[ghost61]

Spent an hour yesterday morning collecting haws. Made haw ketchup, haw gin is infusing and three little jars of haw jelly, which seems to taste rather yummy.  Not sure whether they were worth the four hours of picking over though!

Will collect some hips once this awful weather is over to make hip vodka, as I already have a stash of rosehip syrup.

Any other foraging worthwhile at the moment?  Would love to have the confidence to collect mushrooms.......

[Yorkie]

Unless you absolutely know what you are doing with mushrooms the risks are far, far too great.

I don't forage much; make sure you leave enough hips and haws for the birds over winter.

[ghost61]

You couldn't tell I'd been there.  About 300 yards of hawthorn in one stretch, and of course, I couldn't reach that far up! 

I remember my dad collecting mushrooms and some of them exuding blue juice when he fried them up.  He didn't eat them as a result!

[muddled]

I have a large hawthorn tree in my garden...please can you tell me your ketchup recipe ghost?

Rosehips are looking good round here this year...big, fat and shiney but I was always told to take them after the first hard frost.

Muddled x

[ghost61]

Hi muddled, this is the recipe link.  Doesn't the sorbet look good too!

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/12/wild-hedgerow-berries-recipes

I boiled it for much longer to get a really gloopy mixture very like ketchup.  You can add as much pepper as you like to give it a kick!

[muddled]

That's great, thank you

There are a lot of very lovely recipes in there...(I've been reading them the last half hour )