We make blackberry and apple crumble, sometimes we’ll tinker around with the recipe, add cinnamon and perhaps a little ginger, we’ll be chucking in a few crab apples later in the year just to compliment the Bramley’s. Muffins are are a real goer too!
I’ve not used them to make anything alcoholic yet, that’s my next little project, defo going to be blackberry whiskey, I’m going to add a little cinnamon and lemon and orange zest just to give it that festive spicy zing , should just be drinkable by Christmas
My son is studying hospitality at college and he really gets a buzz out of getting creative with things that he’s found and foraged.
yes they do look like the ones i picked from a Tree in a hedgerow , I might add I made a Apple pie with them and even though i sugared liberally , It was rather sour, Ive some left I may add a custard next time to pour over
Sounds like they could be the same Eliza, they were definitely very tart when I picked some last year… but I thought I might have picked them too early
I’m afraid I haven’t a clue Azz.
Is that a wild tree or one in your garden? My understanding is that wild crab apples often grow from discarded pips and cores and revert to the smaller tarter fruit bearing trees, a mish mash of varieties I suppose.
For those who do have an interest in fungi I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book. It’s very informative and the colour plates are superb, certainly the best guide on the subject I’ve ever owned.
I will say it’s not exactly pocket sized so not really practical as a field guide, great to come home to though!
Hmm… I’m glad it’s not just me. The best one’s seem to appear at the most inconvenient and inappropriate times. By the next day they’ve decayed, been kicked to pieces or disappeared
Definitely out of season now but something that we always look forward to in Spring. It takes two kilos of leaves to make a smallish jar of pesto but man is it packed with flavour!
We have an area locally that’s absolutely carpeted with the stuff so over picking isn’t an issue
It’s a wild one Paul - and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was from a discarded pip, tho I imagine it would have been a long time ago as the tree is pretty big
Have you got any recommendations for general foraging books? I’d love to get into it just because I am a fan or natural organic food
There are so many available Azz.
I really enjoy The River Cottage series of Handbooks, they really are well written and a decent price too.I’ve got a couple although I might splash out on another one tonight, Amazon here I come
