Foraging forumagers

Look delicious. Would love to find some quinces to snaffle around here.

Never had a medlar before, couple of trees near by full of them, are they worth the effort of preparing?

Oh yes :)

Chuck them in the freezer at least overnight to simulate the bletting effect of the 1st frost.
Without doubt the medlar is our most exotic native fruit.
Densely toothsome stewed apple texture with rich caramelly flavours with a hint of Xmas spices.
Enjoy.

OK, you both have me excited to try my first medlar

Funny thing it is in a community orchard on the edge of the housing estate and all the apples/pears/cherries/plums were stripped yonks ago before stuff was even ready (one of the volunteers said it is the same every year that they never get to enjoy the fruits of their labour as it were) but the two medlar trees are loaded and despite being next to the public footpath no one seems to of touched them. Will go back after a frost. Also cobnuts that seem to of been left alone.

When is the best time to pick medlars and what should the fruit feel like? There was quite mature looking fruit on my local one a few months ago so I’m sort of expecting it to be gone by now. I know they say wait until the first frost, but that won’t be until January down here.

What do you do with it after an overnight freeze? So many questions, I’m quite excited about trying medlars for the first time!

apples/pears/cherries/plums were stripped yonks ago before stuff was even ready

This happens every year with the pears in our local community garden too. Nowhere near ready.

Luckily no-one seems to snaffle the figs and apricots.

The medlar is (ultimately) a member of the rose family,
so the fruit consists of five ovaries, so expect 5 seeds/stones/pips of variable size inside.

Holding the stem end you should be able to peel a ripe/bletted/frozen medlar
by pulling down each of the five flaps in the open end.

The divisions between the five ovaries are not normally edible,
like those firm crisp sheets you find radiating out from an apple core.

You can pop the entire peeled medlar in and take care just to eat the softened flesh.

If trying to make a medlar jam or use in a chutney,
a thin bladed knife should scrape out most of the flesh.

Last cache of the chestnuts:)

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What’s this then, and is it edible? It’s not a conker (horse chestnut) but the tree is similar. Couldn’t see any shells anywhere but there were plenty of these on the ground. Same size as a large conker and I’m pretty sure it would win against a conker in a conker fight.

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Walnut maybe?

Type of horse chestnut / buckeye most likely.

Not sure where to post this but as my first thought was ‘could I eat them?’, here will do... dog walking along the canal and there’s an overflow stream that runs adjacent - I spotted what I presume are large freshwater clams (Pearl or swan mussel?). Google consensus is don’t eat long living filter feeders in potentially polluted water.

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I was with an environment agency guy the other day as he was surveying one of our streams, his advice was don't eat anything from our waterways

Zebra mussels maybe which are an invasive nightmare

I think they’re Swan mussels from the shell pattern and size. They were impressively big, size of my (normal) adult hand.

Wow, that is big

Yep, they're swan mussels, there is no record of anyone dying after eating them. Neither can I find any recipes for cooking them, there is probably a reason for this. Please report your findings from the toilet or afterlife of your choice.

Found some of these while out riding this morning, look like Trooping Funnel mushrooms?

Yep I'd say so! Umbo in the middle looks good for Trooping, were they above 20cm wide? Look so, nothing else that size.

@Cazakstan - yes 20cm easily. Really caught my eye as I passed them.

I'd feel fairly confident then but obviously it's up to you if you eat them. #disclaimer

Medlar status: pretty squishy. So I’m going to call these ready since there’s been two light frosts!

Inside tastes a bit like a very soft date, though not quite as sweet.

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https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15637548/

This thing, is an Indian Horse Chestnut. I just randomly found out while looking for something else: aero development in early wind tunnels. I did say randomly, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_indica

My daughter found this today in a thicket. Left it in-situ. RIP Mr Fox.

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