Surprise sunshine on what had been forecast to be a rainy Sunday, made our foraging walk a real delight.
'Yes man steve', the ranger at Baggeridge who never says no to any of my cheeky requests took us on a guided walk around part of the park pointing out types of fruits and trees and generally treating us to his fantastic knowledge of the park.
First up was 'chequers' or 'wild service tree' a rare tree for the area and one that bears fruit that can be used to make a type of jelly.
Can't remember the name if this tree but I do remember that it had the word 'purge' in it which is enough to stop me eating those berries!
Medlars! Again useful as a fruit to make jelly. Not native- somewhere in Europe I think they originate- or Asia?
Mallow! So pretty, edible- gonna have to look up those properties as I'm sure there's something to be made from that.
Maple- Norwegian variety- we talked about trying to tap it for sap in the spring to have a go at maple syrup!
The many virtues of the humble nettle- as a spinach substitute, tea, soup, for thrashing cold Roman limbs!!! Or as in this photo making very strong rope or thread that can be knitted/crochet into clothes/fabric etc.. Who knew?
Beautiful boy and woody with an apple x
The poisonous yew tree- did you know the bark, needles and fruit seeds are poisonous but the actual snotty fruit is not? Still I'm not going to test that theory.
Yew is used to make a breast cancer chemo drug!!
The boys- James steve and mark- a countryside degree student who Came along for the trip.
The boys and their puddles- so muddy, so much fun!
Teaching us about Hazel/ for building, wattle an daub, fencing. Apparently it makes a wicked handle for a broom stick and if you tie the birch sticks on with a hazel twig it even flys!!! 'Not many branches you can do that with! So flexible steve wrapped it around the tree to demonstrate.
Sea buckthorn - myriad uses, high vitamin content, make jams syrups etc.. Gonna look that up too!
Can't remember the name of this fungi- I'm purposefully not going to attempt any fungi eating- way too risky for me.
We also found loads of sweet chestnuts which I'm going to make a nut loaf with for Xmas, might mix it up with some walnuts we found in himley too.
We got some sloes for gin and some rose hips for syrup.
We paid steve in cake and all went to the cafe for dinner.
Literally as we packed to leave the heavens opened and it chucked it down- torrential!!!
I'm writing this post as William snores in his car seat- covered in mud from he'd to toe.
Time to wake him up and chuck him in the bath.
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