Foraging Food for free

As regular readers know already, I’m a huge fan of Food for Free. Especially at this time of year, I never leave the house without a useful ‘au cas où’ bag stuffed in my pocket . This is a bag that any rural French person will have about their person always – just in case they find something useful – a few nuts, berries, fungi or leaves to add interest to the store cupboard. At the moment, this is all about the apples, blackberries, bullace and mirabelle plums all growing wild locally. At other times it might be young nettles, wild garlic or other leaves. Soon it will be puffballs. I’m not especially knowledgeable, but I do my best. Yesterday’s haul? Windfall apples (simple stewed apple) mirabelles (frangipane and jam) and bullaces (crumble and bullace cheese – think a plum version of membrillo – very labour intensive).

Although I was brought up foraging, my commitment to it was sealed when we lived in France. Here’s a post I wrote in October 2012.

‘All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin’*

October 25th, 2012

Well, at this time of year, it isn’t really a case of ‘au cas où’ .  You’re bound to find something.  A fortnight ago, for instance, Malcolm and I went on a country stroll from Lieurac to Neylis.  We had with us a rucksack and two large bags, and we came home with just under 5 kilos of walnuts, scavenged from beneath the walnut trees along the path.  A walk through the hamlet of Bourlat just above Laroque produced a tidy haul of chestnuts too.

Yesterday, we Laroque walkers were among the vineyards of Belvèze-du-Razès.  The grapes had all been harvested in the weeks before, but luckily for us, some bunches remained on the endless rows of vines which lined the paths we walked along.  We felt no guilt as we gorged on this fruit all through the morning.  The grapes had either been missed at harvest-time, or hadn’t been sufficiently ripe.  They were unwanted – but not by us.

So many vines: there’ll be unharvested grapes there somewhere.

The walnuts we’re used to in the Ariège are replaced by almonds over in the Aude.  You have to be careful: non-grafted trees produce bitter almonds, not the sweet ones we wanted to find.  But most of us returned with a fine haul to inspect later.  Some of us found field mushrooms too.

A solitary almond

Today, the destination of the Thursday walking group was the gently rising forested and pastoral country outside Foix known as la Barguillère.  It’s also known locally as an area richly provided with chestnut trees.  Any wild boar with any sense really ought to arrange to spend the autumn there, snuffling and truffling for the rich pickings.  We walked for 9 km or so, trying to resist the temptation to stop and gather under every tree we saw.  The ground beneath our feet felt nubbly and uneven as we trod our way over thousands of chestnuts, and the trees above threw further fruits down at us, popping and exploding as their prickly casings burst on the downward journey.

Just picture whole paths, thickly covered with chestnuts like this for dozens of yards at a time.

As our hike drew to an end, so did our supply of will-power.  We took our bags from our rucksacks and got stuck in.  So plentiful are the chestnuts here that you can be as picky as you like.  Only the very largest and choicest specimens needed to make it through our rigorous quality control.  I was restrained.  I gathered a mere four kilos.  Jacqueline and Martine probably each collected three times as much.  Some we’ll use, some we’ll give to lucky friends.

I think these chestnuts represent Jacqueline, Martine and Maguy’s harvest.

Now I’d better settle myself down with a dish of roasted chestnuts at my side, and browse through my collections of recipes to find uses for all this ‘Food for Free’.

*From the words of an English hymn sung during Harvest Festival.

For Denzils’ Nature Photo Challenge #24: Edible.

And Jo’s Monday Walk: even though Jo is taking a break.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

80 thoughts on “Foraging Food for free”

    1. Ah, always good to make very sure they’re knowledgeable 😉 . Lucky you: such people often keep their secrets close to their chests. We knew one old chap who died rather than divulge his secret spot!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. Teehee…easy to eat on the hoof with blackberries….my favourite was bilberries as a child….parents weren’t too happy as we were meant to be gathering not eating

        Liked by 1 person

  3. I do love chestnuts and almonds, Margaret, but haven’t made much effort at foraging. I applaud your efforts. Not much foraging will be done in current conditions. I’m hoping to get out of the house when the torrent stops 🤗🌧☔️🩷 Many thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      3. The wedding is this Saturday. We’re here till Sunday then up to Durham a couple of nights. Don’t think I can make arrangements to meet, Margaret, because our time doesn’t feel like our own right now 😕🩷

        Liked by 1 person

      4. I get that. I didn’t ask before because I guessed your every moment was spoken for. But then I thought ‘Them as don’t ask don’t get’, so worth a go. Another time!

