The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: NotQuiteASmallHolder on February 08, 2017, 10:26:34 am
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Morning folks,
Can anyone recommend any books which would provide helpful information for a wannabe forager? I've managed to work out a few local things which I know are edible but I'm sure there must be more that I could make use of.
Ideally something tailored towards Scotland would be good.
Thanks,
Chris
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I'll be interested in what people come up with. There seems to be almost nothing where we live. The only hedgerows are the ones we planted. They are now producing all sorts of fruit and the occasional nut. We even had to plant our own brambles. Farmers round here like to cultivate their fields right to the very edge, and the patches of trees are nearly all conifer plantations - I could collect pine nuts I suppose :idea: although we have those in our hedges too.
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"Handbook of Scotlands Harvests" I bought on Amazon but didn't read it yet.
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"Food for Free" (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Richard-Mabey/dp/0007438478) is usually quoted as a good reference guide.
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Hi Chris,
The Miles Irving foraging handbook is one of my favorites but probably not the best for determination of plants. Another recommendation is Roger Philips's Wild Food lots of recipes and ok pictures of most of the plants.
Cheers,
DD
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I think there are two different questions / answers.
One - a wild plant ID guide / skills
Two - an edibility guide
It's very hard to get both in a format that you can take out on walks. I tend to do a fair bit of cross referencing and googling!
Try http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/ (http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/) for starters :)
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Much easier to pal up with a Polish person.
For some reason they seem to be excellent foragers. I see them regularly picking wild mushrooms.