Sloes

Sloes - also known as Blackthorn - are very small, bitter plums (although they are a distinct species: Prunus spinosa) that grow on spiny bushes in hedgerows and on heaths and wood edges.

Feral Apples

Although there are such things as true crab apples, many of the 'wild' apple trees we see are the naturalised offspring of cultivated varieties - either chance seedlings from a discarded core, or perhaps remnants of derelict and forgotten orchards.

Blackberries

Wild blackberries have it - that intense fragrant fruity aroma that just can't adequately be described in words.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go and pick a cupful (or more!) of fresh, ripe wild blackberries on a sunny day, then stick your nose in the cup and inhale. The scratches, barbs and stings melt away into insignificance when you smell that smell.

Chanterelles

"Isn't it terribly dangerous?" is the question people most often ask me when I talk about eating wild mushrooms...

The truth is, it needn't be. Especially if you familiarise yourself with some of the more easily recognised ones, such as Chanterelles.

Shore crabs

We went crabbing down at the pontoon at Manor Farm Country Park and brought back a bucket of shore crabs to make soup.

Crayfish

Kids had a day off school, so we piled into the car and drove up to Oxford, where the river Thames is suffering from an invasion of foreign crayfish - the American Signal Crayfish

Camping Cake

Camping (in the rain) on Exmoor, during the wet summer of 2007, we found a nice assortment of wild berries along the hedgerows, so I made Camping Cake