About time for a post that doesn’t (entirely) involve us trying to sell you stuff!
Like you I’m sure, we love a bit of free stuff and exploring the countryside & hedgerows to get it is just a bonus. Luckily my chosen obsession of silly endurance sports means I get to cover a lot of ground and see a lot of countryside, anything of foraging interest gets filed away for future reference so here’s a few points of interest over the last few months
Wild Garlic
Last spring I spent a while bemoaning the apparent lack of wild garlic in the midlands and around Coventry despite mooching around likely shady damp spots. A few months ago however I took my car in for some new tyres near work and on the very rainy walk from/to I found a nice (well nicer than the surrounding industrial estate) green traffic free footpath alongside a stream. Along my way I spotted: Some Czech truck drivers having a fry up, amazingly some Deer somehow stuck in this green island surrounded by concrete and YES, Wild Garlic.
What are we making? Well it was raining and on the wrong side of the stream and not in the cleanest of locations so I didn’t get any! But I’d really love to make some pesto with it.
Nettle Picking
Nettles
Again something that’s been on my list for a while, pretty easy to find and you can bag up a good stash very quickly, just try and get the young nettles or the tops for best results.
Nettle Beer
What are we making? Well, made, I have two variations of nettle beer now bottled. One is purely nettles and sugar and the other effectively a “gruit” with the nettles used in place of hops for bittering and flavour. Which reminds me I really must crack one open and see how they turned out.
This is turning into a rather long post so I’ve decided to split it…. check back another Friday for the latest thrilling update!