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Post by rivergirl on Feb 8, 2013 13:41:50 GMT
I have just used the last of my elderflower liquer and have only two bottles of cordial left which got me to thinking that the start of my foraging season will soon be here!!! if anyone has any " food for free "recipes etc please share them!!
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Post by Fat Bob on Feb 8, 2013 18:27:26 GMT
The other week Big Dave and the Mrs saw on the box some fancy chef saying Oak Moss was very good.
Having plenty of forest on the doorstep we collected some and washed and dried it and fried it as suggested.
It was an experience if you enjoy eating crispy pubic hair.
Nettle beer was also a resounding failure.
Nuts and berries - especially wild strawberries are lovely - so is wild garlic.
Big Dave got a coupla books on foraging at christmas so will be out an about looking for free grub.
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Post by rivergirl on Feb 8, 2013 20:02:16 GMT
Nettle soup is good but like you my nettle beer was a resounding failure!!as was using horse chestnuts to do my washing !! I am going to give gorse beer a go this year. Looking forward to the elderflower s for cordial ( which I freeze as I lost a batch a few years ago) and the liquer, we go out on the boat and pick most of our leaves (guaranteed not been widdled on !) and there are a few places that we can cut chicken in the wood.
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Post by Fat Bob on Feb 8, 2013 22:25:25 GMT
Nettles are great as a veg like spinach with garlic. We also make nettle fertilizer but it stinks like crazy. We have lots of mushrooms, Angels of Death, Amanita Caesars, Ceps, Pied de Muton, we have one tree that gives us a few kilos of Chicken of the woods yearly - the French don't seem interested in them. We have kilos of dried mushrooms.
Been a very wet winter and my 87 year old neighbour says it will be a big mushroom season next year.
Nearly forgot we have lots of wild juniper which is lovely to ramp up the flavour of gin.
Sadly our immediate local area does not have truffles, though one farmer has planted oaks just for truffles so we cannot really forage them from his planting.
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Post by rivergirl on Feb 8, 2013 23:05:07 GMT
Oh yes! Nettle fertiliser stinks!! We tried making paper with it as well but it made the place rank! Lucky you with the mushrooms ! I have scoured our forests here and found none......
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Post by Fat Bob on Feb 9, 2013 0:57:28 GMT
Eating your first Amanita Caesar is a bit weird when you are told never to eat red mushrooms. They cost a fortune in the shops.
Lots of Elfs Cups around at the moment but not worth the effort of picking them - they look like gold tees.
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Post by rivergirl on Feb 9, 2013 16:57:57 GMT
I would love to go out with a mushroom expert and share my spoils!! I used the last of my blackberries yesterday and made a blackberry and Pinot noir jam ( it was actually merlot but the recipe says P.N.)
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jemb
valid member
Posts: 63
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Post by jemb on Feb 9, 2013 18:11:20 GMT
im currently drinking a very nice nettle beer, regrettably it's rivers cottages not mine I do but nettles in my water butts along with a little pee (gotta go somewhere) which watered down works wonders
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Post by rivergirl on Feb 9, 2013 20:10:13 GMT
Not for the beer I hope !!! LOL I must have another bash at it. Perhaps If I used the river cottage recipe ? I stick comfrey in with my nettles For my compost . The butt of pee reminds me of the time we had a party and I asked the blokes to pee in a bin (for my compost) but I forgot about it ....................... Now THAT was rank!
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Post by Fat Bob on Feb 9, 2013 23:25:12 GMT
Talking of pee - Piss en Lit is a good and free salad plant. Known to the English as the Dandelion but in French it means wet the bed.
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Post by rivergirl on Feb 10, 2013 11:16:21 GMT
I will pick it from the river bank and I have a patch in my garden that I put a flower over ( not so bitter then) I tried to make coffee from it many years ago. I think it was quite the most disgusting thing that I have ever made!!!
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