Being that I had already made them a pie from some of the cherries in my freezer, that we had picked from those fields previously (six pounds in total of corkers) I would say we are doing pretty well from the surrounding land.
We also saw an apple tree in the woods absolutely laden with apples which should be ripe in a month or two. We are finding that it pays to take a note of any fruit trees you stumble upon and try and keep an eye on them until they ripen - if you are not sure what kind of time of year different fruits are ready for picking google always has the answer. You also need to go and get them when they are ripe because they don't stay good for too long.
Google is also obviously good for identifying fruits when you are not sure if you have found something.Make sure you are 100% on anything you are foraging because you don't want to risk poisoning or belly aches. We are pretty sure there is a quince tree near us which we might go and explore. Other things we could take advantage of around us are elderflowers/elderberries which you can make various drinks from.
Once you have brought your spoils home you want to cover them in salty water and let them soak for a while - bugs don't like this solution and will come out of the fruits - and then rinse them well in clean water. We then usually put them in freezer bags and into the freezer to use at our leisure - depending on what it is we have brought home (some things freeze better than others).
I usually cook with what we forage - I feel the heat kills off any potential baddies ( I am scrupulous in the fruit we bring home, but like to be careful) - and also as wild fruit is less sweet than cultivated fruit you can add in sugar and spices to make it really tasty.
Some things we have made from our foragings have been:• A deep filled cinnamon apple pie - the wild apples we found cooked down to a mushy texture which is good for this type of pie. I used a copious amount of cinnamon and buttery short crust pastry.
• A cherry liquor tart - I slowly simmered the cherries with not too much sugar and a fairly generous amount of spiced rum. This was good served warm with pouring cream.
• Vanilla pod liquor stewed plums over good quality vanilla ice cream. I did this with the plums we brought home yesterday.
• Nettle tea, chamomile tea, fresh mint tea, lime flower tea.
• Beech leaf gin which has a delicate botanical flavour, and sloe gin which is fruity and syrupy.
We have also found chestnuts and hazelnuts, although they were tiny and dry.
