Sky grey, dark grey, lighter grey… “What the heck, we’re off!”

The strong south westerly tries its best to pull me from the slippery rungs as I descend. Bare footed I step from the ladder into cold grey slightly funky mud. Like icy worms it slips between my toes as I sink just a little and the rain that has been threatening all day decides now to come at me, sideways.

Paddling across the last of the retreating water, my little man Ed and I are off to the salt marsh, freshly exposed by the receding tide, for a spot of seaside foraging.

As a committed/committable foodie and lover of wild delicacies, the opportunity to indulge in one of my favourite coastal ingredients is too good to miss, come hell or high water!

Marsh samphire is very ‘on trend’ and a surprisingly versatile food. Less bitter than rock samphire, which is sometimes seen for sale, it has a very short season from late June to early August. After that it starts to get a stringy core and later, it’s plain woody. You will find it in salt marsh in and around estuaries this summer on your holidays across the UK. Essential kit for foraging are some scissors and a bag, simple.

When harvesting, you are looking for small young plants of around 2 to 4 inches, hold the tips and snipoff the tender tops. When I say tender, we are looking for the fresh green, almost gelatinous centred young shoots, a segment before it starts to yellow (think of the tiny offspring of aloe vera and asparagus). If it pulls apart with no woody fibre or string, you’re good.

Back in the kitchen or camp there is much more to this super nutritious free sea veggie than just steaming it with a bit of fish!

Raw it’s like salty cucumber – a great addition to summer salads; thrown in at the last moment it will liven up a stir fry; peel and simmer garlic cloves for 20 min, then roughly chop and pan fry in butter and rapeseed oil until golden, chuck in the samphire with some black pepper for another minute and serve with lamb or chicken, or bung it in a pasta dish… Get creative! This is a great wild food that you can easily identify come rain or shine, and it’s free free free!

Me?  I put it on a pizza instead of olives. Lazy, but sooo good; I picked, it so I can do what I like. As can you!

Happy Summer Holidays.

Barney,

Just gathering up all the wonderful information to go into our new Autumn 2017 edition – if you’d like to be there, get in touch NOW!  Deadline is 1st August.

For me, food is one of the most important things I have to think about every day.  I am a darned good cook, creating unforgettable flavours from seasonal British ingredients everyday!! But I do get fed up of shopping, planning meals, using things up in the fridge, so like to introduce a bit of imagination to make it all much more exciting.

So I mix it up, and that is where foraging kicks in and breaks the cycle.

I am not some mega bearded bush master jedi, no, I am just a dad of 2 who is lucky enough to live in this wonderful wilderness.  With every season of every year, I learn of a few more wild foods I can harvest, where to find them and when. So my wild pantry grows and grows.

At this point it is worth pointing out that as a mad foodie I am not foraging for a matter of life or death survival type stuff.  No, I am all about finding amazing tasting wild ingredients that will take a dish to the next level for free (wild mushrooms, spring nettles, Wild Garlic, Elderflower…).

A walk in the beautiful forest with my family and friends becomes a trip to the shop.  Foraging for food is in our blood and I promise the collective satisfaction of going for a walk, and finding just one major part of a meal, let alone 60 or 70% of it, ranks pretty high in the family bonding stakes. You might even find you get some interested helpers in the kitchen when you get back!  If you are reading this wondering how you too can unleash your inner forager this July, then I think the wild cherry is the place to start.

Wild Cherry is easy to identify. It is a colonizing tree, you will find it on the edge of fields and woodland, not deep in the forest. It is easy to recognize, it has a shiny trunk with striped lateral rings, saw tooth edged leaves, pink blossom and of course its fruit.

Much smaller than a shop bought Cherry (if you are lucky you may find a cultivated tree with full size cherries, these are sweet and great as they are).  The fruit is ripe when it is dark, almost black, as with all cherries it has a large stone in the middle and even when ripe remains quite bitter.  Because of this I suggest cooking the fruit is the best way to fully appreciate these little beauties. That way you get a chance to balance the sweetness with a little honey or sugar at the end if you need it.

