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Went up to the Royal Fort House this weekend during "Door's Open" day and in the park I found Figs, Mulberries, Blackberry's and even a Grape Vine! The grapes themselves looked like Sloe's and had a waxy coating just like them, I broke one open to try it and it tasted lush! (forgive the bristolian!). Another clue was that it had smaller pips instead of the Sloe's one and was sweet as anything

Still looking forward to anything that can be organised, Bristol is preffered due to transport issues but willing to travel if I can get a train there

Is that opposite the old John Lewis building in town? (I forget which shop it is supposed to be at the moment) I know there is a HUGE and beautiful fig tree in the walled park opposite, have never seen them ripen though.

Sorry, back on topic again- I haven't managed to produce this baby yet, so this coming weekend is looking pretty unlikely for me .

gah!

Any foragers around the herts/essex area?

Bristol's a bit far for me on the train for a day (can't do a saturday...damn work gets in the way!).

Maybe during the spring or something...then i can book the weekend off.

misscorinthian wrote:Is that opposite the old John Lewis building in town? (I forget which shop it is supposed to be at the moment) I know there is a HUGE and beautiful fig tree in the walled park opposite, have never seen them ripen though.

Sorry, back on topic again- I haven't managed to produce this baby yet, so this coming weekend is looking pretty unlikely for me .

No it's the park at the top of Saint Michaels Hill behind the Wills Memorial building. Not a lot of people actually know it's there as it's quite tucked away.

Still on for the weekend if anyone is up for it. This weekend I should have been in London but that's now off (which is good as I cant stand the place!)



phil

Are you allowed to pick forage in a public park? I thought it was illegal.

OH is now having to work the Sat night, bah thats the NHS for you. I doubt I'll be leaving basecamp this weekend after all. Have fun chaps....

Kind thoughts
Confined
Deb

Looks like next weekend for a Dorset-wise forage is looking less likely, but I'm still up for a wander down this way if anyone's up for it. Luath?

goldy1 wrote:Are you allowed to pick forage in a public park? I thought it was illegal.

To be honest I haven't a clue, Public land in my view belongs to everyone so as long as you're not picking wild flowers or protected species of plant what's the harm? If you dont do something with it then it will be left to rot so why not make the best use of it and share

The Royal Fort isn't a public park per se as it belongs to the University, I wasn't 100% sure about the Mulberries, cant stand figs but I'd have had words with any Security bloke begrudging me a grape or blackberry


take care



phil

strickly speaking you need permission from the land owner before you pick foods. My understanding is that you need permission to dig up roots and other wild foods are fine to pick. With the exection of Japanese knotweed which you should leave well alone as diturbing the plant can cause it to grow more which you don't really want.

SOme councils such as Bath and North East Somerset have a hot line set up to report JK if you see it as it is a very inasive plant and they are trying to iradicate it. Bristol have a budget of £4000 a year to treat JK which is simply not enough cash and they have a time bomb on their hands.

Myself and Dave used to go scrumping on Oxford Univesrity land as they had some very rare species of apple around and loads of them.

YOu are right about the rare plants that should be left alone but most foragers will.

I thought it might be of interest if any other forum members live in the North West and go in for country walks (in the 5-10 mile range). A mate up there picked up a leaflet advertising countryside events in Cheshire, and next Saturday there's going to be an organised walk on the subject of edible wild plants. Full text from the leaflet is reproduced below, if anyone's interested.

Saturday 23 September
Northwich Community Woodlands
Food for Free

This ever popular event is being hosted by the Rangers at the Park, with contributions from Cheshire Wildlife Watch and FOAM. It includes a 2 hour walk followed by cooking, preparing and tasting. You may need to bring your lunch!
From: 10.00am-3.00pm, Marbury Country Park
Contact: Chris Moseley 01606 77741


take care


phil

You're all too far south! I'm in York and know nothing about foraging although I'd love to learn. Any advice on good books to use as a reference, or even a friendly forager to come out with me - I don't want to poison myself!

Any help gratefully received.

To re-activate this thread for the foraging year of 2007.
Most of you know who i am now.
I am runnung fungal forays early this year due to the amount of rain this summer........there is plenty to see.
My next organised foray will be on the 29th July a sunday. There is plenty out there to pick and i follow up with a cooking demo.
For amy one interested take a look at web site and booking from.

Andrew

www.gourmetfungi.co.uk

Shirlz wrote:We are going blaeberry picking with the Neeps! on Sunday afternoon at Bennachie. We'll have a look to see what else we can find...
. Got the camera though - it goes everywhere with me.

Wish I eas going blaeberry picking ...

Shirlz I think I need a third arm for the camera ...

Any photos would be really helpful to me as apart from the really obvious stuff, I don't know what I can eat.

QB, its well worth getting copies of a few different books, then take pics of things you find and post them here. We'll try to help you.

The books i use are:

Food For Free by Richard Mabey (both the paperback and the collins gem versions)
Food From the Wild by Ian Burrows (it has great pictures in it)
and
Mushrooms by Roger Phillips for identifying fungi. Its more of a photographic study book, but it is invaluable!