Foraging forumagers

Blackberry pickers: I presume you've tasted them and they're good?

All the blackberries I've tasted so far this year are horrible and sour. I know I'm not the only one who's found this, it's the wet weather apparently...

Ace thread!

Went on an beginners foraging course this morning: apparently Ipswich is a Wild Rocket hotspot...

Quite keen on an air rifle; loads of pigeons in my back garden, they even hang-out on my fire escape: easy pickings!

whilst I've had nothing like the blackberry haul posted above, I can confirm that there are some ood sweet blackberries out there, though not many left in my guzzling wake. There were good big fat ones all over Lee Valley, though as my lacerated legs will attest, not within easy reach. No carrying device available meant I had to eat on the hoof.

The blackberries will be used mainly for wine, which needs extra sugar anyway. I do taste a few as I go and last week's were more astringent but the ones I found today were literally falling off the bushes. Nice and sweet.

Chucked the bike in the back of the car to visit my friend 15 miles south of here and had a smashing ride together. I spotted five more "wild" (i.e. on public land) apple trees and had to pay them a visit on the way home...

In other news, in lieu of sloes I've made some elderberry and lemon liqueur. Will tell you how it tastes in six months.

Cider making this weekend. In the meantime I started a few gallons of elderberry and blackberry wine

rispec'

My usual glut of apples has turned out to be a dozen withered specimens.
THee blackberries are shrivelling before they're fully ripe.

There were no plums, pears or blueberries this year.

It's bad for the forager, but it's the birds I'm worried about.

Here in Lincolnshire things are scant but available. There were no stone fruit or pears though. Millions of haws and rosehips. Yes I think our feathered friends will have a hard winter.

True actually - hedgerows are rammed with rosehips and haws here too. The Rowen trees are also laden.

Even the Guardian has been reporting that it's a bad year for apples

http://www.apple-orchards.org.uk/

but, I just botteld up six gallons of cider from last years fruit last weekend, and am off this weekend to see a local chap who has again offered us some cider apples from his trees - apparently he's got some Dabinet and Brown Snout going spare!

Even the Guardian has been reporting that it's a bad year for apples

http://www.apple-orchards.org.uk/

but, I just botteld up six gallons of cider from last years fruit last weekend, and am off this weekend to see a local chap who has again offered us some cider apples from his trees - apparently he's got some Dabinet and Brown Snout going spare!

I had some Brown Snout last weekend.

It rocked, I had a proper, banging, night out.

Not such a good come down though. :-(

but, I just botteld up six gallons of cider from last years fruit last weekend,

May I ask - I presume you fermented it least year - how have you been storing it until recently? Cheers

@Olly398, you're right, I should have bottled it up in the spring. But it got stuck and was fermenting really slowly so I just left it in the barrel. A couple of months ago after reading Andrew Lea's great book http://www.cider.org.uk/book.html on cider making I decided I needed to add some yiest nutrients. I did that it started fermenting away fine. I racked it off about 6 weeks ago with some extra sugar solution just to bump up the alcohol content and now it's fine to bottle if a bit cloudy.

Anyway, to answer your question I've been keeping it in one of these under a air lock full of gin

http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/Fermentation-Containers/30-litre-Standard-Fermenter-airlock-92600

what do you use? Do you use desert apples? I've neverhad any problems with them sticking just cider apples.

@Mr Sworld, some great cider apple variety names out there ... foxwhelp, fillbarrel, hangdown, and stembridge clusters ... almost as if they were chosen for easy use as double entendres?

Well I'm very new to it really. Under airlock should be fine and that's what I'll use too.

Today we juiced 75 litres at a gravity of 1050. Read more here:

Big cider making day

Olly, nice blog post. We collected our (free!) cider apples last weekend and hopefully will be pressing this weekend. We don't have your patience with the juicer so are hiring one of these

http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/Crushers/Centrifugal-Mill-91202

and one of these

http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/Fruit-Presses/20-litre-Hydropress-91318

for the day.

Oh, nice! That's the way to do it :-)
Keep us posted - how many litres you planning? Maybe we need a home brewing thread?...

i've made elderflower champagne today.
and 8 weeks ago i made dandylion wine.
i'm checking the cherries and plums daily.

I am confident that Luci checks his plums daily.

Lucky you having elderflowers already, they aren't flowering quite yet around me, keep looking hopefully, maybe next week! Love making elderflower fizz!

Fat hen is peaking now, a nice wild leaf green.

I went on a foraging day with Marlow from Wild Food UK on Saturday. It was f'in great! Really recommended. I learned so much, and would be confident about four or five things which I didn't know about before. He teaches the pitfalls, how to avoid confusion with other species etc.

Had hogweed, fat hen, wood sorrel, vetch and nettle tips last night. :-)

More detailed descirption here

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Meant to be a bumper apple crop this year.

Anybody know of anywhere in Kent/Surrey I'm likely to find any sloes growing please?

Happy to share if I get some.