They can be used to make jams, pies, cordials and cocktails.. Recipes for all of which are on ‘tinternet’ should you fancy looking.  But for me the pairing of beautiful pan fried Dean venison with a sweet/sour wild cherry sauce, boiled buttered Jersey Royals and some garlicky wilted greens or nettle tops, is a summer supper made in heaven.

Forest of Dean venison with wild cherry sauce, new potatoes and wilted greens. (serves 2)

Vegetarian Option – substitute venison for halloumi, no not so local, but still very tasty!

Heat some oil in a frying pan to a medium heat, season, then cook 2 200g pieces of venison back strap or loin ( you could use duck breasts, lamb chops, halloumi…) for 5 mins, then turn over and cook for 3-5 mins more, depending on how rare you like it and the thickness. Lift the meat from the pan and set aside to rest. Leave the pan on the heat.

Add 2 tbs balsamic vinegar to the pan, then pour in 150ml beef stock, 2 tbs redcurrant jelly and a clove of garlic minced.

Stir over quite a high heat to blend everything together and reduce, then add 85g of pitted wild cherries and carry on cooking until they soften.

Taste it, is it nice? Would it benefit from a touch of salt, a little more sweet, a bit more tang from some more balsamic? This (assuming you don’t burn or forget to cook the meat!) is the most important bit of cooking!!

Taste things, add flavours slowly, you can’t take them out again!!

Serve over the venison with new potatoes and seasonal greens wilted with butter and a hint of garlic.

Enjoy

Barney

Infamous Catering

email. barney@infamouscatering

Mobile: 07954583784

land line. 01594 826215

Nettle has a unique and delicious flavour. No surprise then that its soups with potato, a luscious risotto, and the various flamiche recipes become favourites.

This recipe concentrates the taste of the dark green fleshy leaves with the rustic flavour of toasted sunflower kernels, a soupcon of chilli heat, and the richness of a good olive oil.

You could use this forager’s Nettle pesto as a base and build it up with flavours of your own: such as basil, anchovy fillets, Kalamata olives, crab apple purée, or hazel nuts.

INGREDIENTS

100g stinging nettle leaves (single leaves without stalk or petioles)

100 ml good olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped finely

2 tsp mild red chilli, chopped finely

1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

50g sunflower kernels

juice of 1 lemon

1. Put the nettle leaves into a bowl and cover with clingfim and microwave on full power for 2 minutes. Take out of the microwave, leave the clingfilm on and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Alternatively steam the nettle leaves for 5 minutes until tender.
2. Fry the chilli in 2 teaspoons of the olive oil until soft and the oil is coloured.
3. In a food processor add the rest of olive oil, the fried chilli and all the chopped garlic and blitz. Add the nettle leaves and combine to a smooth purée. Add black pepper and lemon juice to taste.
4. Heat the sunflower kernels in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat, stirring or tossing them, until they just start to colour. Careful or they will burn. Immediately tip into a bowl to cool.
5. With a spatula, remove the nettle purée from the food processor bowl into a serving bowl. Add the sunflower seeds and gently mix in.
6. Serving tips: excellent with feta cheese, on toast (or bruschetta), with roast vegetables (including jacket potato), or just mixed into hot pasta.
7. The pesto will keep in the fridge, best to top the pesto with a thin layer of olive oil and store in a sterilized, lidded, and labelled jar.

Foragers tip: If you cut stinging nettle back to about 20cm high, it will reshoot giving you a supply of fresh leaves. Repeat cutting works until the first frost.

Christopher Robbins

Medical Herbalist & Forager

robbinsc@clara.co.uk

Twitter:@phytoforage

Happy Spring, Foresters!

And isn’t it a beauty? The air is warm and the skies have been perfectly blue.  Birdsong fills our ears and the sent of pear blossoms is in the air.  And everywhere I look… DANDELIONS!

The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay

 O dandelion, rich and haughty,

King of village flowers!

Each day is coronation time,

You have no humble hours.

