Location: The berry of the Mahonia, typically American but often found across the UK in posh gardens particularly in new build areas.
Months: June, July, August
Edible Parts: Berries
Non-Edible Parts: Anything else
The Mahonia Bush as pictured above is filled with sharp holly like leaves. As such people tend to stay away from the berries mistaking them for poisonous holly berries. The bushes typically look around this size in the UK with the same twisty wood at the base and a fluffy head of not so fluffy leaves. The berries look powdery blue like Sloes but are grouped together in long string bunches similar to grapes. The berries themselves are often said to be a bit too tart for raw eating but having now tried them myself I would say they are only slightly tart and quite sweet and full flavoured. In fact I was licking my red fingers all the way home enjoying the taste. Mahonia berries can be used to make jams and wine as with most berries. You will not be dissapointed with flavour.
One last tip to leave you with as we learned this the hard way: BRING GLOVES when harvesting. The leaves HURT and the juice STAINS. Ouch!
Of all the most basic and fundamental of survival skills, there are three that are absolutely vital. If you can build a shelter, establish a fire, and find some drinkable water, you will very likely die of starvation rather than dehydration or hypothermia. This may seem of questionable benefit, but of course, you add weeks to the time in which you can be rescued. In a bushcraft situation, these skills combined with the foraging you can learn elsewhere on this site would allow you to go and enjoy yourself with minimal equipment and maximum confidence.
Shelter is the first of all the skills to master. In bushcraft books and survival guides, you will find all kinds of techniques and references. But in practice, this, like most such skills, is surprisingly tricksy. So rather than discuss what others have written about with far more competence and eloquence elsewhere, I thought I would write about my brief history of shelter building. This is in the hope that my laughable bad experiences, and my developing knowledge, will bolster you on your own journey to master the art of knocking up a temporary home in the woods.
Shelter 1:
our hypothermic home!
This was our first ever attempt at a shelter, built on Exmoor in April about five years ago. We used honeysuckle and natural forks to put a crossbeam between two birch trees. Then we we leaned sticks against it. This process, particularly finding the sticks, took a couple of hours. Eventually we realised that the roof sticks would never be thick enough, so we used some live willow and weaved it in between. We three fern on top of that lattice. We did the same up the sides and stuffed it with moss. The fire was outside the shelter with a wall to reflect the heat.
The most important initial lesson here is to pay attention to the resources at your disposal. We had a plan before we landed, before we had ever seen this site. We stuck to it with very little adaptation, despite the resources being extremely inadequate. The consequence was about six hours of struggling to gather enough material, and still having nothing like a strong enough shelter. Firewood was also woefully short. This was a bad spot, and nowadays both Owen and I would have walked away from it. I was determined to be in the woods, rather than in the caves, and we were both determined to follow the guide in the Marines book, which was only one of about ten options available, and definitely not the best one.
We made the decision to start the fire later in the day, to save wood, and we settled in for the night having not gone for a pee first. Both of these decisions were stupid. In the morning, Owen and I found we had a new shared experience: the horror of waking up in the night absolutely frozen, half naked in the bag, and desperate to urinate. The thirty or so minutes of wondering whether you can hold it in, and the final, hideously cold walk out of the camp to do your business before getting back into the bag. And in the morning there was an hour between waking up and psyching ourselves up to move. Another hour to get the fire started, make a hot drink, defrost our boots (our sleeping bags were literally stiff with frost, it was that cold), and eating the last of our meagre supplies before limping brokenly back across the moor. We only really spoke at all to agree we should never take anyone along with us unless they have expressed a strong interest in hypothermia.
The fire went out because we had not banked the heat for long enough – the wet and cold ground killed it off quite quickly once it was left unattended. The shelter was not adequate to insulate our heat, and the open front, which should have let the heat from the fire in, acted as a giant barn door. We slept in summer bags, but the temperature went into the minuses. Coldest night in ages, apparently. We were lucky, in all honesty, to have been able to get up at all.