        Like

      2. It’s true, blackberries can conquer wherever they turn up. Best to take all they can offer – it’d still leave plenty for birds and other life forms who eat them.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Wonderful, so long since I have heard that hymn echo in my brain. Something I miss by attending Quaker meetings. Chestnuts, I still can not resist picking them up even though preparation drives me crazy! Good to delve back into your past.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for bullace which I had to look up. My partner made membrillo a few years ago, I think in 2020 when we all had a bit of time on our hands. Such a lot of work! He now sticks to quince jelly.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. Gosh thanks. This delicacy has passed me by entirely. I’d never even heard of them. Are they as delicious as your memory tells you, or was it the thrill of the chase?

        Liked by 1 person

  10. never heard the word bullace. they seem to be a wild version of the plum or damson family. I guess they make a fine confiture. I don’t know membrillo either but I found out that it is a quince paste. LOVE IT. Love everything quincey…. but such hard work. I haven’t got the strength in my hands any longer to cut them into pieces. Have friends who found nearby their holiday home in the Grison (Bündnerland) many kilos of mushrooms. I’m SO jealous.
    I’d love to forage but I have reservations about doing so. It’s considered to be stealing and I overlooked (and -heard) a such event nearby our then French home with poor ppl picking up chestnuts. And when I was a child, I was punished for even only picking up fallen apples….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The French are totally inveterate foragers! I loved that about them. Obviously no area should be unmercifully pillaged, something which newer foragers are sometimes guilty of, but otherwise it’s victimless. This child would have been punished for NOT picking up fallen apples!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. There rarely is anything similar to your haul for me to forage in the places I visit for my photography. I occasionally find an abandoned old apple tree but I’ve got to the point where I made the decision to not forage and leave the wild edibles for the wild beasts. My choice and I’m not against others gathering free food. Mostly in my wanderings it’s just berries and mushrooms, both of which I love, but I am wary of wild mushrooms so steer clear.
    I am unfamiliar with Mirabelles and Bullace. Here in the U.S. we have lost a great number of the chestnut trees that used to inhabit our forests when settlers came. A fungus blight attacked them

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I always feel a little bit guilty that I’m taking food that animals and other wild life might profit from, But I take comfort from the fact that there is always plenty at ground level rotting quietly away, so I presume the superabundance has defeated the wildlife too!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  16. We forage too, generally raspberries, wimberries, blackberries and plums. I’m seriously impressed with 5kg of walnuts, let alone sweet chestnuts. We only have the horse chestnuts here so far as I know.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. I haven’t foraged since I was a kid and back then it was pretty much exclusively blackberries and occasional very bitter little apples. I’m very impressed! I’d always be worried I’d be picking something lethal – I suspect I read too many murder mysteries.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  19. I foraged when I was a child with my grandma, but now since I live in London, not so much… and would love to do some. I remember wild asparagus… So delicious.

    Like

    Reply

  21. Hi dear Margaret
    we all 4 love to go for sloes and start sloe gin which is then ready for the holiday season and the new year. But we collect nuts, wild garlic, blackberries and apples as well. Quite a while ago, we read the bestseller ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Maybe (we are proud to have a signed copy) and since then we started foraging. We could do much more but with the time we became lazy. But thanks for reminding us. We will go to collect samphire today.
    When we were children in Scandinavia we were days outside in the woods collecting berries.
    All the best
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I’d quite forgotten about sloes! Yes, it’s a yearly ritual with us too. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without sloe gin. Richard Mabey’s book is great isn’t it, and now there are many more. And lucky you, collecting samphire. Good luck in your foraging!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  22. Pingback: Your Edible photos – Denzil Nature
  23. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Duncombe Park, Helmsley | Still Restlessjo

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.