I like to see you bring a troop

To beat the blue-grass spears,

To scorn the lawn-mower that would be

Like fate’s triumphant shears,

Your yellow heads are cut away,

It seems your reign is o’er.

By noon you raise a sea of stars

More golden that before.

As organic gardeners, dandelions are a welcomed companion plant in our garden.  The long and strong taproot brings up much needed nutrients to the topsoil when mulched. The bright yellow blossom welcomes hungry insects. And our pet rabbit is satiated with bitter green abundance.

Dandelion, Taraxacum, is also one of my very favorite plants to cook with.  And as it turns out, many of my friends love it too.  While researching recipes for this article, I learned that last Mother’s Day my mate’s little daughter mixed the petals into pancake batter. My dear cousin eats it to combat her rigorous MS treatments back in the States. Fellow Foresters add it in their salads, make cordial from their flowers, coffee from it’s root, and balm from it’s leaves. And our Welsh neighbors make syrup for their morning porridge and wine from the flowers.  In my house we blanch the leaves, chop finely once cool, then mix it into our bread dough to make a beautiful green loaf.  Use it as would would any other dark green leaf, and if eating it raw is too bitter for you, fry it up with a big spoonful of butter or oil and feel the goodness sink into your bloodstream. Like other wild greens it is full of minerals and vitamins, plus the bitterness is a great aid to our digestive systems.

Next, the edible fruiting body of the Scarlet Elf Cap, Sarcoscypha coccinea, is so stunning in appearance it feels much like discovering hidden treasure.  Most often found growing in deciduous woodlands on fallen branches, partially covered in a mulch of moss and fallen leaves. Hunt for scarlet elf caps beneath the European Hornbeam trees as the favorable conditions will produce an abundance of mushrooms. The elf caps look like deep red jewels amongst the green moss and can’t be missed.

This week I found hundreds elf caps under two trees near Sling. I took only a small basketful of the best and most perfect fruit. Once home I separated them into two piles… the really muddy and the not so bad.  The not so bad I brushed off with a small clean toothbrush, trimming off any part of the mushroom that was damaged.  The really muddy ones I soaked in water for about ten minutes then peeled the outer skin off, reveling perfectly clean and delicious fruit underneath.

All of these went into my jar of mushroom brine, joining puffballs from November, oysters from January, and jelly ears my kids brought home last February.  To start your own jar of mushroom brine, layer your favorite wild mushrooms with generous handfuls of good quality sea salt.  The salt draws out moisture over time, but if the mushrooms are not immersed after a couple of days it’s a good idea to add a half-cup of spring water to help them along.  Just a tablespoon or two added to a pot of soup or stew is divine.

And finally, the proud Wild Garlic (Allium Ursinum) or Ramson as I know it.   This time last year I prepared ramson soup, ramson curry, ramson quiche, ramson lasagna, pizza and ravioli, (I put it in the pasta dough, too!) I thought I was taking advantage of the short season, but by the end of the month the look and smell of it was cause for dinner table revolt. After my over zealous enthusiasm for the ingredient, this year’s very first offering of ramson infused mash did not go down well at ALL. After much creative thinking, here is the one and only way my kids have enjoyed eating it… ramson kraut!

I’ve watched my kids gobble down this divine and healthy ferment, asking for more and more.  We are reaching the end of ramson season, but get out there and try preserving some before it’s too late.  Add the clean, raw leaves, peas and/or flowers to cider vinegar and sea salt.  Fill a preserving jar with half a cup of vinegar, and start layering leaves with a sprinkle of salt now and then, using a wooden spoon to push the mix to the bottom of the jar.  The greens will shrink down over time so really cram them in there. Good for at least six months if stored in a dark, cool place.

Happy hunting!

Foodforesters.com

As well as the many classes you can join at any time, like those with FitSteps, WhiteLotus and Severn Sun,  Yoga and Tai Chi, or Dance Classes – Artentinian Tango or Line Dancing, we’ve also got lots of music happening on a regular basis such as Lydbrook Band & Training Bands, Singing with Kirsty Abraham and lots going on at SoundSpace, we have some courses and workshops set specifically for March:

5th – Shamanic Sunday with Mandy Pullen

7th – Forest of Dean Health Forum in Cinderford

7th – Beginners Silver Workshop with Karin Whittaker

8th & 9th:   New Flower Arranging classes with Alwyn Page, focusing on Spring seasonal arrangements.