Shelter 2:
snug little hut
Our second shelter was a very different affair. We are not especially stupid people and our weekend in Exmoor had really reinforced some lessons. This time, we gave it a lot more thought. When we arrived at the Wyre, we spent hours looking for exactly the right spot, where we were isolated and had an abundance of wood, forest debris and fern. We planned our shelter in a conversation that was constructive and argumentative without ever getting heated – Owen is a pretty rare sort of guy, really – if he puts an idea forward and I find flaws with it, he is able to take that on and adapt. He doesn’t get annoyed, and he puts up patiently with me not doing the same, waiting patiently for me to grow the f*ck up and realise my plan will freeze/starve/soak us both. So with him in the role of mature adult (and seriously, this is a real skill – most people will argue in a way that basically sounds like “My idea is the best!” “No mine!” “No! Mine is the best!” all day long), we were able to come up with a workable plan in under an hour. The design was basically three big forked sticks leaning in a tripod and tied together, dug into the ground. crossbeams halfway up, forked and tied in. Sticks leaned against this until there were no big gaps. Then we covered it in at least four inches of forest debris and bracken. We poked a beam to hang a cookpot on through the middle, and we dug a firepit in the centre (the top was open as a chimney) We used birch branches for a mattress, pegged into place clear of the pit. We shot a pigeon for dinner.
How nice was it? It was top class. With a teeny weeny fire we were so warm you would not have believed it. I went back on my own in six inches of snow and slept comfortably. It was snug. It kept the rain off. The one problem was the draught – when you use a fire inside the hut, make sure no wind can get in at the bottom, or you will choke to death on the fumes. For a door, we hung our tarp/poncho over the entrance and weighted it down.
Shelter 3:
I’m waiting for a picture of this – Owen is the photographer and frankly, he’s a lazy bastard. Basically it was the same as the second but bigger, and instead of a tripod we used four sticks in a square, dug them in firmly, tied cross beams, and dug in a pole at each corner. This was a bigger, stronger shelter, which took a bit more time but could comfortably accommodate our full body length, our bags, and some firewood. We could more easily adjust the stuff we hung over the fire, because the structure made it easier. This hut took about 50% more material and longer to build, but it was worth it. We made three trips to this shelter and in all weathers were cosy and happy.
Shelter 4:
This time we took a rather different approach. We went to Cannock an picked a pine plantation. Finding a fallen tree leaning against it’s stump, we cleared a space under it. After that, we started thinning the pines (which is normal forestry practice and not harmful to the forest), taking out the trees that are weak, dying, and out-competed, as well any “wolf” misshapen trees. The stems we collected; the branches we used to roof the shelter. We did this for about four hours, by which time we had enough pine to have a thick roof and enough lengths to make two raised beds.
It was difficult to use pine branches to insulate the shelter, and I do not think it would have been warm enough or dry enough if conditions had been worse. Nonetheless, it was big and spacious, and with plenty of room for a fire, warm enough. The beds were classy.
Cannock is a big dogging site though, so, err… well, don’t go there to camp. All I’m saying.
Shelter 5: It’s been a while since I went camping and built a shelter. I kind of feel I have the basics sorted now, and want to experiment with other options. So this time I looked again to develop a natural location, but using a tarp to roof it, thus building it quickly and without fuss.
I found a fallen tree and faffed about with a tarp to produce this:
nifty and rapid to build.
As you can see, it was pretty basic, but on a warm April evening, was not unpleasant to sleep in. This design (if you can call it that), took under an hour. I dragged a pretty big log over a reflector for the fire, and added some branches on the right (as you look at it) because the wind was coming from behind and slightly from that side of me.
This left me with loads of time – despite my arriving at like, 2pm. So I rustled up some ingredients. Dandelion for coffee, Burdock Root (but just for roasting/eating), Nettles, Jack-by-the-hedge, Ramsons and Goosegrass:
Dandelion root for coffeeBurdock for some calories
And a few greens. This is nettle.Jack-by-the-hegeramsonsgoosegrass
And I made a little stew and relaxed.
