Horse Chestnut Soap? Part One...

 The weekend was wet and windy, it finally cleared up on Sunday afternoon so I took the kids out to hunt for conkers and to blow off some steam. 

The tree in a field near us had none on them so we went to a friends to see what we could find.  

Elderflower Champagne

It's that time of year again when my hay fever is going crazy - It can only mean one thing - Time to make elderflower champagne!

Now it's not the elder flower that sets off my hay fever, but I always put the two things together in my head now!

One Of Our Favourite Things To Forage - Lime Leaves

Now although my eldest asked if the "lemon" leaves were ready to eat yet, I was really pleased they'd remembered this foraged treat from last year.

Yes that is a Christmas jumper, no I don't care...

Even the Boy, who is going through a phase of not eating salad leaves, loves these.

Dandelion Bhajis

The girls love picking flowers, they are very stereotypical like that!

But here they had a purpose! They were picking them so I could make something. I wasn't exactly sure what but it seemed like a good reason to keep them busy for a while!

Forage And Feast Course - Harts Barn

This year for Christmas one of my presents from my mum was a days course at Harts Barn Cookery School. 

Amazing cooking facilities!

The course mum had booked was called "forage and feast" and she had booked it for this month because autumn is an abundant time of year, but mainly because she hates wild garlic and thought if we did it in the spring that would feature heavily.

Meadow Sweet Champagne/Sparkling Wine

This year I was a little bit gutted that I just didn't get round to making any elder flower champagne like I did last year. 

Meadow Sweet

But then a thought hit me as I was driving down the country lanes where we live. I wonder if I can make something with the amazing smelling Meadow Sweet that seems to be growing on every verge around here. 

What Age Should Children Forage For Food?

When you see the school's number flash up on the phone your heart always sinks. 

"What's happened? Are they all okay?"
 "Erm... It's one of your children, they've eaten something..."

Fermented Wild Garlic

With so much wild garlic ready for picking at the start of the month I wanted to properly take advantage of it this year. 

I looked online and in a few books to see what else could be done with this wild harvest. One idea that really got me curious was to ferment it. I've been wanted to try more fermented stuff and as I have a talk on preserving later in the year I thought that might make a useful bit of the talk! 

Foraging A Meal

I always enjoy a simple bit of foraging food for a meal and I like teaching the children what they can look for.

Blackberry Picking

Although foraging is going through something of a revival in this country we're far behind other countries. In Greece foraging for edible greens is still really popular and is called "Horta" and they're well known for being weed eaters. Other countries harvest fungi with little worry. 

One type of foraging that I don't think has ever lost it's popularity in this country is blackberry picking. I can remember doing it as a child, through my teenage years and into my twenties and now thirties as well. I should imagine there hasn't been many years when I haven't collected this free fruit from the hedgerows. 

I often see others doing it as well, there's something completely appealing about this easy to identify, tasty fruit, even if you pick an area clean one day, a few days later they are there ready to pick again! 

Eldest looking after the youngest

My children are certainly obsessed with the berry at the moment. 

There's loads by where we park the car that they have to pick at each day as they get out and we've been a few times to fill some punnets up to go in the freezer. A quick walk around the field results in another for a few apple crumbles to warm us for some autumn evenings that seem to have come all of a sudden. 

That said their tubs never come back very full! 

I love doing this with my children, it's certainly something that has been done for thousands of years and I'm sure in much the same way. I reach the high ones whilst the kids gather the low ones (and fill their faces when I'm not looking). 

Who else has been out foraging for blackberries this season? 

Is it something you did with your children?

What's your favourite food to forage?

Five Year Old Forager

 This bit of fennel melted my heart the other day.

The girls have the job of collecting the eggs every afternoon now. 

The hens are out of sight of the kitchen but they go off together, without me, and take some kitchen scraps salad leaves with them. I think it's nice to give them a bit of responsibility and it makes them feel like big girls (they're 3 and 5), the 3 year old even goes by herself sometimes. 

They always come back with a big smile and tell em how many eggs there are.

On Wednesday my eldest came up and asked what we where having for tea, when I asked why she said "because I've found some wild food Daddy, it might be nice with tea". 

She'd found some self set fennel down in the orchard, identified it and brought it back for me, she hadn't eaten any because she knows she's not allowed to eat things without showing me first when we're out and about. 

I was so proud of her, to me that was far better than reading a good school report. 

We each had a sprig on our new potatoes for tea that night and she sat there quite proudly as we ate it.

Nettle Soup Mk2

I put on my facebook page last night that I was having nettles for tea and Sue from Our New Life In The Country Commented back about what I could make with it. It made me think about the first time I posted about nettle soup, three years ago almost to the day, that was the first time Sue commented on my blog after I got mentioned on Rhondas Down To Earth Blog on her Weekend Reading section. Before then I'd only had a few comments and that seemed to be the catalyst for having much more interaction with people in blogland and I haven't looked back since! So thank you Rhonda and Sue for that memory!

 Any way back to the nettle soup! I decided to make use of one of my wild "crops" that is growing on our homestead. Unfortunately to pick it I didn't have to go very far from my back door, the fact they were all picked within 20 yards doesn't say much for my garden really does it! 

I tried a different recipe this time, following one from river cottage (find it here) but I have to admit to not being that impressed with it. 

We did visit River Cottage once, many years ago before children, for a Saturday night meal and I've been trying to recreate their recipe ever since. I think this is why I'm always left slightly disappointed at my own attempts. This was still nice with a fresh baked loaf of granary bread but it wasn't what I remembered.

Does anyone else have a good recipe for nettle soup? One that might live up to what I've built it up to in my mind!