13th:  Poets in Progress group organised by Vicky Hampton, free to any budding poets

14th:  Diploma in Reflexology with II Intuitive in Lydney

Borderland Outdoor are offering Outdoor First Aid on 18-19 March, An Introduction to Navigation on 21-22 March and First Aid at Work on 30th March.

26th:  Sue Chuddley’s Monthly Yoga Sutra Study & Chanting Session

29th;  Cyber Security with Dean Entrepreneurs

and last, but certainly not least on 31st March, Flowers for Your Home with Humble by Nature.

They’re all on our website, just search under March, or for the specific one you are interested in.

Have a fabulous welcome into Spring.

Ow bist forest friends, and thank you to the Forest Bee for inviting me to write this monthly submission about foraging in the Forest of Dean. Each month I will feature a few of the wild ingredients available in our woods, with recipes and preserving tips you may try for yourself.

I would not call myself a foraging expert but rather an enthusiast and a cook. I was born five thousand miles west of here and have spent most of my life living in cities. Six years ago I didn’t know my damson from my ramson. The first time I saw a spindle berry they sure looked delicious, but I had much to learn.

My dear husband is a proper forester with ancestral connections to the Forest of Dean that go back many generations. When we relocated from California the flora and fauna became my first attachment to this new place. Our children propelled us along as way, their curiosity always one step ahead. And there is a new member of the family now, born within the Hundred’s of St. Briavels like his dad. It is his birthright to eat and play in these woods too.  With time to spare, identification books in our pockets, and a wave to ancient traditions as we head out with our baskets.

In order to both feed and support my family, I have become familiar with and practiced upscaling these wild ingredients, confidently delivering bowls of nettle soup to my own kids, (it’s their favorite), then skeptical Londoners, wild mushroom pie and local game and sorrel stew to punks at a music festival, even wildflower salads and dandelion bread to locals on the lawns of the Speech House.  The dishes were all emptied, surely due to the freshness and quality of the ingredients. Now I am pleased to present these recipes to you. May they nourish you they way they were intended to.

For this month of March I will focus on my two favorite spring greens that are abundant now, easily identifiable and commonly recognized.

And so we begin with the humble nettle, one of the first foods to emerge after a long winter and easily identifiable.  The protein packed nettle has a delicate earthy flavor when cooked, and is rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese and calcium. Pick then now and for the next couple of months. Use scissors cut the stem beneath the top four leaves for soup, winning recipe included. We look forward to the first bowl every spring.

Nettle Soup Recipe

Please note that this is my choice combination, and that you can add to or take away ingredients from this list according to your own taste as long as the amount of veg you add equals the amount of stingers. Serves two.

Chop one onion, one leek, one carrot, one stalk of celery, one tablespoon of crushed garlic, and one tablespoon of fresh herbs, and add to one cup of water in a tall pot. Cook at medium heat for five minutes.

Add one large basket of fresh nettle leaves, washed and still wet. Add one more cup of water and cook another twenty minutes at medium heat, stirring occasionally. Let sit for five minutes off the heat and blend until smooth.

If you are vegan, pour into a bowl, add a pinch of nutritional yeast, and enjoy.

If you want a creamy soup, briskly whisk in a béchamel sauce after blending, and/or sprinkle a finely grated hard cheese.  I’ve heard of people adding chopped fried bacon for garnish, which must be nice, too. 

Hairy bittercress, a wonderful looking plant and even better cut and added to your salad leaves. It is rich in Vitamins A and C and contains calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. As a bitter green it also benefits our digestive system. Under the right conditions hairy bittercress will be available for the rest of this calendar year, so now is the perfect time to add this plant to your foraging repertoire.