So there have been some highs, some lows, and some steep learning curves. There have been some adventures on the way, too. But I now feel that whatever happens, I can knock up a shelter, a fire, and a meal, when I find myself in a British forest. Now just Scandanavia and North America to go…
After struggling for a long time with how to keep my fish tank as clean as possible (with as little effort as possible) and failing miserably I finally discovered aquaponics – and I wanted it. This system is so special it covers looking after fish, upcycling materials and growing your own food! The problem was most aquaponics systems costs hundreds of pounds and I had about a tenner to spare, if that.
I was not to be deterred however, I wanted one, so I was going to figure out how to build my own. I already had a small fish tank with a terrible water filter that dribbled out water at best and needed changing every week. I wanted to convert this into a self cleaning system that also provided food.
How Aquaponics Works
Aquaponics is amazingly simple really. All you need is a pump to pump the water from the fish tank to a tray with various sized filtering rocks in it. Here you plant a bunch of cress seeds (or even lettuce) on top of the rocks. The idea is the plants use the fish poo and turn it into nutrients to grow. Then, the water needs to be directed back down either into a second tray or into the fish tank again. The falling water being a bit cleaner than before and oxidizing the tank.
Cost to DO:
If you already have fish and a fish pump: £0
If you do not have a pump : £10 +costs of tank and fish according to your requirements.
Our zebra fish are around £7 each, snails to eat algae are 75p each (because our zebra fish are in cold water) and the tank was free from friends (you can also scour freecycle and supermarket adverts). While we did also get a free pump it broke within a few days and we had to purchase a new one – we got the cheapest one around which was £10 from our local pet store. Since we are improving the flow capability of this pump anyway a cheap one will be sufficient.
Equipment:
Glue/Glue Gun/Super Glue
Knife/Scissors
Plastic tray – such as those from supermarket bread/pastry products
Plastic tubes (we used kids toy tubes from a pirate bed – they were the perfect fit for the pump attachment!)
Gravel of different sizes (taken from the original filter and replacement filters and the fish tank gravel)
A couple of small bottles (those little innocent smoothie bottles work great)
A water pump (taken from the original filter). You can purchase a pump on its own but it’s actually cheaper to just buy the cheapest tank filter instead and get the extra gravel this way as a bonus.
Method:
First of all before we begin, I would like to let you know that the aquaponics system isn’t the one I first built. The one I will be teaching you to make today is our Aquaponics Mark II system.
The first one looked like this:
There were however several problems with this design that only emerged afterwards including:
Not enough space for cress – it grows hard and fast and we want more!
Roots clogged up holes
Holes were leaky
Fish filter pump was not enclosed enough
So we decided to create Aquaponics Mark II and significantly improved upon it’s design with some rather intuitive solutions if I do say so myself.
Step One
Gather together your materials including plastic tray (I prefer see through to maximise light access), plastic tubing, scissors, and glue (i used a glue gun before but ran out of sticks so used super glue this time).
Cut the tube into two sections: 1 long one to fit from the pump to the fish tank lid, and one short one to fit from the fish tank lid to just above the water level of the tank. The long tube will be your water out section and the short one will direct the water back in.
Step Two
Line up the plastic tray against your fish tank lid. Later on it will be glued into place but not now (just in case something goes wrong). Mark out where you want your tubes to go so that they go through the existing holes in the fish tank lid. I placed my output tube on the right hand side (so that the pump will be at the side of the tank and the power cable is closest to the wall socket). The shorter input tube I placed at the back middle of the lid/tray.
Put a hole through the marks and ease the tubes in, glue in place inside the plastic tray so that water can’t leak out (you can use bath sealant I guess if you have some spare). Allow to dry thoroughly before exposing to water.
Step Three
Take your small plastic bottle and check the water pump you have will fit inside it. The pump should be easy to remove from the fish filter and won’t require any tomfoolery. For my filter I found it fit easily with plenty of room into an innocent smoothie bottle.
