NATURE — The Pick Of Nature’s Crop
THIS summer I have been waging war against an army of brambles intent on occupying a large part of my garden, writes David Carnduff.
It’s no easy task. When you think you have them defeated, the invaders start a new offensive by sending out long, thorny shoots into territory that seemed safe — and the warfare continues.
However, as a salute to their tenacity, I have let some brambles flourish for the time being in a far corner where their white flowers have been attracting bumblebees.
Who knows, later in the season I may be able to harvest my own small crop of the purple berries as a reward for showing mercy to one small patch of the prickly imposters.
Picking brambles has been an autumn activity enjoyed for generations and shows no sign of diminishing, even if it means scratched hands and purple-stained fingers after a day’s foraging along hedgerows and field edges. Collecting fruits, fungi and berries — and a lot more besides — for consumption seems, if anything, to be on the increase.
It caught the public’s imagination way back in early 70s with the publication of Food for Free by Richard Mabey which became a Bible for a new generation of foragers who saw reaping nature’s harvest as a trendy lifestyle choice.
Mabey showed that an astonishing range of roots, shoots, leaves, berries and fungi could be used for cooking.
Nowadays the trend continues with people paying handsomely to accompany professional foragers on trips to coast and country in search of everything edible.
But, of course, it’s an activity that comes with a health warning. What may seem like a harmless mushroom or scented herb growing by the wayside could have the potential to kill you.
Take, for example, the “umbellifers”. These are a diverse group of leafy, wayside plants that grow abundantly in Inverclyde. They come in various sizes but most share a common trait in that the flowers form multiple clusters of mainly white flowers.
Shoots, leaves and seeds of some umbellifer species are edible and good and have been used in traditional recipes for centuries. But the group also includes some dangerous varieties, such as the notorious hemlock water dropwort — or “poisonous parsnip” as it is sometimes called.
Yet, by contrast, the young shoots and flowerbuds of the closely-related common hogweed — a wayside plant found throughout Inverclyde — has been described by one food forager as one of the finest vegetables in the UK.
The young shoots of common hogweed (foreground) are considered to be a tasty natural vegetable. But hemlock water dropwort (at the back), although similar looking, is extremely poisonous.
The same enthusiast also sings the praises of the ubiquitous Japanese knotweed, as a “tasty, healthy food that can be harvested in large quantities as a vegetable or for use in drinks, desserts and savoury dishes”. Tempting as knotweed pudding sounds, I think I will stick to bramble pie.
Bramble flowers attract bees in summer, with the berries following in the autumn.