I would like to give a nod to all the preserves that have brought my family thru through the winter.  Last autumn I created a sourdough starter with grapes growing at my mother in laws house and hedgerow fruit, the white yeasty film on the skins producing a bioregional taste I am so happy with. There are still jars of damson, rose hip and crap apple jelly in the pantry, dandelion syrup for our pancakes and sloe gin for rainy days, as well as dried linden, self heal and clover for tea.  I use a tablespoon of intense mushroom brine made of sliced parasol, puffball, scarlet elf cap and jelly ears preserved in sea salt every time I make soup.  It adds a depth of flavor that Oxo cubes never will.  And as I finish writing this from a fishing dock at Steam Mills Lake, I treat myself to a sandwich of pickled Oyster mushrooms, marinating since early January.  Delicious!

Pickled Mushrooms Recipe

Boil one cup of organic wine vinegar with one tsp salt, one tsp sugar and a few whole cloves.  Add two bay leaves, one sliced onion and about three cups of clean fresh wild mushrooms. Slowly simmer for five minutes.

Spoon mushrooms and onions into clean, sterilized jar and gently pour over the liquid. Seal with lid and let marinate somewhere cool for one month and up to six.

Serve as an antipasto or with crusty bread.

For more about our new Foragers, visit their website at www.foodforesters.com

We are now very lucky to have a team of 17 distributors helping us get the latest Forest Bee out to you quickly.

If you couldn’t find a copy, let us know whereabouts you are and if there are any suitable outlets in your area that we haven’t supplied.  Just email us on info@theforestbee.co.uk.  Thank you, and a huge thanks goes out to all our helpers.

Yes – The Forest Bee reaches places other brochures can’t go:

Schools:  Dean Academy, Dene Magna,  Lakers and John Kyrle in Ross, plus a few junior schools around the Forest.

Doctors’ Surgeries and NHS health professionals eg nurses gave them out when doing flu jabs this winter

Village Agents who support the over 50’s across the Forest, sponsored by Gloucestershire Rural Community Council.

Organic Veg Boxes (Forest Food Hub, Field Fayre)Leisure Centres and Gyms

Forest Voluntary Action Forum (FVAF) at Belle Vue Centre, Cinderford

Care agencies (by request)

Great Oaks Hospice (by request)

Village & Community Halls via our network of tutors

Plus, of course, all the usual:  Libraries, Cycle Centres, Forest of Dean, Ross & Monmouth Tourist Information Offices, Forest of Dean District Council offices, Midcounties Co-ops, village shops (and yes, they are welcome in ALL of them, including those very pushed for space), cafes, pubs, Taurus Crafts, Harts Barn Craft Centre, Vantage Point, several chip shops (particularly popular with the Littledean one, so thanks to our distributor there who is constantly topping them up).

We also have a popular Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Our volunteers are getting out and about distributing the lastes edition of The Forest Bee – if you can help as well, we’d be very glad to hear from you.  Cinderford, Ross, Lydney could do with a boost please? 

Anyone aged 11-16 (beginner or experienced musicians) can enjoy making music at The Music Works’ Afterschool Club and Studio Sessions at SoundSpace Studios, Cinderford.  Try out instruments, play in a band, use music technology.  11-18 year olds can also book sessions for very low prices.  £2 per person per hour, Mondays 3-4.30pm (club), 3-6pm (studio session), ongoing.  Causeway Road,  Cinderford, GL14 2AF.  Contact Mark Bick on 01594 836418, email MBick@themusicworks.org.uk, website www.themusicworks.org.uk.

Deadline for our Spring 2017 edition is 30th November, so get your listings and advertisements in now, before you forget and miss out on the best value publicity there is in the Dean.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Deadline is 30th November – get your listings and adverts in now for our Spring 2017 edition.

We do hope that you have all found your Autumn 2016 brochures – so much going on here in the Forest.  Do let us know if you can’t find a copy in your area.

ArtSpace are doing Trapeze sessions, we have Yoga for Autism with Veronika Pena, Active Citizens Social Leadership training for free at the wonderful Asha Centre, and lots lots more.

