Free Wild Food

It's surprising what nature can provide for free, even in our overcrowded island. Take a walk down any country lane in summer or early autumn and some delicious free food is there to be had.

Blackberry picking is great fun for all the family and you can remember your day out when you eat your blackberry jam or blackberry and apple pie. You might spot an elder and enjoy elderberry wine or even a wild horseradish to make into horseradish sauce.

A few rules of the road for foraging that you need to know.

The best is found by walking. The blackberry you can spot as you race by in a car has probably been stripped already. Get out and stroll and you'll find the best.
Don't strip the whole plant or dig up the plant. Leave something for the wildlife.
Avoid hedgerows by roads with high traffic volumes. Although we now use lead free petrol, there will be diesel soot and other pollutants.
Avoid picking from hedgerows that have been recently sprayed with herbicides and pesticides.
Don't trespass, if somebody owns the land then ask permission.

Not everything that is edible is appetising. Most of our crops and fruits have been selected from their wild cousins for flavour and yield. These are the most popular wild crops you can easily find and enjoy:

Long Keeping Horseradish Sauce

Make up a syrup of equal volumes of white vinegar and granulated white sugar – about 300ml of each is fine - with a teaspoon of salt. Dissolve the sugar on a low heat and allow to cool.

Wash well and peel the root underwater. You know how onions make you cry? Well horseradish is more like CS gas! Cut roughly and put into a food processor or through a fine mincer.

Take a sterilised Kilner type jar and put in a little of the minced horseradish, then pour on some syrup. When it has settled, add more horseradish and then more syrup, repeating until the jar is full.

It should keep for a year like this in a cool dark place. When you want some horseradish sauce to accompany Sunday lunch or to perk up a cold beef sandwich, just take out a tablespoon full and mix with double cream and a little extra wine vinegar and a teaspoon of mustard if you wish.

If you have no cream you can use crème fraiche or even a white sauce, although the latter doesn't work so well.