Foraging

Walking through the lanes this morning on one of my, now regular, foraging trips I noticed a crab apple tree in the hedgrow. On closer inspection the fruits were ripe enough to come off in my hand with a gentle twist of the stalk.

I took one of my foraging bags, better known as small freezer bags, from my pocket and collected about 2 pounds in weight.

On reflection I should have waited for my return trip to gather the apples as I now had to carry them with me on the rest of my walk.

The real purpose of my trip this morning was to gather a couple of bags of pine cones that I had seen on a walk earlier in the week.

Under the branches of five Scots pines in amongst the pine needles lie masses of disguarded cones. I like the idea of a few pine cones on our open fire in the midst of Winter. I've no idea if this is a practical idea but I'd like to give it a try.

So with two carrier bags of pine cones, two pounds of crab apples and a small bag of blackberries - well, you can't go foraging at this time of the year and come back without a blackberry or two - I wandered home to look for a recipe for the crab apples.