Urban Foraging

Food for Free by Richard Mabey is a great pocket guide to a wide variety of wild growing foods, you can buy it at most bookshops or at Amazon. For a free online guide to wild foods found in the urban environment, by Marcus Harrison (2008), click here.

As a child I remember picking blackberries when we were away on holiday, or occasionally at home on the way to the shops, but that was about as far as foraging went. But I've been doing it for a while now, we've made nettle soup, elderflower cordial, quince chutney, damson jam (that went a bit wrong), dandelion fritters, rose water and often eat leaves and fruit as we find them (always above dog height!). It is something that is becoming increasingly popular and children (as well as adults) really love following the journey from plants found growing wild to a finished, tasty food. Here are a some of the basic plants that you can find growing wild in the city and eat, and I will add links so that you can find out more about them, and, of course, some recipes:

Beech : Blackberry: Cleavers : Damson : Dandelion : Elder : Hawthorn : Hazel : Heather : Nettle : Rose : Rowan : Sloe : Sweet Chestnut : Quince

If you are eager to get out foraging whilst I am adding the information and recipes to this list, or if you want to find out about all the other edible wild foods available, I really do suggest getting the Food for Free book; I have it, it is really informative and great value for money.

Elderflower Cordial

~The elderflower cordial infusing.~

Elderflower cordial is so easy to make and tastes amazing. Me and Nial made this from elderflowers that we picked locally, and there are loads of them in the area. We got about two litres out of this recipe, and you can freeze it in smaller batches to preserve over the year.

YOU WILL NEED
20 elderflower heads, with minimal stalks
1 lemon, sliced
2 tsp citric acid
1.5 kg sugar
1.2 ltr boiling water


METHOD
1) Place all the ingredients except the boiling water into a large bowl (we used a large pan).
2) Pour the boiling water over the ingredients and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
3) Remove any scum from the surface of the water.
4) Cover the container with a cloth and leave for five days stirring twice every day.
5) Strain through muslin and decant liquid into steralised bottles.
6) Keep refrigerated and best used within two weeks, freeze if necessary.

Elderflower growing wild.
Please use a professional book to identify elderflowers, I suggest Food for Free, which you can find at Amazon.