oak chips, left for 12 months and BINGO!!!!  

And to all you sloe-giners out there, think about adding few drops of almond essence as this enhances the almondeyness that naturally comes from the sloe stone.

Seems like a bumper crop of those too.

A few people have said that to me - including a confusion with elderberries and the cyanide-inducing glycosides therein

I've tried it with dried Meadowsweet, ground down then lightly roasted. Worked out OK.

I was under the impression that they were inedible ( foul tasting) ( Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman's book Wild Food)  and not worth the bother. Can they be made into something tasty? 

I've done rose hip wine before. One batch was really good. The other batch was bottled a bit early and exploded...

Rowan Berry Jelly. With the addition of Crab Apples it's pretty good - I make/use it with game meats.

Got some crabapple jelly on the go at the moment after we found the most overladen tree I've ever seen. Annoyingly I screwed up straining it and it's gone cloudy but it'll still taste good.

It’s a cracking year for sloes - it’s going to be a gallon or two of sloe gin - none of its for Christmas presents though - it’s for us

I've just  been picking mulberries from a tree in town (after checking with the presumed owner)  Absolute sods to pick. The 'crop' ripens heterogeneously all over the tree, hidden by leaves and hard to reach! 

However the jam can be brilliant and is hard to get hold of otherwise - relatively few trees. 

Lots of girolles (catherellus cibarius) and a few ceps here and there in Correze, France.   This is despite it being incredibly dry.  I am taking this as further evidence that the most important factor for a major mycelial fruiting is a sudden change in temperature, rather than just rain.    It went from minimum overnight temps of 25C to 12-13C suddenly here and about a week later the mushrooms are there, despite very little rain for months.  Apart from that wild plums, blackberries and some other mushroom species.  It has been the first year I have eaten laetiporus sulphureus (chicken of the woods) and the agrocybe aegerita - both excellent.  We have also tried out a few other boletes, including neoboletus luridiformis - again excellent - always firm and never maggot-infested like some ceps.

They are prevalent round here. I’m waiting with baited breath...

Lots of sloes.  Made chutney with them (and apples and onions)  as I already have loads.of sloe gin.  Used a mix of the removed sloes.from the gin and the fresh ones.  Pita to stone them!

Used Delia's damson recipe.  Ready in a few weeks so hope it's good.  

Still got loads of jam left from last year (blackberry and elderberry) so might not make any this year.  

There have apparently been people using raw elderberries in smoothies and getting quite ill, so I will mention that this isn't a good idea.  Cooked is fine.  

Rowan Jelly is a very traditional thing to have with meat I think.  More of a UK thing than cranberry sauce.  

Out on my evening cross country run today I discovered a new bumper sloe crop up one of the lanes. Also tried a couple of damsons - still a little tart but not far off.

I also found some large sloes and they confused me.  Most sloes I have come across have been like blueberries in size.  These ones were halfway to a damson - like small marbles and soft/sweet.  Could they be something else?  Colour etc was right for sloe, but size was odd.

I find sloes can really vary in size - what you describe doesn't sound unreasonably large. Or maybe they were bullaces?

Ah, only just noticed you described them as sweet. If they don't suck the moisture out of your mouth they're almost certainly not sloes. So my guess is bullace. Lots of stuff online about sloes vs bullaces, eg http://www.sloe.biz/pip/viewtopic.php?t=269

I've found my WI cookbook, it's older than me.  

It has a recipe for Rowan or Mountain Ash Jelly if anyone wants it.  

There are quite a few chutney and preserve  recipes too.  

The one that says "any fruit except strawberries" might be useful. 

It is a sloe day on UKC

Are folk picking the sloes yet? It feels like it will be a while to first frost!

I shoved them in the freezer for a week if that helps..

Took the dog for a walk this afternoon and found a wild hop plant in a hedge. Going to have to have a bash at homebrew I feel ????

12 jars of Damson chutney made for xmas today and also a apple and blackberry crumble all picked this morning.

Always. I know there are arguments for letting the season go on a while before picking, but I pick them as soon as they look good and throw them in the freezer. The sloe gin always tastes good...

We never leave them for the first frost as they tend to get attacked by insects and you end up loosing half the harvest. marsbar is right about shoving them in the freezer.

Thanks Mike - no thorns on the Bush. Bullaces makes sense. Got about 4kg!

So for sloes, how should they taste when you pick them?

We picked enough for two batches of gin the other week in Edinburgh. Sitting in the freezer now.

Could be a bit random as to what you found but worth a shot.

I've Wye Challenger growing in the garden(on purpose)

Amazing year for ceps up here in east lothian(or the commonly confused Pine Bolete which is practically identical)

I think we are fully stocked up now on dried shrooms for a while now (and they freeze well too)

Hilariously, some sad f*cker is disliking every post that mentions alcohol.

I like beer.

Think of the sourest thing you have ever tasted and quadruple it!

Should have added this link - https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/been-foraging.73187/#post-716021

That makes sense.

Have found a bumper crop nearby.

Also negotiated a trade with the farmer down the lane - some cider for a load of apples.

More alcohol!

Will give it a bash and see what happens 

just happy to find hops in a local hedge row, bit of a surprise in Leicestershire 

Have you never tried one? Like Mike W says, really sour and bitter; they dry your mouth out completely. Great fun is to be had if you're out walking with people who don't know what sloes are. Just tell them they're like delicious giant blueberries then watch their reaction when they try one.

Yes, I have tried many - yesterday we tried various from different parts of the hedgerow.  I was more curious to know whether there is a certain point in their development where they need to be picked - i.e. do they become sweeter and softer like damsons or do they just remain viciously sour?

I presume they always stay sour, hence why no one uses them for much apart from making booze with.

Fair enough.  I think we will be going for in over the next couple of weeks - lots of sloe gin.

Meanwhile I have a lot of bullaces to clean and use!

I find them too sour even after months sitting in gin.

I made sloe jelly this year - nice, and can use the old ones from gin making.

Cleaned, weeded and bagged up the bullaces this evening - 5.5kg!

Very chuffed - jam, chutney and gin to follow!