Malus

 

It's been a bumper year so far for apples, both domestic and wild forms. Unusually as yet there doesn't appear to have been a significant, if any, June drop, with most trees sharing an abundance of smallish fruits. How many of them will survive until harvest is yet to seen. Hopeful though.

Mast

 

It's looking a good year for Mast, the forests' Beech (Fagus sylvatica) are putting on a good show; of course, time will tell. Though fiddly and time consuming to process, 'beechnuts' are potentially a valuable wild food resource. Found in prehistoric contexts beechnuts have a long history of use; traditionally they're dry pan toasted, crushed and roasted for a coffee substitute, pressed for oil, and more. Come autumn the pigs at pannage love them too. 

Haws

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) appears to be having a good year so far, trees covered in blossom at Beltane are now heavy with burgeoning haws as the Solstice approaches.

Fruitless

Less than a week ago we celebrated second harvest, the fruit harvest, though out in the forest that harvest has been poor. On my roams, at least anyway. Usually at this time of year the fruiting shrubs are well served with fruit. Not this year though. With hardly a Sloe to be seen, naked Hawthorns as the norm, unripe Blackberries and a Crab Apple tree still holding its' fruit a rare sight, the forest is a disappointment for forager and wildlife alike.

Slow year for sloes?

The Sloes are looking a bit thin on the ground, maybe a sign of a slow year for them.

Berry good year

 

It's been a very good year for Blackberries, quantity wise anyways, unfortunately not so much on taste, with quite a number having a disappointingly bland taste. Maybe as a consequence you've seen more folk out gathering; weirdly though, even with the widespread abundance of blackberries, most of the people I've seen collecting were doing so on the sides of roads; what's that about? According to folklore today's the last day to collect blackberries, or least one of them, I've seen a couple; since Christianity' arrival it's been said that when the Devil fell from heaven he landed in a bramble thicket and cursed the bush, before that though it was a puck or malevolent spirits which rendered the berries foul. That in one form or another a similar story has existed for such a long time suggests there's a real world reason for avoiding late in the season blackberries, which if you've tried them is evident.

Haws

 

It is a real bumper year for Haws, the forests' Hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna) are putting on quite the show. If you'd ever considered collecting haws for making jams and jellies or maybe for their medicinal qualities making syrups, teas and tinctures then this would appear to be a good year. I think I may have made Haw wine once? You can eat the fleshy ones straight off the bough too, though try and spit the seeds out, they're a bit cyanide-y. That aside the berries are bloody good for you.

Rare fruit

Apples from three of the Commons' apple trees; the others were either barren or the few fruits they had were inaccessible. On the whole it's been a pitiful year for apples over the Common; and not just over the Common, neighbours with cookers say their fruits are fewer and smaller. It started well enough, with plenty of blossom, though it has come to nought, a very thin harvest indeed. Shame. And no, they hadn't be scrumped already, I was point and had to wade through dense bracken, bramble and nettle to reach these trees. That said, it was worth it even for a few fruits; the Commons' apples, although not huge, and sometimes slightly thicker skinned, are very tasty nonetheless.  Heritage varieties do you think? I do.

Malus

Out in the forest it's been a very good year for Crab Apples (Malus sylvestris) many of the trees are hanging with fruit. 

Midland Hawthorn

 

The arrival of May sees the Hawthorn (Crataegus) flowers beginning to burst forth; the first you'll see will probably be Midland Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata) which usually flowers a couple of weeks before Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna); our Common Hawthorn's buds are still tightly rolled balls, it looking like they're going to put on quite a show though.

Apples

As the apple trees over the common are coming into blossom, I've noticed their number is multiplying with several young trees popping up. To my knowledge all the Common's apple trees, well at least all the ones I've tested, are eaters rather than cookers. I don't know what variety of apple they are, though they have the feel of an older less breed variety and produce small yet flavoursome fruits with tough skins. I'm hoping for a good fruiting season as I've got some appley plans.

Chestnuts!

 

So, we passed through the stand of Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) trees I mentioned yesterday, and good news, the available crop of chestnuts was far superior to the trees I'd been seeing. Yeah, you still have a lot of empty nut sacks and and loads of small Hazelnut sized nuts, though with a root about you also have a good amount fair sized nuts and a reasonable amount of corkers (not conkers, don't eat conkers they'll fuck you up); what was striking was the huge number of fallen cases and nuts already eaten by wildlife; all around the trees the ground has been churned by horses feasting on chestnuts, they really seem to like them. Why might these trees have good fruits though so many others don't; all I could come up with was the age of the trees, these trees are old, they were old when I first collected here in the 1980's. Maybe that's it? What I can say is, we passed many Chestnut trees on our 12.8 mile walk today and none displayed the quantity or quality of nuts these trees did.  And yes, I did return with a bag full for roasting; well, it would be rude not to.   

