Wednesday 9 July 2014

Freebies...

Would you believe it, this is my 700th post - wow, where does the time go!

Don't you just love the free gifts from nature? Out on our walk this week (more about that on my other blog later), we found some wild plums falling off the trees (Red Cherry I believe). Once we had finished walking, we got a carrier bag out of the car, re-walked the first 100 yards and began picking them up. Barely 10 minutes later we had what felt like 4lb in weight.

They were quickly washed and sorted. The over ripe barely edible into the compost caddy, the slightly soft and split (on the right of the picture) for immediate eating (and making into ice cream!) and the still intact, on the left, for later eating:
Aren't they just beautiful? Sitting on the far left, is our second bowl of our own Blueberries, which we will eat both on our breakfast porridge and mixed in with home made yoghurt for supper. Ah, nature at its kindest and most bountiful.

The yellow wild plums, (Mirabelle), are still green but we should be able to harvest them in 2 - 3 weeks. Yum Yum!

Here is a link to a blog of someone who discovered wild plums for the first time here
More information can be found on the red ones here

The yellow Mirabelle plum is slightly larger and has a slightly different texture, more like a Victoria. More information about them can be found here
Happy hunting!

10 comments:

  1. I have a blueberry bush on the lottie, no blueberries though lol

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    1. I don't think I would have any if they weren't in a fruit cage!

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  2. Well done they look delicious, I' m sure there is some of those down the lane from me, I think I will go and have a look tomorrow. Blueberries on porridge....yum!

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    1. Get them while you can, as once picked, they go off quickly even in the fridge.

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  3. There's nothing nicer than coming home with a bag full of Nature's bounty is there? We have a cherry plum tree close by but I can only get at the ones overhanging the road as its on a school field! lol

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  4. Well done picking all those. Like you, I love free food. I haven't seen any wild plums locally but there are damsons available.Do you know if you can just stew damsons and eat them or do they really need to be made in jam or chutney as we really don't eat either of those? I'm waiting impatiently for the blackberries to ripen around here. Last year we picked pounds and pounds of them and have just one bag left in the freezer now. Unfortunately the council have cut back all the bushes in one of our favourite foraging places, but there are plenty of others a bit further afield.

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    1. That was just half of them. One year, we picked over 18 kgs of both kinds, that was a mammoth stewing event! Yes you can just stew them, see this link here:
      http://theordinarycook.co.uk/2009/09/28/stewed-damsons/

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  5. Amazing. I am always a little wary picking fruit in the wild especially if I am not sure what something is. I would love to make some sloe gin sometime but dont know if I would recognise sloes!! Our blueberries are slowly turning, a lot are still green at the moment but there are plenty on.

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    1. We prefer sloe vodka:) Once you know what they look like, you'll never forget. Have a look here:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa
      They have small leaves, thorns, will be green at the moment, are similar in colour to a blueberry with a bloom. Most hedgerows or field boundaries should have at least one tree/bush. When in full fruit, they are hard to miss. From a distance, it is easy to mistake them for a damson but they are a lot smaller.

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