We do hope you enjoy our lates edition (click on the brochure picture at the bottom left of the website, if you’ve not managed to pick one up as yet).

This month I shall be focusing on three berries. You can mix them together to make jam or bake into a pudding like crumble. All three can be found in the forest but the first one on the list you may have to hunt for.

Bilberries ( Vaccinium myritillus)  – these small, blue berries are a healthy edible snack (they contain vitamins A,P & C) and they are said to be good for improving eyesight. They look very similar to blueberries. They grow on low bushes in acidic & poor soils. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking.

Blackberries ( Rubus frutiuos) – its blackberry time of year again! They are just starting to turn black from early August onwards. Pick, eat and enjoy.

Elderberries (Sambucus nigra) – back in June I told you about the lovely cordial made from the elderflowers. Now it’s the turn of the small black berries. These berries need to be cooked as they can give you an upset stomach otherwise. Check in a good guide book as always to make sure you have the correct tree. They too are rich in vitamin A & C and they can also be used to make an immune boosting Winter Rob: Simply in a pan cover the berries with honey, add spices like cinnamon and simmer for 40mins on a low heat. Strain & bottle and take 1tbsp adults or ½ tsp children in hot water as a hot drink. They can also be added to puddings.

Well it’s been a wet end to June, let’s hope the sun comes back for July. The warm weather will encourage us all to get outside once again and go and forage. It will be worth it too, especially for the first on my edibles list to look out for:

Wild Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) – native to Britain, this bramble may get over looked as it grows with Blackberry brambles. But once you find them you will notice the difference. They grow in our hedgerows in & around our woods. The fruit is smaller than our shop brought raspberry but has an inhas an intense flavour! Enjoy them fresh off the bush.

Smooth Sow-Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) – A common weed I bet you have pulled up and thought nothing more but it is in fact edible. They are found widespread and abundant in wayside places and gardens. Check out the description first in a good book as they look similar to the prickly sow thistle but lack the prickles. They can be eaten raw in salads, cooked in soups or steamed. Pick the leaves when young and off the top of the plant.

Borage (Borago officinalis) – this annual can be found in gardens or sometimes escaped into woods & waste ground. The beautiful blue flowers grow in loose spikes, are star shaped & have white towards the centre. The whole plant is covered in prickly hairs. The flowers can be added to salads or sugared for cake decorations but I like to freeze them in ice-cubes and add them to summer drinks. Borage flowers are said to gladden the heart.

5,000 copies of The Forest Bee Autumn 2016 edition will be going out across the Forest and surrounding towns at the start of September.  This edition runs through to the end of December.

It costs just £5 to list up to 3 courses, then £3 for each additional one, and include free listings on our very popular website.

Advertising rates are:

£22 for 1/8 page

£38 for 1/4 page

£75 for 1/2 page

£130 for full page

£150 for premium back page.

As each brochure stays current for all 4 months, this represents this represents extremely good value.

Deadline is 31st July

PS  Just for 2016, advertisers who take out 1/4 page or more can have a web advert for just £5 per edition, with a click through link direct to your website.

We’ve been adding and updating our website to include some new summer workshops.  Just search ‘summer’ and see what’s there.

Foraging news for June with Herbal Ways.net

This first month of early summer brings the hope of warmer weather and outside fun. So what better way to celebrate then by going into the woods to see what’s there to forage. Remember not to pick anything unless you are 100% sure, take a good identification book and ask permission where needed. First up is a personal favourite of mine:

Elderflowers  (Sambucus nigra) – heavily scented, creamy white blooms made up of tiny flowers hang readily at this time of year from the Elder. It is a small, deciduous tree or shrub and is commonly found growing in hedgerows, waste lands and woods. These flowers can be dried and used as a tea or made into a delicious drink or ice lolly. Simply gather 12 elderflower heads, shake off insects, and add to a clean bucket. Add rind & juice of 2 lemons, 300 to 450g caster sugar (depends how sweet you like it), 4 litres water & 3tbsp apple cider vinegar. Stir and leave covered for 24hrs. Strain & bottle, drink or add to lolly moulds and freeze. Keep in cool place or freeze to use later.