Nut sacks

Well, the season is upon us and the spiky green cases of the forest's Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) trees have been falling for a couple of weeks now; sadly if those that have fallen (and a lot have already fallen) are anything to go by this year you wont be roasting chestnuts on an open fire unless you buys some. For the most part the examples I've seen lying about have been little more than empty nut sacks and small fruits, slim pickings for both man and beast.  I suppose this could just be the trees discarding the chaff, the weaker fruits and the best nuts are yet to come; though that sounds like wishful thinking. Tomorrow we'll be passing through a stand of mature Sweet Chestnut trees that I've gathered from for 40 years and are usually a solid bet; that should be a tell.   

No show Sloe

One of the fruits of the forest that hasn't done so well this year, not around my roams anyway, is the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Most years the forest's Blackthorns are well laden with plump juicy fruits, Sloes; not so this year though. Many of the shrubby trees have been completely barren, some fruited poorly way too early in the season and now harbour only shrivelled fruits, whilst the occasional one that does bear good fruits are only very lightly covered. I don't think you can necessarily put this down to the climate, a lot of the fruits of the forest do appear to cycle through good and poor seasons with regularity, it's natures way; although of course you can't wholly discount climatic effects either, they may well have contributed.   

Hip hip

 

One of the wild fruits of the forest that appears to have done really well this year are the Dog Roses (Rosa canina), their bright fruits, or hips, can be seen throughout the forest. Rose hips are packed with goodness including high levels of vitamins C, B and E, along with a wide range of other beneficial compounds and have long been utilized as a consequence. During world War Two Britain relied on Rose Hips for their Vitamin C; school children, Guides and Scouts, and Women’s organizations were encouraged to collect the hips, which were subsequently sent for industrial processing; in the autumn of 1941 200 tons, or 134,000,000 hips made 600,000 bottles of rose hip syrup. We could do with re-learning many of the foraging skill of our elders and ancestors; really, we should never have abandoned the suite of foraging/bushcraft skills that sustained us for millennia.

Crab Apples

It looks like a good season for Crab Apples (Malus sylvestris), many of the forest's compact shrubby trees are festooned with small green and red fruits. The small apples are bitter to say the least, although that doesn't rule them out as a wild food resource; most commonly they're made into jelly to be served with pork, or roasted also to be served with meats; they're also a good source of pectin so a great addition to jams. The bark and wood are none too shabby either, the bark for creating a yellow dye and the wood is very good for turning. Though the tree and it's fruits are most valuable to the forest's wildlife; the flowers are a boon for pollinating insects, the leafs provide food for caterpillars, especially those of moths; and all manner of birds and woodland mammals enjoy the tart fruits. All round it's quite the forest provider.

Small fruits

The Common's apple trees are again well laden with fruit, although this year they're noticeably smaller, more like over sized crab apples or large plums, that said, they may now be bite sized but they're still just as tasty; the same can be said for our neighbour ancient cooking apple tree, usually laden with gorgeous fruits, the source of countless pies and crumbles; it's going to take a hell of a lot of them to fill a dish this autumn. This is another aspect to consider about climate change, how will it affect the size, quality and quantity of our wild harvests; a resource I'd taken for granted in my societal/food supply breakdown modelling. As I've probably mentioned before, these apocalypses we're enduring continue not to shape up to be the ones I'd been envisaging, planning and prepping for. No zombies either....yet (Shawn of the Dead zombies, not World War Z zombies, please).  

 

Pomme

This time of the year the common's apples make for a welcome fruity snack whilst out for a walk with Geoff. I know I bang on about this every year, but I'm amazed more of the common's fruit is utilized, there are half a dozen apple trees and countless blackberries....I feel guilty that I don't use more of it. This particular apple tree yields a very tasty smallish apple, slightly tart on first biting though there after sweet enough, an eater cooker cross maybe? Very nice.

Apple blossom

 

There are so many points in nature's ever turning wheel of the year that I look forward to, after all, each season offers up so many gifts. Few gifts though are as fragrant as apple blossom in spring sunshine, it's a heavenly scent, dreamy...it's easy to see why they're associated with love and sensuality.  The Common's apples are just edging into blossom now, with the very first flowers opening up to the sun. Catching their fragrance is a real joy, a joy that over the last decade has grown in abundance as several new apple trees have appeared and burgeoned around the Common. 

Fruit of fruits

 

These wild/feral-escapee apples over the common may be small, but they're perfectly formed and full of flavour, in fact they're as tasty as any commercial variety and better than many.  And there's loads of them!