Foragers Diary; July 2018

From top to bottom; elder flower, meadowsweet, sweet cicely and spignel. 

While most of the fruit tree blossom has long since gone, meadow sweet and some late elderflower might still be available especially further up North. But blossoms are a great option for some tasty wild tea's as are a few other wild plants.

Of those pictured to the left meadowsweet and sweet cicely are my favourite. I find elderflower too sweet and spignel is more of a vegetable than a tea, it can be used to make a great broth though and the roots can be eaten as a vegetable. 

By this time you will have missed the sweet cicely blossom but these seed pods give a delicious aniseed flavour and can be used in a range of cooking roles. Beware though they are superficially similar to hemlock so don't confuse the two.  

Spignel By Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Brewing up in the woods

Sweet cicely and pineapple weed

Summer brings soft fruit season too and walks in the uplands almost never pass without me stocking up on a few berries at least for a snack on the hill and often enough to pack into an empty water bottle to take home for a treat.

Raspberries on the hill

 

Filling up a water bottle with bill berries and crow berries

A mixture of winberries (also known as bilberries, whortleberries) and crow berries

A close up of some crow berries, also known as heather berries because of the plants similarity to heather. They taste like slightly sour grapes.