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ROWAN…Fire Engine Red Witchbane & What You Can Do With It.
Rowan trees are aglow with fire engine red berries in council car parks and waysides everywhere. They’re a popular landscaping tree, so chances are there’ll be one near you. They love growing high up, so check hills too. Rowan, or Mountain Ash, is known as Sorbus aucuparia in the botanical community. It’s a member of…
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My Foraging Journal:November
A bit belated this one. October is a busy month for foragers in temperate zones. I’ve been testing out brambles for various types of basketry for 2 bushcraft/homesteading magazines. Brambles are hard-wearing if you can evade and conquer the thorns! The best time to harvest bramble for this is actually summer, as they are more…
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How Can We GIVE BACK to Nature?
It’s ever more important to realise that as foragers we are part of the cycle of life, not looking down on it, not the broken end of a chain of energy. When you first start foraging, you may not feel this way. However, as time goes on and you become more attuned to the plants,…
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King’s Wood: The Kingdom of Fungi – Oct 25th
Majestic old oaks arch and swoop overhead. at their venerable feet boletes pop up like roast turkey scented bath sponges. Pacing up and down another ride leads us to bracken and silver-white birches with Milk Caps and Brown Roll Rim. Yet another way, we end up in the midst of hazel coppice. Lastly…tall pines swaying,…
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Here We go Gathering Nuts in… October
SWEET CHESTNUTS Round these parts (Bedfordshire, UK) the sweet chestnuts are already ripe and shining rich brown as they pop out of quilled cases. By the way, it may seem like I’m being patronising, but do you know how to tell the difference between a Sweet Chestnut and a ‘conker’ tree (Horse Chestnut)? (Yes, spot…
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‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ – J. Keats
After a busy weekend teaching a public forage on Saturday and a private Foraging Party Sunday, both with 3-4 tapas tasters, I thought I’d share with you all some other fruiting and fungal delights of the autumn season. Hops droop (like brewer’s droop haha) from the hedge down the way. Once golden and dry, the…
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My Hedgewitch Journal: Seedy September 2025
September is the golden, freckled season of seeds. There’s lots to forage now and much to store for winter. So here are 5 the seeds the boy and I been harvesting. Well, ok, seeds I have been harvesting whilst my son moans about it and slumps in the footway. PLANTAIN SEEDS I’ve been shucking the…
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Cooking A Continental Find: ‘Pioppino’, The Poplar Field Mushroom
A week or so after the first rains, I leapt aboard my trusty steed and cycled down to one of my favourite foraging haunts, Tiddenfoot Lake. Here I was blessed enough to find two black poplar tree stumps with fruiting Poplar Field Mushrooms. This mushroom, Cyclocybe aegerita/cylindracea, has been foraged, grown and cooked since Greek…
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SUMMER SPICED FRUITS:H.A. Foraging Journal July pt 2
Fruits are hanging ready all about me, urged on by the earlier, hotter than normal weather. Being aware of climate change and making whatever steps we can to lower our carbon footprint is one thing to do. Try to walk on local journeys whenever possible…not only are you saving carbon and getting fitter, you’ll spot…
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FLOWER POWER :H.A.Foraging Journal July Pt 1
June and July are such busy months for the forager! Below are some things you might like to try that I’ve been doing. 1.Fortify yourself with St John’s Wort! I infused some St John’s Wort, the Midsummer Flower according to Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’. I infused it in lemon gin. I actually don’t like gin,…
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