Mushroom Identification Tool – Online

While trying as hard as we could to identify a random mushroom we encountered today we came across this neat little mushroom identification tool: Mushroom Identification.

We were really stuck on this one particular mushroom, it wasn’t in our books, so it was unlikely to be edible, but still we had to find out what this little blighter was! After finding this ingenious little tool I was able to narrow it down considerably until I stumbled upon the correct mushroom type. I’ll try to upload some pictures later on if I can.

Roasting Sweet Chestnuts Recipe

Ingredients

As many Viable Sweet Chestnuts as possible/according to your needs

Method

Cut a cross in the top of each chestnut.

Pre-heat the oven to at least 200 degrees C.
Place chestnuts scattered out evenly on a baking Tray

Bake for 30 minutes.

These are best eaten while still warm so be careful and remove the outer hard shell first.

Foraging Sweet Chestnuts

Name: Sweet Chestnuts

Location: Under Sweet Chestnut Trees

Months: October

Edible Parts: Inside the shell including skin

Non-Edible Parts: Everything else

We foraged around 2.2kg of sweet chestnuts in one hour today and there are stil plenty more to be had. The special thing about sweet chestnuts is not only are they packed full of goodness but they are only viable every few years. Not every crop of Chestnuts will be ripe every year. If the chestnut is soft, and small and flat/angular in appearance they are not ready for eating. You may go some years without seeing any viable chestnuts. That’ why as soon as we saw good chestnuts this year, we went crazy collecting as many as possible for our snacks and Christmas of course!

Sweet Chestnuts don’t taste great raw, although they can be eaten this way. Don’t be put off if you try them raw, get these bad boys roasted and then try them to avoid disappointment.

Rosehips

Last Sunday we went foraging in Birmingham for Rosehips. I’ll warn you now, wear gloves or suffer a thorny death!

Name: Rosehip (Dogrose)

Location: Everywhere

Months: September, October, November

Edible Parts: Bletched Fruit

Non-Edible Parts: Everything else

The rosehip pictured also includes japanese rosehip (the big rounder looking ones). They should only be picked when plump and juicy, if they are not squishing when you pick them, they are not ready to be picked. I will be making Rosehip Syrup and Rosehip wine with these little wonders this year so that means a lot of foraging and a lot of thorns in my fingers.

If the rosehip recipe proves successful it will be posted in approximately 8 weeks time so stay tuned. The syrup recipe will be updated later on this week.

Elderflower Wine

This turned out to be an Excellent wine. In fact it was so delicious the 30 odd bottles that we made were quickly whisked away by friends and relatives. For basically the cost of the sugar, you can have a brilliant, slightly sweet and flavourful and strong white wine.

This is the recipe we used:

Elderflower Wine – 1 Gal

500ml Picked Elderflowers pressed lightly. Remove green stems.
1.5kg Sugar. White granulated to avoid changing the flavour
250g washed raisins
1/2 Mug Strong Tea
3 Lemons Squeezed
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient
4.5L hot water

Sterilise your equipment
Dissolve the sugar in the hot water
Place the flowers, raisins and lemon juice in the primary bucket
Add the sugar water
Mix thoroughly
Allow the mixture to cool until it reaches around 21C
Add yeast, Tea and yeast nutrient
Cover and place airlock
Keep in a warm dry place
After 8 weeks, test the mixture with a hydrometer. Add sugar according to taste if it’s ready to bottle.
Add a crushed Campden tablet to clear according to the tablet instructions and allow to settle
Rack Off and then bottle!

Sloe Gin

While we harvested these Sloe’s a little on the early side, they still make a great Sloe Gin recipe. If you have an alcohol cupboard with half a bottle of Gin in it not going anywhere fast, this is a great and delicious way of sprucing up the Gin ready for Christmas. This is a classic and well respected drink for the worldly gentleman (apparently).

We found these Sloe’s in a small tucked away little over grown area by a Canal. It was a pleasant surprise and instantly I thought of Sloe Gin. If you were to buy these bad boys you’d end up paying a pretty penny, so make sure you take advantage of this foraged treat as they are relatively easy to find in Birmingham and the UK.

Name: Sloes

Location: Anywhere

Months: August, September, October

Edible Parts: Fruit

Non-Edible Parts: Everything Else

The fruit is bluish and powdery on the skin. It won’t taste nice as it is, and it’s best picked late on in the year when the fruit begins to Bletch. The plant is thorny so be careful when picking!

Sloe Gin Recipe

1/2 Bottle Gin

1/4 Bottle Sloes

1/8 Bottle Sugar

Easy! Prick the sloes and pop them carefully into the Gin bottle. Pour in the sugar and replace the cap. Store in a cool dark place and shake the bottle every so often – whenever you remember. The sugar will slowly dissolve and the Gin will turn a gorgeous red. Leave for roughly 6 months but can be sampled earlier if you need. This makes a beautiful fruity syrup liqueur.

Fat Hen Seeds for Flour

Our allotment last year got slightly overrun with Fat Hen so before we dug it all out we decided to try our hands at collecting the seeds to make flour. Needless to say, this is hard work and not always worth the effort; nonetheless, they are an abundant seed available for a good portion of the year, and it was great getting to grips with the whole process of seed collection and processing. We waited for the fat hen to start turning a little yellow and collected the seed pods in bulk. It was then a laborious task to scrape all the seeds out and try to remove them from the plant husks. We tried various winnowing methods with limited success, but eventually as the husks dried, we found that firm rubbing on a wooden block followed by a gentle blow will do a pretty good job.

We added the ground fat hen seeds to bannock to test it out and it did very well. It might not be worth the bother of gathering it except in a crisis, but it was a very enjoyable and enlightening experience.

Dandelion and Burdock Root Beer

This was one of our most exciting endeavours last year and tasted very good. It wasn’t as strong as we would have liked but we aim to develop the recipe further this year so stay tuned for the final recipe! Essentially the ingredients are very simple, You boil up some dandelion and Burdock roots and strain them into the drum ready for fermentation. The best thing about this beer is not only that it’s a timeless classic, but also the roots are readily available pretty much everywhere and most people are more than happy for you to do a little helpful weeding for them!

Wild Garlic

Name: Wild Garlic

Location: Mostly found on Riverbanks

Months: March, April

Edible Parts: Leaves and Bulbs

Non-Edible Parts: Flowers

When young the leaves are mild and great additions to salads. If you go for the bulb it can be used just like a shop garlic clove. As the plant matures the leaves become extremely strong flavoured and you will want to use them more sparingly. Once it flowers it’s time to leave it be as with most plants.

Strawberry Wine

The strawberry wine I made last year was not my best batch and was the first one I had made in some years.

I made a 1 Gallon batch last year and produced 5 bottles. It was hard to clear the sediment and they ended up fizzing up a bit in the bottle. We tried one last bottle almost exactly a year later and the flavour definitely improved. I’m glad to say we have perfected our technique by leaps and bounds over the last year, please stay tuned as I will be putting up the best of these recipes when they are successful enough to share.