The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: MAK on January 15, 2012, 05:14:59 pm
-
What is the best free food you have come across ?
Or
Novel ways to collect free food.
Most of us swap or even barter on a regular basis and I am up for a bit of foraging too.
Today I saw simply the best attempt to grab some free food.
Our lake is being drained and we passed a young couple with their child picking freshwater mussels from the exposed lake bed . Most of the lake is frozen and they were tossing the mussels across the ice - so not eating the mussels !
We wondered why they had a shrimping net ( we are probably a couple of hundred miles from the sea) AND a domestic broom.
As we circled the lake in warm sun we approached the side of the lake not frozen and found the most enormous half eaten carp on the shore line. Other fish were in the shallows. A few hours after we saw the young couple with broom and shrimp net in the shallow water after a carp !! I hope that their planning and patience payed off and that they got their carp ( or freezer full) .
-
Towards the end of November the ponds/lakes that lace the village are routinely emptied one by one. If the pond was stocked the fish are caught and transferred to holding tanks (large plastic boxes/plastic dustbins). Then as soon as possible to small winter stock ponds with a good flush of fresh water. This cleans the fish so that they do not taste so muddy when they are killed. Carp is a favourite but there are some other fish in there too....I'm not an angler so could not tell you what. The fish are put back into the lakes when all chance of freezing is passed and before they are ready to start feeding in the warmer weather.
-
We get given a fair bit of trout and thats wonderful, usualy when on our walks around the local dam, there is some in the freezer now but that was a gift from a work friend also fished in Scotland.....The other day we had some pancakes made from the frozen eggs and blueberries that we picked in the forest earlier last year although we did not collect that many...I shall look forward to filling a big bag of wild garlic etc and then of course all the berries...I do not collect mushrooms as I dare not but we see loads of them around... love food for free and we now have loads of wood for free!!!! Free =good.......I shall have to see where you are to get such a nice walk and fish!!!
-
Last year the field next to ours had about 60 acres of potato,s. growing. After the harvest my wife a I
went out with the wheel - barrow to pick up the some of the lef-tovers . I think we aquired about 120kg.
We felt really good about our free food as the field was ploughed the folling day for a winter crop.
I worked out we only eat 1.5kg a week between us. Many of the spuds were over 1lb in wieght.
Were giving some away now as food parcels to visitors.
Anyone for chips? :yum:
-
Sandy
"free food = good"
how true ! we even collect horsechestnuts and acorns for the pigs ( we have lots of time) and today I gathered several dry branches that I found caught up in the trees ( for next year).
Mushrooms ? Umm no - we spent a day with books trying to distinguish edible from those marked with a skull and cross bones. We failed - besides the local hunt killed 2 mushroom pickers the other year !!
Heh - The free spuds were a real winner !
Carp - our neighbours have a rectangular pool flushed by their spring to keep their carp in for a few days ( gets rid of the muddy taste). Now that is real smallholding and enterprise ( French style !)
-
Some people we know had a friend that was knowledgable in fungi and he is still in hospital and the rest of the people that ate the bad mushrooms need transplants!!! Nooooo, not a chance I would rather buy them!!! My brother said he used to collect rose hips and get paid for them but that was years ago!!! A lot of young leaves can be used for salads and they are nice, I got fed up with different bags on dog walks, we also collect stuff for our chickens as they cleared thier big bit of garden!!! Pluss I have a load of nettles ready for beer in the freezer....
Our tree surgeon said he takes anything thats free and so do I, our whole house is pre owned and most of my wardrobe is, we get some great stuff for min £
-
Road kill. Pheasants, rabbits, deer :yum:
-
I have had several hares off the road too in addition to all the above.
-
A red deer stag once disembowelled itself on our gate. It had to beput out of its misery. Kept us going for months.
-
wild garlic is my favourite, can't wait for the season. We also had a hare recently off the road. :&>
-
I think Deer must be too rich for me as evertime I have eaten it, I have ended up with an upset stomach and thats rare for me, my stomach can take most things!!!!!! I have never thought about road kill as its picking it up thats my fear, probaly get run over myself!!!!!
I love my book food for free...I was mad I missed all the hazel nuts on a tree I often stop at on a walk, I only noticed when I saw all the empty cases on the floor....the dogs love me collecting stuff too as they also eat the fruit..not the garlic though!!
-
We didn't get done what we intended to AGAIN today... all our plans went out of the window when we were offered this lot, free for the digging.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-eljsMubnVPU/TxRUSsYq6UI/AAAAAAAABlU/NEP_OjSSYkA/s720/P1010032-1.JPG)
There were parsnips, pumpkins, cabbages, swede, chard, parsley, beetroot and our neighbours rejected potatoes (if they have even a small spot/blemish she puts them in a box for our pigs :thumbsup:)
It was all supposed to be 'waste', but the parsnips were so good that a bucketful are now in our freezer! The pigs, ducks and chickens will get the rest though! :)
-
wev took road kill once cos the car infront of us killed it, jus a pheasant, but was my first ever gutting!
deer dont stay long on the roads round here.
-
Wooow, some people drive round early in the morning to collect stuff, good idea!
