Foraging

There’s nothing quite like a delicious meal of free foraged food. As summer turns to autumn, hedgerow fruits ripen, providing a valuable food source for many species. Probably the most familiar of our autumn fruits is the blackberry or bramble, but there’s plenty more to tempt the palate: elderberries and rosehips in the hedges, chestnuts and hazelnuts in the woods, and bilberries on the moors. Think wild fruit jelly and jam, roasted chestnuts, and of course what winter would be complete without a nip of sloe gin…

There are many good foraging spots throughout the country, likely closer than you think.

Tradition has it that brambles should only be picked before Michaelmas, after which they become unpalatable as the devil has spat on them... but it is most important that you make sure you know what you are doing. Many berries and nuts can make delicious food or drink, but others can be very poisonous, and often the two can look similar.

Did you know that there are more than 300 very closely related species of blackberry in Britain, which can vary greatly in size, taste, and juiciness?