Free and Seasonal Food?
By ducky
4 comments
Im really starting to feel spring like now – I think it must be partly due to that ‘Friday Feeling’. I can see the buds on the trees starting to fatten out and my mind moves on to eatables.
For Christmas 2007 I received a book called ‘Food For Free’ it is fascinating and goes through the seasons telling you what hedgerow fayre is edible. I have tried one or two things and Im determined to try more.
Gardening is great – but if I can actually eat the weeds as well so much the better!!
So far I have tried, Elderflowers (and Berries obviously), Nettle (not great so far but have got more recipes to try), Hedge Garlic (which I got very partial to, fantastic with cheese in a sandwich or in salads or in cooking) and a bracket fungus Auricularia Auricula Judea which took forever to cook and still tasted like a mushroomy old boot.I also has a few berries off my Amelanchier (which is a very small shrub currently!) which I found out was commonly eaten in North america. It is amazing thinking that some of this stuff was traditional foods.
Anyone else out there tried some unusal regional seasonal recipes (Im thinking Yorkshire dock pudding etc here)
2nd March 2009.
Weeding over the weekend and noticed that the hedge garlic (Jack by the Hedge – Alliara Petiola) is now spruoting up like mad. Nice with cheese sandwiches , as a garnish, in salads etc. The flavour isnt very robust once cooked though.
27 Feb, 2009
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Comments
Yep, Its still going in a lovely glossy full colour illustrated form. Another thing is the regional names for plants, I think you are refering to what I would know as bilberries (from my Yorkshire upbringing) and what a work collegue refers to as windberries.
I love the book although Im a bit of a coward over fungi, I wish I knew more. ;0)
27 Feb, 2009
This is a very interesting idea.
Please keep us up to date with your experiments !
The only fungi I have here is my puppy called Truffle.
He's a fun guy. Lol.
27 Feb, 2009
Ha Ha TT
And I bet with all the puppy toys about you dont have mushroom!!!! Groan. :o)
28 Feb, 2009
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Is 'Food for Free' still on the go, then? We got our copy many years ago. It is a good book and has some interesting ideas although we tend to be rather conservative and stick to fungi, forms that we recognise, bleaberries and things like that.
27 Feb, 2009