-
Apparently if you run over a pheasant you're not supposed to pick it up, but if the car in front does it's OK. Don't know where I heard that. I suppose if it's a rarely used country road who would see you anyway ;D I've picked up road kill many a time - not now as there's just me and the dogs so I don't bother. But if the cat brings a biggish rabbit back he's allowed to eat the head then i dash out and grab it off him. Skin peeled and salted for covering retrieving dummies, best bits fro me and the rest divided up between the dogs. I've had a pheasant off him too, but I don't bother with any of the smaller things he brings back - he always seems to take his kill home with him and eats it on the garden picnic bench, to a chorus of dog yowling usually. ::)
-
i collect field mushrooms, blewitts and parasols, those ive learned to identify, but the best free food is down on the shoreline, ivegot a converted prawn pot (similar to a crab pot) and i collect shore, green and velvet crabs in it to make a seafood bisque, mussels are an easy pick, 20mins work to feed us both, cockels and winkles, occasionally clams and native oysters from the mud of the fal. lovely.
i made £50 last year collecting and selling sweet chestnuts, ive still got a jar of pickled to add to stews, but my favourite, raw or cooked has to be wild garlic particularly the flowers.
-
Yummmm, not sure the forth has too much to eat other than the lovely fish in there!!!!
-
My ex would always stop for road kill rabbits. One day he saw one by the side of the road, stopped, picked it up and chucked it in the back of the car. We he got home and opened the boot, he found no rabbit but two very happy dogs.
-
It's amazing what some of you all gather - love the shore line seafood and that money can be made too ( from nuts etc).
Seems that mushrooming should be avoided unless you really know what you are doing.
In France - If it moves it is shot so we don't have hardly any roadkill. Actually the lack of traffic is probably the reason. We thought of selling ( stuff we gathered) walnuts and chestnuts on the market - maybe with some jams around Xmas time.
Some great posts here and still chuckling at some of them.
-
Poor dogs....never understand nature doing that to dogs and making them so vulnerable...keeping on the thread, not sure if there is a law about one person running something over and not being able to take it but the next person can? If that were the case how would people find out unless you ended up in the middle of a field in the car chasing a rabbit!! ;)
-
yes MAX mushrooming should be avoided especially in the woods in France. You are likely to be shot yourself. Remember always to wear your yellow jacket!! :wave: :wave: Jan
-
we had deer once when our very bad dogs chased her and brought her down and injured her neck. we tried to save her but she couldnt walk and died from the shock. we bled her while still warm and put her in the freezer.
another time we found an injured deer from a road accident and took it to the vets who had a wildlife dept. they promptly put her to sleep - i wonder if they ate her...? hmmm
-
Yeah - I bet the Vet has a network of people to proud to eat road kill but happy to eat his meat - could be a nice earne for him !!!
Jan - A nearby hunt in Dun la Palestel killed 2 mushroom pickers ( and one of their own) a couple of years ago.
Our hunt are nice people ;D ;D - ;D and we, apparentley, are on the peasant list to receive a share of the spoils. We got our quarter of roe deer last week. mmmmmmmm.
martin
-
I often drive along a stretch of road where deer are caught by cars.(it's a dual carriageway) If I see a dead deer I stop and put my mobile 'phone to my ear until I am sure the road is clear, then it's into the back of the Landy with it before you can say" you're too old to do that sort of thing" ;) ;D ;D
-
http://www.channel4.com/4food/features/british-game-guide-when-to-shoot-and-eat-it-08-08-15 (http://www.channel4.com/4food/features/british-game-guide-when-to-shoot-and-eat-it-08-08-15)
I KNEW I was right!!
To meet the demand for trigger-happy pheasant fanciers, around 25 million of the birds are reared each year but only about half of them are shot, leaving a further 12 million pheasants to roam AWOL. If one lands on your property, and you have a firearm licence, it is legal to shoot it. But, if you run over a pheasant on the road, it is illegal to pick it up.
-
We were lucky same as Bangbang. Field of potatoes harvested late afternoon. We went and collected a couple of buckets of ones they had missed and the next day the whole lot was ploughed over and seeded. They tasted better than our own for some reason !
-
free food is one thing i can do in my new life in Scotland, i love a bit of fishing and the east coast has some great fishing on it so when i get time it will be a trip to the coast to see what's going in the freezer!!!
-
free food is one thing i can do in my new life in Scotland, i love a bit of fishing and the east coast has some great fishing on it so when i get time it will be a trip to the coast to see what's going in the freezer!!!
You'll be close to the Gartmorn Dam - fishing permits available and a beautiful place to take the kids (and dog if you have one, can't remember if you said) See you tomorrow
-
Our neighbours all have fruit trees but no idea what to do with that weird stuff they produce. We haven't bought apples in six months cos the early ripeners were really early and we're still eating the keepers.
The garage is full of bottled plums, raspberries, blackberries. Ah, the downside. OH experimented heavily with fruit cordials so we bought vast quantities of tesco industrial gin and vodka. If there's a fire here we'll be too pissed to escape. Pass another glass of raspberry vodka, dear.
-
If there's a fire here we'll be too pissed to escape. Pass another glass of raspberry vodka, dear.
;D ;D ;D ;D
-
Just been given half a dozen very new laid eggs.