Foraging survey

OH and I went foraging today. First we went down a cockle-shell-strewn back road along the river to the back of an industrial estate where we know there is a huge and largely ignored blackberry patch plus quite a bit of elder.

Again, we were surprised at how behind the ripening was -- both berry types had at least another two  weeks yet to go -- but we got about 2 kilos of blackberries and 2.5 kilos of elderberries out of what was already there. We were also thrilled to spot several horseradish plants.

Then packed up and headed up to "our" adopted woodland, by way of a quick car picnic. As we got out of the car, we bumped into G. who is co-running our volunteer woodland group and was walking her two dogs. I was a bit embarrassed -- we hadn't been in touch for months after our last engagement cleaning litter and she must have assumed we'd dropped out. But our spring and summer had been busy with work and allotment, plus home renovations and additions, then a little travel and friends staying over, leaving no room for volunteering bar loading the dishwasher and taking the rubbish out. However, she was thrilled to see us going foraging and told us we'd be starting up the coppicing again next month. Note to self: do the volunteer training so OH and I can go in by ourselves of an evening and coppice in between the cracks of work and nightfall.

I instantly ran to my witch's egg spot and lo and behold, there was another one in exactly the same spot! Picture to follow.

The walk through the wood was lovely, even though we harvested next to nothing. Apart from the witch's egg, the young form of the stinkhorn, we only spotted one other mushroom, a red bolete ("edible but not worth it", says my mushroom book). The crab apples we'd been speculating on were at least 3 weeks behind. Negligible amounts of hazelnuts in the trees -- I think we collected four in total. What was there in relative abundance though was adders, and quite fat ones too! Don't think I've ever seen any in the wild. OH, who had his wildlife eye on, spotted two inside 3 minutes, curled up and sunning themselves by the path.

OH did harvest one thing: a handful of pine needles. He has come across a recipe for a pine cordial which he stresses is NOT turpentine by another name.