Free food (eat wild food)

If you live in the country, or if you have a bit of countryside near enough to you to visit, then there is a lot of food out there for free particularly at the right time of the year. I spent a lot of time in my childhood picking wild fruits and berries for different uses. My aunt used to make Jams and preserves, and my mum made wine at home. As well as this, we’d have crumbles and pies made from local fruit and it was great! To me there’s nothing better than going out and getting something that’s totally free! It’s best to start with something you recognise quite well, and then move onwards to hunting for things that are harder to spot in the hedges and woods, and a good picture of what you’re looking for will help a lot in identifying it. The basic rule is however be careful! If you are not certain that you have found the right fruit or plant, then leave it alone you don’t want to end up making yourself sick after all! Most of the fruits, nuts and plants I’ve talked about here most people will recognise however, so it’s a good place to start.

Fruits and Berries:
Blackberries and Elderberries grow wild in the hedgerows in most parts of the UK and are fairly easy to spot. Blackberries can be eaten as they are, or cooked up to make a cooli, turned into a crumble, or a pie, or even a cordial. Elderberries are not so good eaten raw, and will need to be cooked and sweetened before you can use them, but Elderberry cordial is lovely, and they work very well in a summer fruits pudding.

Apples are available fairly easily if you look for them – there are many different sorts that grow wild in the UK, from crab apples which are normally small and pretty hard and don’t taste very nice eaten raw, to cooking apples which are normally quite large, and an uneven shape, taste a little better than a crab apple raw, but are still better cooked, and then there are lots of other ‘eating’ apples which are normally a more round shape, and fall in between crab and cooking for size. These eating apples like those you buy in the shops will vary quite a lot in terms of their sweetness. Apples are great in pies, made into sauce which can then be frozen and used through out the year. Crab apples make an excellent jelly or jam if you have the patience and time to do it, particularly if spiced with some cloves and cinnamon. Most apples can be laid down over winter very successfully – all this means is you pick them over, clean them and don’t lay down any that are damaged. Lay them out in trays with paper under them if possible, and store them in a dark cool place. It’s best to check them every week or two to make sure you have none that are going bad, as when you get one that goes bad, you’ll lose a whole tray very quickly.

Other fruits to look out for are, wild strawberries which are usually smaller and sweeter than those in the shops, plums and damsons – again these make great jam or pies, but plums are also good eaten as they are. (Plums can be blanched and frozen quite well, unlike some fruits). Sloes are not good eating, but are great for making sloe gin – a long process, but one which is well worth it believe me! The sloes shouldn’t be picked till after the first frost no matter how ripe they look, and then when washed, you have to prick them all over with a pin and place them in the gin to steep for some months before you get a good sloe gin. Wild Gooseberries, and redcurrants are also very tasty (again redcurrants are great in a summer fruits pudding), but they are sadly these days harder to find than some other fruits. Rosehips from the common dog rose are hugely under estimated and grow pretty much everywhere across the UK. Cook it to a pulp with a little water, strain through a jelly bag, and cook with a pound of sugar per pint of liquid like you would for any fruit syrup and you have a wonderful rose hip syrup to use through out the year.

Nuts:
Hazel Nuts (or Cob nuts as they’re sometimes called) are one of the easiest nuts to find in a lot of the UK, and are great because they store very well. As a child I spent many autumn days collecting them and layering them in old shoe boxes to lay down for the winter time. Beech nuts & chestnuts aren’t too hard to find either, though you’ll find that chestnuts in the wild are much smaller, and sweeter than those you buy in the shops. Again these can be stored in layers and kept for use through the winter months.

Salad Leaves and other salad plants:
They might not sound like something you’d think to eat, but young dandelion leaves are great in a salad. They have quite a peppery flavour and are very tender when young. Don’t go for larger older leaves though as these are much more bitter. Young beech leaves are also quite tasty used the same way. Wild Garlic has a much gentler flavour than the garlic bulbs you’ll find in the shops, pick the young leaves and flowers to serve in a salad. Hedge Mustard is another leaf which is great in a salad though harder to find and less well known.

Other plants:
Nettles when cooked taste quite like spinach they’re best picked when young again as older ones can be a bit more bitter. Make sure you wear gloves when you pick them, and remove the leaves from the stem before cooking as the stems are not so tasty. Boil or steam them as you would spinach and serve in the same way. Don’t worry, they don’t sting once cooked! As you can see I’ve left out Mushrooms in this article – the reason for this is that there are so many different types some of which are edible and some of which are highly toxic that unless you really know what you’re looking for fungus of any sort is best left well alone. There are books which give good descriptions available, and there are even courses you can go on which will help you identify the different types, but as a very basic rule, if you’re not sure about it, don’t eat it!

Looking for other food freebies then visit the Forum food section