Food for free

donkey too

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Thought I would start a new thread on this very interesting subject. So lets have your posetive comments and food suggestions/recipes please.
First of all it is reletively easy to survive in UK on wild food as long as you know what you are doing. and are willing to take advice. I do not believe as some have voiced, about taking all day to gather etc. I have lived in Wales for 13 months at one time with no contact with other humans and entirely on free food. the only 2 things I imported at the start was Salt (very inportant especialy if there is a shortage of veg and you are living almost entirely on meat for any time) and Oat meal. (I can't go without my oats):D

So I shall start the ball rolling with this snipet which I knew about since my army days but have yet to try. Intend to do so this year.


Regarding Tapping - basically Acer as far as I know are all syrup bearing trees, now I know Maple, Birch, Sycamore, are all Acers, take a look how similar the leaves are! Any of these can be tapped, all you need to do is drill into the bark about 1/2 inch or just over 1cm, and your sap will begin to run out assuming you do this at the right time of year. What you do is go to a local wine making shop, buy a pipe and a demijohn, then chose a drill bit the exact same size as the pipe, drill a small hole, wedged my pipe in, and put the other end into the demijohn and leave it over night. The next day you should have 1/2 gallon from tree! A water much like coconut water,

YOU MUST PLUG THE HOLE afterwards, or else you could cause major damage to the tree... This is done by cutting a branch from the same tree which is a little thicker than the hole, cleaning the bark off, and then slightly tapering it, much like a sink plug, then hammering the plug into the hole. If you have difficulty, maybe make your home a little deeper and your plug a little longer!

N.B: You can only tap a tree in the first 3 weeks of March, unless we are having a particularly late spring! Also I know no way of storing this juice, bar putting in an air tight glass bottle with no air inside for upto a week or maybe 2?... Other than this they process it as far as I can tell, either into sugar syrup or alcohol...
• If anyone else can help more, please add comment :)
 
Razor Clams

These a are a delicacy in Europe but ignored in UK. They live low down on sandy beaches and are normally covered in water but at low water on spring tides they are exposed, about 6-8 times a year. There are lots of videos on Youtube about collecting them and special "sucking tubes" for extraction but I find it fairly easy to burrow after them with my hand. Hold on to them for 5 seconds or so and they release their grip and you can pull them up easily. Make sure you understand the tides before venturing onto sandbanks, especially if you have to cross gullys. Because they are so rarely exposed there is no pressure on them from over-collecting. I normally get about 3kg in an hour and freeze those I don't eat fresh.
Walk softly as they respond to vibrations and will start to burrow but you will catch them if you're within 6' before they disappear.
They make a delicious Tagliatelle Vongole but flush them well with running water to get the grit out.
 
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Crabs make a tasty meal.

If you get a piece of stiff wire (like the type used in fences) about 8 to 10 inches long and bend it into almost a full circle. Tie a piece of string to it and thread on some Mussels, this is good bait for Crabs.

Go out on to the rocks at low tide and dip the device into the water. You can very carefully lift them out before they leave go of the bait.

Also: If you like wild Rabbit, just park up next to me and the Whippets. :lol-049:

If you are lucky, you might even get a Grey Squirrel as well.
 
The new Collins Gem 'Food for Free' book is out at the end of March. Just saying :)
 
Well today I learnt you can eat Humphrey, but apparently I have to ask rubber tramp about him.
 
I wonder to any of those guys in the series do 'day courses'...it would be interesting to go off on a walk and see 'exactly' what these wild herbs looked like for real.
 
Giant Puffballs

Giant Puffballs are one of my favourite wild foods. If you haven't seen one, they're a type of huge mushroom that can grow to the size of a football. Grazing land is supposed to be a good place to find them, but I've also found them in rough grassland around old chalk quarries or in woodland. One advantage is that because of their size, they are hard to confuse with other varieties of funghi, so safer to collect and eat. Look for them in the Autumn.

The body is solid, so it's like carving a joint of milky-white meat when you cut into it. A simple and tasty way of cooking is just to cut into slices and fry in butter, or you can be more adventurous with a variety of sauces etc.

I just did a quick search to find a picture of one to post, and came across this recipe from the "Food for Free" book mentioned in earlier posts. (I've had a copy of this book for years and can recommend it!)

