Things For The Outside

This is half written atm, expect missing images and half written paragrahps

Tools

• Woodland Trust's Ancient Tree Index, find a really cool tree to sit under
• Falling Fruit, urban food scavenging map, forage for things
• Urbexology, explore some abandoned spaces (its cooler if you don't use this and instead you're just aware of your local spaces)
• Calendar Customs, go to interesting local celebrations

Foraging Notes

Notes mostly taken from a course I took from Wild Food UK last year. That and notes found online.

Lime Tree (Linden Tree)

Heart shaped leaves, often growing on the lower parts of the trees too. These have weird flowers and seed pods on tiny stems. You can:

• Make tea by soaking the flowers (and technically also pods) in hot water
• Eat baby leaves in a salad (these will be slightly translucent and very light green, the older ones taste less good)
• Roast the pods and make chocolate
• Eat shiny leaves as they're covered in aphid excrement which is essentially just sugar removed from the sap

Wild Garlic

A single leaf on a stem, growing in damp places with a strong garlic smell. The stem is sweeter than the leaf, both can be used. If you find seed pods, they taste extra strong, when dried they can be used to make a strong garlic powder. Used in cooking easily, best added to something at the end as heat maybe weakens the taste. Also tastes great in a pesto!

Warning, looks quite like two other things which are dangerous!

Lily of the valley, looks very similar but has no smell, if you pick it, make sure its not your fingers that smell garlicly rather than the plant. The plant will sometimes have two leaves to one stem, the flowers are droopy unlike garlic which looks like fireworks. Trust the smell generally, any garlic small is always safe.

Lords and Ladies, grows near it, not poisonous but leaves leave burns and blisters in your mouth. This has red berries/pods and generally doesn't look super similar but is easily pulled up along with garlic as they grow together.

Walnut Tree

A super common tree, walnuts are taken instantly by wildlife but green walnuts can be candied or pickled whole. Shells form inside the soft fruit so try get a skewer through its center first to check there's no shell formed. If it has then just take it out, maybe even eat it. Also be weary that it stains really well. In theory you can make ink with it!

Common Hogweed

A tall plant, with elderflower like umbelliferous of flowers at its top. This can get up to 2m tall pretty regularly. Has furry leaves and red or green stems. Its super edible with loads of uses including:

• Nice tasting leaf shoots
• Flowers can be eaten like broccoli when still closed, remove sheath first
• Pods taste like cardamom/orange, can be dissolved into a curry
• Apparently both the leaves and the pods are really healthy

Giant Hogweed

An incredibly dangerous plant that looks very similar to common hogweed. Produces toxic sap that leaves you with 3rd degree burns when in sunlight, burns can last for up to 7 years

To spot it:

• Up to 5m tall
• Unlike common hogweed, virtually hairless leaves
• Purple spots along its stem, this is the bigger givaway
• Massive flowers
• Generally looks angry, spikier leaves and stem

If seen contact DEFRA or the council

Elder

Really flexible plant, produces berries and flowers and has interesting mushrooms grown on it. A delicate and slightly scrubby tree. It has umberllifreous flowers like cow parsley or hogweed and leaves that come in sets of 5 or 7 with slightly toothed edges. I tend to tell the difference because its a taller bush rather than an individual plant or shrub. The berries are toxic until heated or fermented but are really good in jams and mediocre in wine. The flowers are even more useful, they can be maded into:

• Fritters when Battered??
• champagne within a few days
• Kapers when fermented
• Cordial
• Gin if infused

Jelly Ear Mushroom can often be found on its bark, especially dead bark, during mid winter (though sometimes during the rest of the year). It looks like black fungus or cloud ear fungus. This is great! It can be used in miso soup or mushroom stock.

Hemlock Water Dropwart (Water Hemlock)

Hemlock

Burdock

Used in dandelion and burdock but actually has better uses. A dock-leaf looking plant, but larger, up to 2m tall, with much thicker stems and tiny hairs. The stem can be peeled and eaten which is nice, but more importantly its root can be eaten like a carrot, parsnip or water chesnut. After 2 years it grows a massive stem at which point its not worth eating as it uses up all its nutrients during this process.

Plantain

This is the plant kids fold, pull and fire like a gun. When the brush on top is green and fresh it can be put in a salad and tastes nutty.

Broad leaf plantain, which has much wider leaves and longer stems, is a great anti-histamine, anti-biotic, anti-fungal and anti-septic. It can be made into tea for its anti-histamine properties. It also has emollient properties (skin softening) if rubbed on hands.

Foraging Recipes