Get your knife/scissors and score thin line holes at 90 degree points at the base of the bottle like in the picture above. You don’t need to widen these holes this will be plenty for the water to get into without endangering small fish.
Step Four
Remove the lid of the bottle and make a hole in the middle. Thread the long tube attached to the tray through this hole. Do not glue it in place (we want to minimise the use of glue where possible both for the fish and for the sake of easy removal and replacement of parts).
Cut the Bottle in half above the pump and slot the pump inside. There should be plenty of breathing room in there.
Cut a line hole in the top of the bottle and thread the wire through it (since it is attached to a pump at one end and a plug at the other, you need to cut a line to thread it through not just a hole for the wire). Do not seal the top of the bottle into the base yet – attach the long output tube to the pump first threaded through the open bottle top. Then screw the bottle top to the lid on the tube and finally slot the top half of the bottle inside the bottom half of the bottle so that the pump is covered and cannot trap fish.
Step Five
Secure the plastic tray to the fish tank lid with glue in the corners. If using super glue you will need to sit around for a long time. A glue gun is much faster to dry. When it is dry, place the system into the fish tank and close the lid in place. Check that the short tube is suspended inside the fish tank above the water level and that the pump bottle fills with water and is weighed down sufficiently.
Now is the time to check your system works before progressing further. It should all work fine but if your holes are too small, or too big you may have water flow problems or leaks and now is the time to fix those before finishing the system. Thankfully ours did not have leaks and had excellent water flow, yay! Remember we had a piddly slow water pump? Not anymore! Thanks to the vastly superior filter system the water flow was much better, some pre-built fish water filters are just designed very badly. Time to move on…
Step Six
In this design we also created a removable tube protection system that acted as an additional filter. This device will use the bio sponge found in your old fish filter providing a third method of cleaning the water. This sponge needs regular cleaning, so its important it’s not fixed into place – which means a tricky problem to solve for our aquaponics system. We found in our Aquaponics Mark I system, placing the sponge into the tube meant daily cleaning required and a vastly reduced water flow so this time we went for something a bit more daring.
Take your second small bottle and cut the top off.Then cut a small rectangle (smaller than the bio sponge you have) into the bottom side of the bottle.
Then with the bottom half of the bottle cut a thin strip off the top so it makes a circle like this.
Slot the strip of plastic into the base of the top half of the bottle so that it covers the rectangular hole you created. You should find the plastic bends inwards a bit creating a gap as the plastic ring is slightly bigger than the bottle top half. This is great and just what we need to get water through the sponge so align this inward bend so that it is behind the rectangular hole you created.
Then place the sponge between the plastic like above. It will be clamped in to place by the plastic strip but still allow water to pass through the sponge. Your tube protection device can now be sat on the plastic tray around the shorter tube hole. This will help stop roots clogging up the tube and provide an extra filter for the water exiting the system. Not all of the water will go through the sponge but it will capture a lot. It does not need anything to weigh it down – it will be heavy enough and the water flow won’t disturb it.
When the sponge gets brown – rinse it under a tap and then replace it. Turn the bottle top periodically to sever ambitious roots heading for your tube hole.
Step Seven
Fill the tray with your smallest gravel from the filter, then the second smallest, then the biggest and finally with the gravel from the bottom of your fish tank (after you have cleaned it all). This creates several layers of filtration. Make sure the level of the gravel is higher than the stable water level when the pump is on to help prevent seed movement.
Finally, scatter some cress seeds on the gravel, put your fish tank by a window and turn on the pump. Check the water flow is still good to ensure sufficient oxidisation of the water for the fish. Wait 3-6 days and eat the resulting cress – plant more on top and repeat the process!
If you do not have a spare window you can get a special growing LED bulb plate to fix above your fish tank but this will cost around £20.
Congratulations, you are finished!
Great job on getting this far, you now have your own aquaponics system that will/is:
Oxidise your water
Provide a multi-filtration system by: Plants, Gravel layers and Bio Sponge
Provide quick and easy to grow healthy food to snack on and use in salads (the kids will LOVE this!)
