according to the YT when its made you only need a taste on the back of a spoon for Cereals , and to Sweeten tea ,
after washing , topping and tailing after overnight freezing then squash open , you boil them .
Its all in the link YT.
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It used to be drizzled on semolina pudding at school as I remember, sweet to the point of being sickly, but probably well worth making for something a little more up to date, pancakes, etc.
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Wait, are you saying Semolina pudding is old fashioned?? Never had rosehip jam/syrup on it, just strawberry jam. I love tadpole pud sigh
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I loathe semolina pudding , the smart kids would get to the front of the queue when it came to puddings at lunch time, pink custard, lemon meringue, chocolate cake, if you were well in with the serving ladies you’d get seconds 
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“well in with the serving ladies” 
Ya big sook!
And ugh…lemon meringue!!! I’d put that with your semolina pudding, in the bin! 
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A lot of my childhood was spent collecting Rosehips, Haws(?), Elderberries, Blackberries, even weeds for my old man to make into wine.
Hips and Haws - is that a thing? It just seems familiar.
Yes - it is, Bruce. Refers to Rose Hips and Hawthorn Berries - lots of them about now - I harvest quite a lot on my early morning walks.
Sloe Olives
Okay, here goes, Chilli Junior and I need to gather 100g of these fellas in order to ferment them at room temperature.
It’s a lovely morning and it’s a pleasure to be having a forage around our local mill pond.
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The sloes appear to be gently fermenting in the brine, I can see small bubbles appearing at the top of the jar and the liquid has taken on taken an attractive purple colour from the skin of the fruit.
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Looks very pretty. What are making again?
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Sloe Olives Pixie, the fruit of The Blackthorn.
The fruit are in a brine solution with a few bay leaves and left to ferment for a couple of weeks before being stored in the fridge.
I’ll be making another larger jar over the next few days ready for The Winter.
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And how do you eat them? As a side dish, or make them into something? Like gin? I haven’t seen any sloe berries around my way - I’ll need to keep an eye out.
My elderberry bush hasn’t yielded anything bar 2 bunches of berries, so i cut it back a bit and discovered it was practically on its last legs anyway 
I’m thinking I might dig it up altogether and plant another one.
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I shall elaborate later, got to dash to work 
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Have a wonderful day at work then 
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Thank you Pixie !
Righto, according to the River Cottage Handbook the sloes can be used more or less the same way as regular olives, in salad for example so I suppose the sky’s the limit
I’ve never tried them before but I’m anticipating giving them a try.
Good luck with the new elderberry!
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First forage of the year.
My son snipped some dogwood for a floor standing vase in the front room.
The dogwood still retains it’s attractive red winter lustre.
I’ll be doing some trimming and arranging later…my handiwork won’t be fetching any prizes… Kirsty Alsopp I am not!
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We’ve just picked just over 100g of wild garlic close to our local millpond.
This particular area is pretty well carpeted with it.
As we’ll be making wild garlic butter the next stop is the shop to pick up a couple of packs of unsalted before heading home for some snacks and a glass of red!
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What am I doing with a bag of dandelion heads you might wonder?
I’ll be sowing the seeds in small pots of compost.
The young leaves make a garnish for bread rolls,
baguettes etc. Sometimes they’ll be combined with mustard, cress and nasturtium leaves.
Not necessarily all at the same time.
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The wild blackberry flowers are raring to go!
Hopefully they’ll yield some juicer, plumper berries than last year.
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Unfortunately you can’t pick wild blackberries here.They are classed as an invasive weed and sprayed by the council.