Nettles

[Renee Profile]

Oh yes, of course! I've also got it now! I did wonder!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I'm sure we will, Wordsworth.
I never put garlic with roast chicken, as I find it overpowers the gravy, the meat. It's too much for me.
I'm not a garlic dodger by any means - just this particular roast bird.

We start to sniff the wild garlic in about late April here.

By the way, nettles tea, I absolutely love. One of my favourite herby bags.

[Joanbunting Profile]

The Northumberland Cheese Company make a fabulous nettle cheese.

https://www.northumberlandcheese.co.uk/nettle-cheese

[Sakkarin Profile]

Reopened foraging thread as I've just foraged.

Any ide what these are? It's a very small tree round the corner, with loads of branches full of these hanging down. The fruit are 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch round and as hard as apples at the moment.



450g (1 lb in English) of Blackberries, they look extremely good, but three different kinds of weeny spider have already crept out of them...

Jam? Any other ideas?

[Amyw Profile]

Has to be crumble with apple or a blackberry upside down cake but I use some ground almonds in the sponge

[Renee Profile]

They look like bullaces, Sakkarin. I find them around here. We used to have yellow ones, but the council chopped the tree down. They need to be fully ripe before you pick them and they don't have a great deal of flavour. I can find red ones too. When they are ripe they usually fall off the tree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullace

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Reopened foraging thread as I've just foraged.

Any ide what these are? It's a very small tree round the corner, with loads of branches full of these hanging down. The fruit are 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch round and as hard as apples at the moment.

They are a kind of wild plum or greengage called a bullace; if you Google bullace you will mostly find pics of a kind of purple wild damson, but I’ve found the green ones round Enfield and near Farthing Down in Surrey. Both kinds grew near Chichester Harbour where I grew up, my dad was something of a bullace diviner

They can be very nice when ripe, I’ve never tried to ripen them at home so give it a go?

Reference picture
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=green+bullace&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=misvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBq-H-mI3kAhU1tHEKHcGGCLQQ_AUoAnoECA4QAg&biw=768&bih=906#imgrc=DrMBDJ_XjoEf6M

ETA snap Renée

[Renee Profile]

Here's me with my yellow bullaces and a Radio Lancashire presenter! There was a gardening expert there, but he didn't know what they were.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Bullace. Haha!!
https://www.google.com/search?q=semeruco&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix7sr4nY3kAhXMzlkKHbMiAMUQ_AUIESgB&biw=1366&bih=625#imgrc=HTXWpDCisLhKiM:

They call them Semeruco over here; in the Caribbean they´re known as Barbados Cherries.
Got a tree in the garden which has just started to reproduce.

[Linnet Profile]

Chop one open to see the inside, if it has one stone then it is of the plum family, but looks more like crabapples to me - they are just like mini apples inside.
I make crabapple jelly when I can find them, it's a lovely pink colour.

[Renee Profile]

The red ones look lovely KK!

Sakkarin, I think that yours might turn yellow. Here are the yellow bullaces:

https://futureforests.ie/products/damso ... ds-bullace

Linnet, the yellow ones have stones in them. I used to make crab apply jelly because my neighbour had a tree in her garden. My boys used to love it.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Ha! For a moment there I thought I had a load of old bullaces, but I just cut one open as Linnet suggested, and it is like a weeny apple, so I guess they are crabapples.

I thought I knew what crabapples were, but clearly not!

I wonder if they would pair with the blackberries instead of apple for jam? Although I don't think they're ripe. Just bit one, and they're like very tart apples, but not unpleasantly so.

[Joanbunting Profile]

In which make crab apple and blackberry jellyhich case. Lovely stuff.

[Suffs Profile]

Definitely crab apples ... some of the ornamental varieties can be quite weeny.

[Wic Profile]

It’s quite early for Crabapples, Sakkarin. Those look a bit under ripe, if they are left for longer they might colour up and you get a jelly that is a beautiful rosy shade.

[scullion Profile]

i was going to say crabapples, too. there are a couple of different forms - the ones that look like tiny apples and the others that are slightly elongated.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

My friend makes incredible crab apple jelly. Clear as crystal, and tangy.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I'll put the blackberries in the freezer and wait a week or so until the crabapples are riper. Some of them are already tinged red, so hopefully that will be long enough.

Can you spot the red one? The ones hanging down are very green except for that solitary red one, but higher up the tree they're more reddish.