What's the best time to pick damsons?

[Anna]

Wild blackberries seem in abundance (a bun dance) this year; yesterday I saw something not seen since childhood - people with punnets out gathering from a roadside hedge! A sign of the hard times, all that free Vit C not going to waste?

Have you seen the price of blackberries in a supermarket? And look at the country of origin - usually Poland, but I don't think we grow blackberries commerically here. Food for free, why not? Does anyone go gathering cobnuts or whimberries? Samphire (for those who live near the coast). Nettles - a lot of people do, I haven't as yet tried. Sweet chestnuts, almonds (we loved these as children, stamp on them to crack), mushrooms of course (a bit dodgy unless you know what you're doing!)

[Serial_Apologist]

Have you seen the price of blackberries in a supermarket? And look at the country of origin - usually Poland, but I don't think we grow blackberries commerically here. Food for free, why not? Does anyone go gathering cobnuts or whimberries? Samphire (for those who live near the coast). Nettles - a lot of people do, I haven't as yet tried. Sweet chestnuts, almonds (we loved these as children, stamp on them to crack), mushrooms of course (a bit dodgy unless you know what you're doing!)

Must admit I haven't, Anna. As for cobnuts and whimberries (eh??), I'm a typical city-raised boy I'm afraid. I've been put off mushrooms ever since those collected by a great aunt on achildhood expedition in Suffolk, transpired not to be mushrooms. I won't bring up any more on that subject, save to say we were lucky to survive! I remember finding out about the "almond" to be discovered in the middle of a plum stone. I must have had strong teeth back then - wouldn't try being the human nutcracker today!

[Anna]

Must admit I haven't, Anna. As for cobnuts and whimberries (eh??), I'm a typical city-raised boy I'm afraid. I've been put off mushrooms ever since those collected by a great aunt on achildhood expedition in Suffolk, transpired not to be mushrooms

Whimberries, I have old photos of family around 1910 all out on the mountain collecting them. I think you Southerners call them whortleberries or bilberries? Really tasty but labour intensive to pick. Mushrooms I am allergic too so I draw the line at being hunter-gatherer for those! Fresh almonds, you have to taste to believe, I cannot believe you've never had them! Ditto fresh sweet chestnuts, which are divine, cobnuts of course you can now get in any supermarket if you don't have a handy hedgerow and as for wet (undried) walnuts - what a treat they are, so creamy.

[Serial_Apologist]

Whimberries, I have old photos of family around 1910 all out on the mountain collecting them. I think you Southerners call them whortleberries or bilberries? Really tasty but labour intensive to pick. Mushrooms I am allergic too so I draw the line at being hunter-gatherer for those! Fresh almonds, you have to taste to believe, I cannot believe you've never had them! Ditto fresh sweet chestnuts, which are divine, cobnuts of course you can now get in any supermarket if you don't have a handy hedgerow and as for wet (undried) walnuts - what a treat they are, so creamy.

Bilberries - as described by my mum, who came from near Middlesbrough, and said they were to be found on the nearby Cleveland Hills. The same as what Americans call blueberries, I understand. Either way, I don't think we'd heard of them in the south when I were a nipper; first time I had them was in a pie while on holiday oop north. Delicious!

[vinteuil]

Bilberries !

... have lovely set of variant dialect names. Selon wiki -

"Bilberry (especially Vaccinium myrtillus) is known in English by a very wide range of local names. As well as "bilberry", these include blaeberry, whortleberry, (ground) hurts, whinberry, winberry, windberry, wimberry, snozzcumber, myrtle blueberry and fraughan. The berries were called black-hearts in 19th century south-western England."

I particularly like 'snozzcumber'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bilberry

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

b%gger picking and stooping it is all i can do to walk to the supermarket

[jean]

...fraughan...

That'll be what I used to hear in Ireland as a child - I never saw it written, and always thought of it as frocken!

[Serial_Apologist]

That'll be what I used to hear in Ireland as a child - I never saw it written, and always thought of it as frocken!

No that's something different, jean.

[marthe]

Plums! One of my all-time favorites (or should I say favourites). I'll never forget the time my mother-in-law stripped the damson tree that was growing down the lane from us when we were living in deepest Staffs. I'd had my eye on that tree but dearest m-in-l got there first. The resulting jam was quite delicious! Over here, good plums are hard to find. The supermarkets have things that resemble plums but taste like wet cardboard. One of my faves is actually a green plum known as Greengage but called Reine Claude by my Belgian cousins. Mushrooms, on the other hand, are another story...

[Dave2002]

Best time or not, went scavenging today, and there are still a few damsons on the bushes/trees nearby. Will have to check the situation at the other end of the road this week, though it seems we've stockpiled enough fp (finished product) and ingredients for a few more bottles of the damson gin to get through next year. Nice to have a collection from each year though.

Still a few blackberries left, though struggling to get enough for a pie.

Would like to try this, which I sampled a few days ago http://www.misya.info/2012/06/25/tir...i-di-bosco.htm - not the same as summer pudding, nor tiramisu.

[Thropplenoggin]

What's the best time to pick damsons?

When they're in distress.

[Dave2002]

Mmmm. To the woods, eh. Went there too but couldn't find any damsons there this year. Maybe we weren't looking in the right places!

[teamsaint]

daytime?

[Flosshilde]

Bilberries - as described by my mum, who came from near Middlesbrough, and said they were to be found on the nearby Cleveland Hills. The same as what Americans call blueberries, I understand. Either way, I don't think we'd heard of them in the south when I were a nipper; first time I had them was in a pie while on holiday oop north. Delicious!

Blueberries or Blaeberries here.

The past couple of years have been very bad for brambles (blackberries). Too much rain at the wrong times, & not enough sun. The biggest, fattest, juciest blackberries (since they were in the south) I ever collected were in Highgate Cemetery. Also very poor for funghi. I can identify a few with certainty. The one I have most trouble with is the Ink Cap; I can never remember if it's the Shaggy or plain variety that reacts badly with alcohol. There are very few poisonous funghi, & even fewer fatal ones - unfortunately one of these is the one most easily confused with the field mushroom, so I would ignore anything that looked like a field mushroom. Generally, when books on funghi say 'inedible' it means that they don't taste of anything & aren't worth eating, not that they are poisonous.

[greenilex]

Over the past few years I have had parasol mushrooms out back, some of which have grown quite large. They are excellent eating.