Make happier healthier fish
Reduced cleaning for your fish tank required (deep clean once a month if the water starts going green and consider adding one or two water snails).
An amazing self sufficient system you didn’t pay £400 for.
In a few days your tray will look something like this one did (picture from Aquaponics Mark I):
Collecting silver birch sap in the beginning of spring is a great way to get some extra sugar and clean water into your foraging diet. It does require some minor equipment and some thought and care though.
Equipment
Knife – sharp!
5L Bottle
Siphon Tube
Tape
Leaf and Twig or similar devices
Step One
Cut a “V” shape into a silver birch tree near the base but not at the bottom. If the sap begins to drip out rapidly, you are doing this at the right time.
Step Two
Insert the leaf into the base of the V shape and attach it in with a small twig. The sap should collect on the leaf and drip down at the point giving you a great way to direct the sap to where you want it. CAUTION: THIS WILL BE TRICKY!
Step Three
Attach the siphon tube to the tree underneath using non-permanent tape. Ensure the sap drips into the tube. Place the other end of the tube into the 5L bottle and tape securely in place. Use tape or other shade tools if you think it might rain to prevent rain water getting inside.
Step Four
Wait a couple of days for the bottle to fill up. This sap is clean, refreshing and a great emergency supply. You can also boil it down for syrup or make it into wine (which we will post about later on).
Remember:
Do this at the beginning of spring when the sap rises.
Try to look after the tree – seal the wound afterwards if possible and keep it clean.
Don’t keep doing this to the same tree, let it recover (some years).
The sap should be clear, sometimes with a tint. If it is brown it may be that the tree has a fungal infection and should be avoided.
Always seek permission form the tree owner of course.
Salt is one of our most important minerals for the human body but in the wild, it’s pretty hard to find in every day foraging. The coastal region is a massive resource for fresh salt whether it’s from the various food stuffs found from the coast or from harvesting the sea itself. Best of all, creating your own salt from the sea can be done all year round!
Salt isn’t as complicated and scary as you might first think. The way I will teach you how to produce your own salt from the sea today is pretty much exactly how large companies do it, there is no special secret you don’t know about.
Ingredients
Sea Water – Try to find a certified clean water area for the best and cleanest results!
Method
Collect around 5 Litres of sea water if possible. I used a large water bottle for this to get as much as I could.
Sift the Sea Water through several layers of Muslin. Repeat several times.
Allow the water to stand for a week and you may see a bit of excess dirt form on the bottom still. Siphon off the clean water from the top (as much as possible without disturbing the dirt at the bottom) using plastic tube (see homebrewing for help). Sieve through several layers of muslin again.
Boil off as much water as possible so that you are left with around 1 litre of water left at the most. Now your water beyond this point will begin to make salt so to avoid the salt burning on the bottom of the pan you should set up a gentle cooking system like this:
This is a large pan with around 30-50% water in it on the lowest heat setting on the hob. A metal bowl has placed on the top with the sea water in it. As you can see, after a few hours your water will disappear and you will be left with super strong salt! You may find your salt colour can vary from white to brown, it all depends on where you got the sea water from and the water quality. This salt has been produced from Morecambe and produced finer salt than I expected!
Next, loosen the salt form the edge of the bowl and leave it to air dry in a warm dry location like a windowsill. This will take a very long time but it prevents burning and allows the salt to dry properly for safe storage.
If you know about bread making, you may think it takes a lot of different ingrediants to make bread that wouldn’t necessarily be cheaper than just buying yourself a loaf of bread. With sourdough however, the only thing you need to buy is flour (unless you have foraged it yourself of course).
Sourdough does take some looking after however, I tend to fit it in alongside other daily chores such as feeding the animals so it doesn’t get forgotten about. To make sourdough bread, you first need to make a sourdough starter:
How to Make Sourdough Starter
Ingredients
Plain Flour (I prefer “Strong Bread Flour”)
Water
Equipment
Large lidless Jar
Piece of cloth big enough to fit over the jar top
Elastic band or hair bobble
Method
Add 2-3 heaped tablespoons of flour to the jar and enough water to create a thick liquid that is easy to stir. Cover with the cloth and keep it in place with the elastic band.
