Weekend In Hampshire

5th August. Down to Alton in Hampshire to visit some friends this weekend. I stopped off at one of my favourite Hampshire towns, Alresford. I started my walk by going along the riverside footpath, past the eel trap and then out over the local fields. Along a nice old hedgerow, I first spotted the elderberries. They look ripe, whereas the ones I last saw in Gloucestershire were still green. Maybe it's because it's further south here or just more sheltered.

A shot of the nice rolling Hampshire countryside, looking over to Alresford.

Not far from the elderberries, in the same hedge were some dewberries.

There were also blackberries nearby, but they are nowhere near being ripe. I've yet to see enough dewberries to warrant picking them.

This is quite a varied hedge, so is probably an ancient one. The next find was some hazels nuts. Not ripe yet. I would have thought it would be at least September before they are properly ripe, It tried some, but the kernels were very small.

By the nuts was some sweet smelling honeysuckle. I wonder if you can make anything from this. Maybe wine as you can make dandelion wine. Probably not enough flowers though and it is almost certainly protected.

A dead mouse. A bit far gone for the BBQ though :)

I reached Old Alresford and started my way back alongside the watercress farm. This is owned by Vitacress and has featured on Countryfile. I don't think the farmer would appreciate me foraging some of his cress, so I'll have to find some growing wild. Probably not difficult to find in this area, with all the chalk streams.

I knew I was nearly back at Alresford now as I reached the Fulling Mill Cottage. Stunning place. The river runs underneath the house and the public footpath runs in front of their front door!

The River Arle. A tributary of the Itchen. A classic Hampshire chalk stream. Full of trout and grayling. It would be great to fish here. I did look up fishing on the Itchen and it was at least £200 a day! It's quite difficult to photograph fish because of the glare from the water.

This was the biggest fish I saw, but it was too far away for my phone camera

Swindon Village Fields

Over to Swindon Village today for a short walk around the fields. Before I went through the gate onto the first field, I checked out the plum trees on a piece of community land near the pavement. I knew they were there as I have picked plums from them before. A reasonable crop this year, but not as heavy as last year. I expect they have  a rest some years.

As I walked along the edge of the field, I started to see the sloes. They are a bit patchy this year, but plenty there if you want to pick a batch for making sloe gin.

A bit further on I spied some crab apples. Apart from crab apple jelly, I don't know what you can make from these. You need a lot of sugar as they are very sour. Perhaps I'll look it up in John Wright's book.

I carried on on the path where I have had Horse Mushrooms before. Nothing at the moment, but it is very dry. I got to the field known as "the mushroom field" and disaster! The farmer has ploughed it up and planted maize!

I did find some Fat Hen growing on the edge of the field. I'll go back and get some one day when my spinach has finished in the garden.

I carried on back to where I know there are some more wild plum (or damson)  trees. They have a reasonable crop this year but not as good as in the past. Enough for me to make my damson gin though.

Almost back to the car and I saw the leaves of wild horseradish. These plants have been here for years as I used to dig a root up with my dad when we lived at Swindon Village.

More raspberries!

Sunday 31st July 2011: I went to my favourite wood to see if there were any raspberries left. I managed to find about half a pound, but I think that is it for this season. That takes my tally up to about 3 pounds of raspberries from here. There are signs of other people gathering. I met a group of walkers and one of them said there were more raspberries at the top entrance to the woods. I must investigate before they are all gone this year.

On my way up to the raspberry canes, I spotted some dewberries. Not enough to pick for a meal though, so I left them.

On my way back through the woods, I stopped at a log placed as a seat. There was a small lizard basking on it. It ran off, but I remember seeing a wildlife program where they said wait quietly and it may come back. I waited and it re-appeared within 30 seconds. Then another one appeared on the log. They were very small. only about 2.5 inches long, so they may have been young.

I stopped at a hazel tree not far from the wood entrance. I was surprised to see so many nuts on it. I thought the squirrels would have eaten them. I have seen other trees where they have already been stripped
by squirrels. I need to go back here when the nuts are riper.

Snowshill Manor walk

I did a circular walk from Snowshill Manor around the surrounding undulating Cotswold countryside. I spied this wild mint at the edge of a wood. The butterflies were going mad for it! Must get some lamb in.

Along the same wood side, were some dewberries. Until recently, I thought these were just strange blackberries. They look like knobbly blackberries, but come earlier. There weren't enough to warrant picking.

Field Mushrooms on Cleeve Hill

I went for a walk over Cleeve Hill and found these mushrooms and puffballs. They were in the same place as I have found them before. I find that the smaller ones are best as the larger ones tend to be "maggoty". I found the mushrooms to have the best flavour when cooked. The puffballs were good, but slightly softer and less flavourful.

