My Wild Food Experience
Dave is the expert on gathering wild foods at selfsufficientish, but I thought I would give it a go. I decided it was best to arm myself, so off I went to the local library and got out three books, Mushrooms & Toadstools of Britain and Europe (Collins Wild Guide), Food for Free (Collins Gem) and just to be sure How to Identify Edible Mushrooms (Collins).
I took a small rucksack a pair of gardening gloves, a hand fork, some carrier bags, some paper bags I also brought a packed lunch and my girlfriend Emma. I decided that I should head for a woodland first so I got out a map of the local area and off I went. What follows is a short account of what I gathered and what I did with it when I got home.
I must also say that some plants are protected so please, please make sure you are not picking a rare endangered species.
As you will read on I was not sure of what to find and I had some reference books, please double or triple check before eating anything you are not sure of and ask an expert if you are still not sure.
Milk thistle/Bull thistle
As soon as we entered the field on the edge of the woodland we were confronted with a load of thistles, I got out my copy of food for free and identified them as milk thistle. I tried to dig them up with the hand fork but to no avail so instead I cut them close to the base with the scissors. I carefully placed them into a bag.
It was not until I did a bit of further research when I got home that I realised I had picked a bull thistle not a milk thistle. The book had a hand drawn picture in it and as such was not that accurate. (that my excuse). this is what I picked a bull thistle and I should have picked. In my research I found out that Bull thistle is edible. So I thought I would try it. So I spent ages peeling off the thorns
and then boiling the stems and steaming the leaves, it was a very difficult job as I was getting prickled all the time whilst preparing it. Now I can't remember which website it was that told me you could eat bull thistle, but the truth is you can't. Well I guess you can but it tastes really awful, if you were to eat your own ear wax that would taste better.
So I guess this account serves as a word of warning, be sure that you know exactly what it is you are looking for before you bring it home.
Blackberries
As I write this it is late July in the UK and Blackberries are everywhere. We picked some that were growing 
on the edge of a field. We found them all over the place and as far as I can remember you can pick them every year from the end of July to around the start of October in the UK. They also grow across Europe and in the Americas (in mexico there is a variety that bears fruit all year round), and in New Zealand and Australia.
Nutritionally per 100g serving of Blackberries they contain Calories 52 ( Kilo joules 217) Total Fat 0.4 g none of which is saturated, 12.8g of carbohydrates, 5.3g of Fibre, 0.7g protein, 32mg of Calcium and 196g of Potassium.
We have an article on making jam if you would like to try it. We combined our blackberries with some apples to make this delicious crumble.
Mushrooms
despite having two books on edible mushrooms I only found one, the Rooting Shank. The collins guide describes it as, 'an edible species, but with little to recommend it.' By the time I had decided what I was going to do with it a week had passed and it had dried out and no longer looked edible.
I must offer a word of warning to anyone who wants to venture out and gather mushrooms, many are poisonous and some fatally so, BE CAREFUL. Make sure you have a good book with photographs of the mushrooms and if you are still not 100% then don't eat them.
Badgers/Road Kill
Now I did see a dead badger in the side of the road and it all looked intact, if I was properly living in the wilderness I might have eaten it, well if I really was starving. I had some very good reasons for not doing so, firstly I don't know how illegal it is as badgers are a protected species, also have you ever seen a badger recipe I reckon it would have tasted about as good as bull thistle. I would also be unsure of how long and so how much bacteria were inside the poor little fella so was put off by that.
A friend of mine found a deer on the edge of the road once, so he decided to put it in the back of his van. This is apparently legal, that is if you find the deer, but not if you run it over and take it. The thing was is that he met a girl later that evening. He kept the deer in the back of his van for the two or three days whilst he was round her house getting to know her a bit better. I ended up getting a lift with him to university after a fourth day and the deer was still in the back. This was not the most pleasurable of lifts that I have ever had I can tell you.
Apples
Finally, although this did not happen on that wild food day I must add about apples. We are blessed in the UK with many varieties of apples trees. In fact all the apples that I use to make my ciderish I collect from various trees around bath. Unfortunately this year I had to go further afield to collect them as my two usual sources had already been taken by others making cider. In fact a cople of enterprising drunks had set up camp next to one of the trees I always use and were brewing up there cider.
I am sure that if you look around where you live (well if you live in a country that grows apples trees), you will see some apples trees bearing fruit in the autumn (the Fall in other forms of English). What I wish I had done this year, but forgot untill it was too late, was to knock on the door of people who have apple trees in their gardens. I am sure that they would let you pick them rather than see them go to waste. As I write this little follow up bit in late October, I have seen loads of trees in peoples gardens with mouldy apples on them. When I think of all the pies I could have eaten or the crumples, apple pancakes or coder I could have drank made from those apples I just dispear of the waste. So next year I shall make it my task to bug all my neighbours with apple trees. If you do the same let me know how you get on, using our message forum .
By Andy Hamilton