You do not need to buy yeast for sourdough. The sourdough will activate with the natural yeast already there.
After a day or two, the mixture will begin to form bubbles of the surface and a separate liquid will form at the top. It will smell yeasty/alcoholic. This means it’s working! If you see or smell mould (distinctive and hard to miss), the mixture has not activated or the yeast has died, if this happens you will need to throw it away and start again.
Once the mixture has activated, “feed” every other day with 1-2 tablespoons of flour and a bit of extra water to mix in well.
How to Make Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
Sourdough Starter
Water
Plain Flour
Method
There are a few different methods of creating the perfect sourdough bread. I found I had to undergo a lot of research and experimentation until I found a method that worked for me. This is the method I use currently and has been reliably providing better bread but you may wish to adapt it slightly or improve it if you can!
Step One
When your sourdough starter has filled the jar it’s time to separate off some of the liquid. Pour half of it into a bowl to be made into bread. Always feed the starter after removing some of it to make sure it stays strong and healthy.
You can make the sough as big as you want, so I do not tend to measure out the flour. Mix in as much flour as required to make a rough dough at this stage though, you can add more later if you want it bigger.
Cover with cling film and place in the fridge overnight. This prevents the yeast from exhausting itself too quickly.
Step Two
The next day take out the bowl and flour a work surface to knead the dough. Add more flour and water at this stage before kneading to get the size and consistency you want. The dough should be stretchy and elastic. Knead the dough so that you push and stretch it out without breaking it. Try to do this for at least 10 minutes, I normally watch a program while I’m doing it so I can zone out and not feel like it’s taking forever.
Make a rough loaf shape and place into a loaf tin. It does not have to touch the sides it will spread out as it rises. Leave the dough for a day in a warm location – I keep it on the kitchen counter near to the oven top so it’s nice and warm.
Step Three
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C when the dough has risen well. If in doubt leave the dough longer, it need to have risen enough so that the inside is fluffy and airy. If it spills over the side of your tin do not worry, trim off the excess and chuck it in separately as nibbles. Do not squash or touch the dough when it has risen – you want to keep it intact as it is.
Place the loaf tin in the oven on a tray in the middle of the oven. When the loaf looks ready – it’s not. Place a skewer in it and you will see the middle is still slightly doughy. You should have a good crust at this point though, if you do now is the time to turn it down to 140 degrees to make sure it cooks well throughout. Most sourdough books recommend keeping it on high throughout but every single time I did this the middle did not cook and the outside over cooked, and a low heat also fails to cook it properly. This is just the way I found it works well for me, your oven may be different. When the bread smell starts to leak into the next room it’s ready to come out.
Wrap the bread in greaseproof paper to keep it fresh.
If you get a chance to visit the coastal region at all then do not let the opportunity to harvest some coastal delights pass you by. The coast is an abundant source of food rich in nutrients and should not be passed over. Seaweeds are all year round but are at their best in April, May and June.
Name: Bladder Wrack, Popweed
Location: Seaside rocks and in the sea
Months: April, May, June
Edible Parts: Leaves
Non-Edible Parts: Stipe (to avoid damaging plant)
Bladder Wrack is easy to identify because it grows with small to large sacks of gas, it’s name comes from the inflated bladders they possess. You may recall stepping on this seaweed as a child and having hours of entertainment from the popping sounds – much like bubble wrap. Bladder Wrack (or popweed) is also abundant in the UK and if you find nothing else, you will find this.
Remember to only cut seaweed that is attached and living on rocks, avoid seaweed that is floating free. Cut at the stipe (the hard stem like part) giving a good distance away from the section that holds the seaweed to the rock, this will allow the seaweed to regrow without too much trouble.
Wash the seaweed thoroughly before use to clean it of contaminants and excess salt. Avoid seaweed that grows near Red Tide (the red algae) and other high pollutant areas.