It was the first dry, warm and sunny day for a while and I've never seen so many walkers, dog walkers, horse riders, runners and golfers on the hill. The quarry car park was full when I returned. Towards the end of my walk, I came across these dogs cooling off in the pond above Postlip.

Wild Raspberries!

While out walking in my favourite wood, I noticed a few raspberries growing at the side of a path. I thought maybe they were escapees of cultivated raspberries, but on reading John Wright's book, apparently wild raspberries are common. Looking back at my records I have never walked though there at this time of year, so I must have missed them before. When I went back to gather some, I found there were masses of them in one area. I've picked about 2.5 pounds so far. Delicious!

My First Post Since Opening This Blog

I decided to start this blog in July 2011 to record my wild food foraging exploits in the UK. I only forage as a hobby and have been doing it for about four years. I got interested in fungi when out walking in 2006 which was a very good fungi year and they were everywhere. Since then, I've widened my "portfolio" to include fruit, nuts, veg and edible leaves. I do a lot of walking in the countryside and foraging is a sort of "offshoot".

To get this blog up to date, I will list some of my finds from 2006 up to now.

2006 24th September. My first find of Chanterelles from the Forest of Dean. I've been back to the same spot  since this find and have found a few each time.

2006 October 3rd A huge Horse Mushroom from a field in the Cotswold Water Park. There were two or three together but I didn't pick them. Two or three fields away where the footpath ran through another field, there was a good crop of field mushrooms.

2006 20th January: Wild watercress from the Sherborne Brook. I haven't eaten any yet and the last time I went to pick some it hadn't grown much. I need to go again to get some for my wild watercress soup.

2007 16th September: Some nice field mushrooms from Cleeve Hill, near the Cotswold Way. There are usually some mushrooms at this spot and I go back every year.

2007 9th October: Holiday near Maenporth. Razor clams, cockles and prawns from the Helford River.

2007  6th November: Wild plums in a hedgerow over my local fields.They look (and taste) like damsons. I made some excellent damson gin from them (same recipe as Sloe Gin). They seem to crop heavily every year, or at least since I found them they have.

2008 7th May A patch of St. Georges Mushrooms in an ancient wood in Gloucestershire. Like most foragers, I will keep the best places secret. This wood is a great place for wild fruit and fungi.

Wild garlic from the same wood. Great with the fried mushrooms. I sometimes take a plain cheese sandwich and insert some wild garlic leaves (or flowers) to give a great flavour. One of my favourites is nettle and wild garlic soup. Delicious!

2008 13th June: Wild strawberries from the Rhondda Valley, near Tonypandy. A very prolific site. I've been back there another year and they were still prolific.

2008 1st July: Wild Thyme from Cleeve Hill. Common over there but the sheep tend to graze it all.

2008 14th August: Samphire from the banks of the River Severn.

2008 29th August. Some large mushrooms from Cleeve Hill. The biggest is a horse mushroom that has opened out.

2008 30th August: Guinea fowl near Coberley. No, I didn't forage these, but as I walked over where they had been I found an egg on the ground. I knew it had been freshly laid as it was still warm! It looked similar to a chickens egg.

2008 5th October:  Holiday near Maenporth. Cockles and Razor Clams from the Helford River, Cornwall. The Cornish coast is a great place to forage for shellfish. I reckon you could almost live off the land here. Cockles, mussels, razor clams, winkles, whelks and other shellfish. Prawns too if you have a net. I'm not sure if fishing counts as foraging, but I caught a bass, a flounder  and a garfish and ate them. Fish suppers for three nights and starters of cockles and razor clams.

2009 1st October: A catch of mackerel from the Fal estuary near Maenporth. I was fishing off the rocks and saw the shoal moving in towards me. They came within 10 feet of the rocks. Great sport for 10 minutes and I caught 6. Some nice fish suppers and froze some to take home.

2010 2nd May: A fine crop of Jews Ear fungi. Some people call these Wood Ears. I didn't think they had much flavour and are very chewy.

2010 31st May: St. Georges Mushrooms from Daneway Banks. I went here to try and see the rare Large Blue butterfly but found these instead!

2010 16th July: Wild Sea Peas on a beach in Suffolk. You can eat the small "peas" in the pods, but I wouldn't as they are not very common.

2010 7th August: Chanterelles from the Forest of Dean.

2010 18th September: A parasol mushroom and some Amythest Deceivers from my favourite wood..

 

2010 4th October: A nice two pound bass and a pollack from the rocks in the Fal Estuary, Cornwall.

 

2010 2nd November: Blue Limb (or blue leg) mushrooms from my local fields. These will keep coming up in the winter. I picked some after the snow of winter 2010-2011.

2011 31st March: I dug up some Crow Garlic in a local field. Previously I had thought they were chives, but recognised it as Crow Garlic in John Wright's Hedgerow book. I cooked the chopped  bulbs with some mushrooms.