Foraging for food in the wild is a fantastic way to bulk out your meals for free.
Rose Hips – free food in the wild
It’s also great exercise, great for connecting with nature and great for boosting your self-esteem as you start to discover the wealth of free food that’s just poking out of the ground or dangling off a tree in your local area… if you only know what to look for!
Here is a short list of the kinds of foods that are ready to find and pick in October, each item in the list is a link that will show you a description on Wikipedia, so that you may identify the food correctly before you pick and eat it.
Foraging in October:
Beech nuts Beefsteak fungus Blackberries Blewit Cauliflower fungus Cep Chanterelle Chickweed Crab apples Dandelion root Elderberries Fairy-ring Champignon Field mushrooms Giant puffball mushrooms Hazelnut/Cobnuts Hedgehog fungus Hops Horse mushroom Jack-by-the-hedge Jelly ear Juniper Medlar Nettle Oyster mushroom Parasol mushroom Rose hips Rowan Saffron milk cap Sea beet Shaggy cap Sloe Sweet chestnuts Velvet shank Walnut
For a fantastic Sloe Gin recipe, take a look at this Thrifty Sustainability post: Make it – Sloe Gin
Be safe when foraging, make sure that you are picking something edible and not something poisonous! It is a good idea to use a guide book or to research online before you go foraging. For example, try looking up each of the above on Wikipedia to find an accurate image and description.
I recommend the following books about foraging for free food – they help you to identify, harvest, prepare and preserve your findings:
My favourite is ‘Food for Free‘, because it is a pocket-sized guide that you can take out foraging.
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A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!
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