I am going to try to grow my own avocado tree in the UK. This will be grueling, unrewarding and lengthy so it’s not for the faint of heart!
You can germinate your avocado pip in a few different ways apparently. However, if you can get a seedling this is meant to be easier and more reliable for a tasty crop. I’m just going to turn the Hass Avocado I bought from Sainsbury’s into a tree and see what happens.
Things to note:
You may not get fruit
If you do get fruit it may not be tasty, even if the original avocado was
It WILL be big, easily up to 6 foot if not kept pruned and contained/stunted.
It WILL need to be kept warm and safe from frost
It WILL take at least 3 years before you see any returns at all
Avocados like soil of PH around 6 and a sandy texture soil works best. Make sure it also has great drainage or it will not be happy!
Your Avocado seed will look something like this:
How to Germinate Your Seed
You can do this in two main ways, first of all you can plant it in a large pot of well drained soil with the pointy end upwards. I have also put a plastic bag around the pot to keep it warm and moist while it germinates, remember to remove this bag as soon as germination occurs.
This method works particularly well with most seeds that thrive in warmer climates such as Squash, Tomato and Cucumber.
Or alternatively you can place three toothpicks into the seed around the middle and suspend the pip over a beaker of water using the toothpicks to balance it. This ensure the base of the seed is submerged in fresh water and the point end is again upwards. You will need to change the water every 2-3 days.
Germination takes 3-6 weeks, the larger the seed is the longer germination usually takes so be prepared for it do to a whole lot of nothing for a very long time.
After running out of Dandelion Flower Cordial I decided to adapt the recipe a little to add some extra oomph for my next batch. As such the recipe is very similar.
Due to no preservatives or additional ingredients, this cordial has a high sugar content to prevent it from going bad.
Dandelion flowers can be collected around March to April when the sun is in full swing to ensure the flowers are out and full of goodness.
Can also double as a great hot tea drink to combat colds, enjoy with hot water and a slice of lemon.
Ingredients
100 Dandelion Flower Heads at least – the more the better
1kg Demerara brown sugar estimate
half a lemon
Knob of fresh Ginger Root
Method
Collect at least 100 dandelion flower heads fully opened and trim off the green bases. It’s okay to get a few green bits in with the petals and they usually get in the way.
Give the petals a quick wash/rinse but be careful not to loose all the flavour!
Grate the ginger with a fine tooth grater and squeeze out the ginger juice into a saucepan.
Boil the petals and ginger juice with roughly 1 pint of water and allow to cool and steep overnight in a covered bowl.
Add the juice from a half a lemon and strain out the petals thoroughly.
Weigh the liquid (a bit tricky I know) and for every 1g of liquid you have created add 0.95g of sugar. You can use different sugar types if you prefer but they will affect the flavour, this time I used Demerara Brown sugar for a more caramel flavour.
Stir in the sugar and gently heat until dissolved (do not boil).
Japanese Knotweed is a pest species in the UK. It’s pretty prolific stuff and even the smallest scrap can spread and take over an area very quickly. Therefore, we stick to two points:
Eat the stuff – Anything to hinder it’s growth has to be a good thing.
Always be extremely careful when approaching. Do not tread on it, dispose of all scraps completely. The slightest peel, fibre or speck an spread and it’s actually illegal to do so.
Name: Japanese Knotweed
Location: Anywhere, prolific pest species
Months: March, April (and to a lesser extent throughout the year)
Edible Parts: New stalks or top 10cm of stalks
Non-Edible Parts: Anything else
The stalks of the knotweed are greeny/red in appearance and are hollow thick tubes. You can harvest the top 10 cm of the stalk throughout the year but the best time to harvest is March/April when completely new stalks start to emerge (harvest just like Asparagus).
To eat, peel and cook the stalks like a sweet treat. The flavour is slightly sweeter than rhubarb but has the same flavour. This makes it great in crumbles! Just like rhubarb, you shouldn’t eat it in large amounts so use as a spring time treat only.
