Weed identification - your help needed

We have our very own Ray Mears !

You could post some on the cooking forum cozz. Might interest a few members.

How do you tap the sycamore ? We have a fairly large one by the front gate. Does it harm the tree at all, eg infection, etc

Rob

Try here I expect it's the same method for sycamores.

Fascinatign stuff. Though I'll pass on the pleases and thank yous but certainly a lot of respect for trees. Anything that can live longer than us should be given every chance to do so.
I wouldn't want to kill it off by my clumsiness.

Rob

Hairy Bittercress is the bane of my life at the moment at work because it is absolutely everywhere and as soon as you touch those with seeds, your spreading your problem further.  I've done a massive amount of weeding of this weed and I know it will all be for nothing because of the amount of seeds scattered.

If you see it remove it properly if there are seeds and flowers, otherwise hoe off all seedlings because if you don't you will live to regret it.

Up here (buxton) there isn't as much to gather as in other places - a lack of trees and the wrong temperature means wild picking (at least, with my more limited knowledge) is not so 'fruitful'.

But I still take dandelion, nettle, raspberries and blackberries, and there are also a few rowans, yews (only the berries!!!) and such about. The raspberries were a hit with the kids - each time we went out last year we only managed to bring home enough for a couple of puddings, despite collecting for well over an hour each time (one for the pot, 3 for the mouth).

Down south though, (we used to live in crawley) there is an abundance - various mushrooms, sweet chestnuts and loads of different plants I was only just starting to discover when we came up this way.

One thing I wished I'd tried (I think I saw it on a ray mears programme) was the acorns. Apparently, if you leach them, or bury them deeply over winter, the tannin leaches out and they're almost as nice as chestnuts. One thing I can vouch is *not* very tasty - horse chestnuts. I tried them, because, I reasoned, they feed them to animals (despite my wife's strong advice against it). It was without a doubt the most bitter thing I have ever eaten. It almost tans the skin on your tongue as it touches. Well, we learn by experimentation as much as anything, I suppose

But it really is amazing what you can gather wild, with a little knowledge. The trouble is, our tastes have changed to more bland flavours (seemingly fairly recent - maybe one or two hundred years because the knowledge of wild food is still strong enough to have survived, at least in some parts of Britain and around the world). A lot of wild food plants are quite strong, whereas our veg contenders are very mild.

It is, I think, a matter of training your palate a little. Remember how much you liked your greens as a child? And yet, by the time you're all grown up, you love them...

Anyway, as someone else suggested, its not for everyone. My wife is still not very keen on nettle soup, despite the fact its so good for you.

cheers,

Derek

cheers for that - up my end (town centre, but my allotment is off the a6) there's lots of raspberries but not too many blackberries (or at least, there wasn't last year).

I will take a look down that way this summer

And I discover that Japanese Knotweed makes good eating too.  When 6" tall, cook and eat like rhubarb (as it tastes just like it).