Herb Society - Stuffed Giant Puffball Mushroom Recipe
 
Haaamster said:
Well today I learnt you can eat Humphrey, but apparently I have to ask rubber tramp about him.
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Yep! don't confuse him with the old foxy glove puppet.....It will do you serious damage.
 
scampa said:
Giant Puffballs are one of my favourite wild foods. If you haven't seen one, they're a type of huge mushroom that can grow to the size of a football. Grazing land is supposed to be a good place to find them, but I've also found them in rough grassland around old chalk quarries or in woodland. One advantage is that because of their size, they are hard to confuse with other varieties of funghi, so safer to collect and eat. Look for them in the Autumn.

The body is solid, so it's like carving a joint of milky-white meat when you cut into it. A simple and tasty way of cooking is just to cut into slices and fry in butter, or you can be more adventurous with a variety of sauces etc.

I just did a quick search to find a picture of one to post, and came across this recipe from the "Food for Free" book mentioned in earlier posts. (I've had a copy of this book for years and can recommend it!)

Herb Society - Stuffed Giant Puffball Mushroom Recipe
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Puff balls fried in bacon fat yummy. But there was a de'arth of them in Suffolk this year. wish I could cultivate them. In a good year you can get a slice of puff ball or beef steak fungi with your bason and sausage sarny on Ely market as long as you are there when they are setting up, any later and it is all gone.

Also in answer to day walks. Thetford forest is a great place for these starting from Brandon Country Park. But it does depend on the weather during the couple of days prior to going out , so can be a bit hit and miss. Although there are always loads of tree growing fungi about at most times of the year. I do beleive there are also classes in other forests. I shall search for them as soon as I get a min. and post
 
I did a course a couple of years ago, sort of wilding without the van. We where meant to spend an afternoon gathering that days supper but came back with very meagre rations. However we had a smashing country walk so would do it again on an informal basis but would not spend large amounts of money learning how to cook hedge trimmings in truffle oil. Perhaps another Thetford forest meet. Share Ideas over a cup of Nettle tea with a Bacon and Puffball sandwich. Bottle of beer on hand to wash it down with.

Richard
 
Tbear said:
I did a course a couple of years ago, sort of wilding without the van. We where meant to spend an afternoon gathering that days supper but came back with very meagre rations. However we had a smashing country walk so would do it again on an informal basis but would not spend large amounts of money learning how to cook hedge trimmings in truffle oil. Perhaps another Thetford forest meet. Share Ideas over a cup of Nettle tea with a Bacon and Puffball sandwich. Bottle of beer on hand to wash it down with.

Richard
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The beer would be a necessity !! especially after the hedge trimmings, they get stuck in your teeth
 
Only once have I done 'roadkill' and that was when I hit a big Pheasant on a country road...the car hit it's neck and passed cleanly over it...it went into the boot.
 
Chicken of the woods?

Has anyone ever found or tried 'chicken of the woods'? It's orange and lives high up old oak trees...its supposed to have the texture and taste of chicken? I regularly gather chanterelles and boletus to make pasta sauces but never found any of this tree chicken yet! Do you look for telltale signs underneath the trees...:egg:
 
The advice on the program was leave it alone as some people react badly to eating it (Chicken of the Woods) and some don't.
 
Viktor said:
The advice on the program was leave it alone as some people react badly to eating it (Chicken of the Woods) and some don't.
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Thanks - it's good to know these things. You have to be SO careful with fungi.

Last summer we used garlic mustard (Jack by the Hedge) to make a sauce to go with wild rabbit (dog trapped one against the fence!) and it was good. I'm mightily impressed by Donkey too living 13 months off the land in Wales..brilliant :)
 
bodgerndog said:
Thanks - it's good to know these things. You have to be SO careful with fungi.

Last summer we used garlic mustard (Jack by the Hedge) to make a sauce to go with wild rabbit (dog trapped one against the fence!) and it was good. I'm mightily impressed by Donkey too living 13 months off the land in Wales..brilliant :)
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But it is not for the faint hearted or the fool hardy. to live for any time in any country in the world from just what you can catch and gather is very hard if you don't know what you are doing. I was trained in the army to a very high standard to do this so have an advantage over most people, but even so I had to take some things with me especially salt.
Funny enough the one place I found it hardest to live off the land was in the Borneo Jungle The ungle can be a worst enemy rather than a friend when it comes to eating to stay alive. Unfortunately I am becoming too old and artriticky to do much now.
 
Viktor said:
I wonder to any of those guys in the series do 'day courses'...it would be interesting to go off on a walk and see 'exactly' what these wild herbs looked like for real.
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Check out NT website for events around wild food, we do one in West yorkshire but there are loads around the country.:tongue:
 
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