Town planners of 20th century often included cherry trees in their planting schemes as they loved the blossom. The fruit was something of an afterthought, but not for us foragers. It has meant that added to the list of usual places to hunt for cherries you should include housing estates and parks. You will more often than not find the bitter bird cherry. but on some occasions you can strike the jackpot and find some deliciously plump variety that will rival anything you can buy in the shop. During June/July we are well into fruit season and the most opportunistic amongst us will not have to buy any fruit again until there is snow on the ground. This is a time when fruit is …
Tag: dave hamilton
Sumac – Dave Hamilton
Stag Horn Sumac – Rhus typhina The Forager’s Lemon Staghorn Sumac makes a tasty lemonade. The small furry drupes form a larger structure called a panicle – picture by Dave Hamilton Sumac is one of those plants you may have seen a thousand times but never really realised it had an edible use. It’s not a truly wild plant in the UK but it does readily escape from gardens as it sends up suckers when the roots are disturbed. In this way trees can ‘escape’ from gardens over long periods of time and become ‘wild’. The sumac leaves are high in tannin and were traditionally they were used in the…