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) – These miniature strawberries can be found growing on grassy banks, verges and in open wood. They may be small but they have a wonderful, strong flavour! The leaves can also be made into a tea. Even better is to make an elderflower sorbet and add wild strawberries. (Mmm scrummy!  Ed)

Wood Avens (Geum urbanum) – Also known as Herb Bennet, this woodland and wayside plant has flowers like a buttercup but smaller, with five yellow petals and green sepals. The plant grows from a rhizome with many, small wiry rootlets. These small roots have a clove like flavour and can be used to flavour drinks or foods. Simply wash the dug up roots (remember permission may be needed) and tie them together into a small bundle to add to your cooking. Remove roots after cooking and a wonderful clove flavour will have been imparted.

(Go on, get out there, our woods are just so fabulous to be in, we are so lucky to be living here! Ed)

May is a wonderful time to be out foraging in the forest with the blue haze of the bluebells and the sound of the cuckoo. Amongst the bluebells the delicate white flowers of the wood sorrel can be seen.

Wood-sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella) is easily identified with its clover like leaves but as always, and with anything that you forage, make sure you know that your identification is correct. The leaves and flowers of wood sorrel can be added to salads.

On the hedgerows and forest paths Garlic mustard (Alliaria Petiolata) can be found. Its garlic smell makes identification easier. The leaves also can be added to salads or made into a sauce.

A tree that you may find more in parks than forests is the Lime tree ( Tilia Europoea).The flowers, known as Linden flowers, make a wonderful, soothing tea. Just add 1 tsp to a cup of boiling water, infuse 10 mins, strain and drink. The leaves can also be added to salads.

It’s been a lovely Easter and the sun (when its out!) has some real warmth to it. This is great news for all the spring plants that have been bursting up. There are still plenty of previously mentioned plants about and here are some more to add to your salads or soups. Remember; always make sure you are 100% sure that you know what the plant is that you are picking and always get the landowners permission where needed.

Ladies smock or cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratense) – This delicate plant is in the cabbage family & grows in fields, woods and by streams. It has widely separated singly-pinnate leaves that appear alternately on the hairless stem. The dark green & sometime reddened leaflets are fine & feathery. The flowers are pink or white with a yellow centre. Like its close relative Hairy bittercress, its leaves are eaten in salads, having a hot peppery flavour & the flowers, with their milder taste, can be eaten too.

DAISY (BELLIS PERENNIS) – The folk name for Daisy is bruisewort and it is great for rubbing onto skin after tumbling over (a hazard whilst out foraging!) Just crush some flowers and leaves until juicy then add to bruise. But Daisies can also be eaten and they make salads look very pretty too. The leaves and flowers can be added to salads as they contain; potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamin A and protein.

HAWTHORN (CRATAEGUS OXYACANTHA) – This common hedgerow small tree needs no introduction. The flowers will not be out until sometime in May but the leaves are just starting to come out now. Another country name for hawthorn is “bread & cheese” as the young leaves and leaf buds can be eaten as a wayside nibble or added to salads along with the flower buds. Just be careful of the sharp thorns when picking!

Get your Summer 2016 edition from your local shop, leisure centre, library, tourist centre, doctors or dentists – they’re on the way out now!

Our website had been updated with lots of new courses and activities for you to try in the next few months.

So, once we’ve done the distribution, all your volunteers here at The Forest Bee will be taking a well earned break, but we certainly would be very grateful for your help in the future, if you can offer just a few hours every few months, or can make a regular commitment, we’d love to hear from you.

The woods and shady riverside banks are the best places to look for Wild Garlic, also known as Ramsons (Allium ursinum). The leaves are broad, flat and bright green and the whole plant gives off an unmistakable garlic odour. The flowers appear in April and are white. The whole plant is edible but it is an offence to dig up bulbs if it’s not your land. The leaves and flowers can be added to salads. I like to add chopped leaves to mayonnaise or you can ferment them for a longer shelf life too.

Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) These pretty bluish-violet flowers give off a heady fragrance when disturbed. The flowers can be added to salads or sugared to use as cake decorations. To sugar the flowers (you can also add primrose flowers & other edibles if out); lightly beat 1 egg white with 1 tsp water. Paint eggwash over flower, covering back & front. Put ¼ cup caster sugar in a bowl and dip the flowers in, covering well. Then leave to dry on baking paper tray 1 to 2 days until hardened. Store in a dry, dark place.

I hope you have some foraging fun finding and trying out the above plants and don’t forget that the plants mentioned in last month’s news will still be ripe for pickings too.

We have some new foragers about to take over this column, but in the meantime, here are the ones from the previous two years – happy foraging!

FORAGING NEWS FEBRUARY WITH HERBAL WAYS

Imbolc is just around the corner and already I have spotted indications of spring. The lamb’s tails on the hazel are beginning and snowdrops are blooming, along with lesser Celandine. As we journey on through February there should be many more plants visible to forage.

One to look out for is pine pollen (as long as you aren’t allergic to it). In some areas of the forest where lots of pine grows, the floor can

become carpeted in the yellow / golden dust, given off from the male catkins. It contains many vitamins and minerals and as it has over 21 amino acids and all 8 essential amino acids it is also a protein.

The male catkins are found mostly at the end of branches. To harvest pollen look for the light – coloured catkins on the tip of the branches. Female cones are darker and thicker than the male cones/ catkins.

To harvest simply place a plastic bag over the catkin and gently shake, continue this on the other catkins that you can reach. Sprinkle pollen on food or dry out and store.  Sprinkle over your breakfast,  yoghurt, or a smoothie.

Wall Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris) –

Also known as Navelwort, it grows on walls and hedge banks. The plant has circular, fleshy leaves, with a dimple in the middle over the stalk. Eat the leaves, the young, small ones are the best, in salads or put some in your sandwiches.

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) –

They grow in gardens and hedge banks, woods and fields. They are an early promise of spring. The flowers appear on very short stalks but as spring progresses the flower stalks maybe up to 15cm long. The five petals join into a narrow tube that is held in the green calyx. The petals are pale yellow with a deeper yellow centre.

The flowers can be eaten fresh or they can be crystallised with sugar for cake decorations or made into a pottage (a medieval soup) or indeed pickled.

Other things to look for, with Annette Fuller

Hoorah!! Spring is on its way and so our wild food larder is starting to become grow with more vigour.

Wild garlic is just beginning to come up all over the place now, we love the leaves just to eat whilst out walking as well as to put  in salads, though the flowers are the absolute best part – I love eating flowers and these are one of my favorites, but happy to enjoy the leaves for now.

Jack of the hedge or garlic mustard makes an appearance. The leaves are wonderful in a salad or crushed to make a sauce for roast lamb.

Wood Sorrel also starts to make a comeback. The vivid green leaves of this trefoil plant are easy to identify and abundant in our coniferous woodlands. They have a tangy lemony flavour, a great addition to cheese sandwiches or to accompany fish dishes.

Get yourself out there one of these bright beautiful frosty mornings, whether you forage or not, it’ll be a great boost for your health, especially after the excesses of the festive season just gone.

This is a  mix of Christopher Robbins’ Spring 2017 Forest Bee Column and Jessie’s Foraging News from last year. just getting yourself out there on one of these bright sunny frosty mornings is a great lift,

The cold months of winter have smile and frowns for foragers.  The smiles are having no leaves on the deciduous trees.   The view in the trees is much further and also you can see more.  The yellow, scrambled-eggs looking bracket fungi, Chicken of the Woods is much easier to spot.  These are usually on oak trunks.  The frowns are because the forest floor is covered with leaves that hide treats like Chestnuts and edible fungi.

But walking in the winter forest has its own delights.  The animals can be seen before they take flight and the introduced larch trees leave a fine, golden, needle covering that brightens the dark brown litter, especially so on sunny days.

But plants are determined beings.  Already by the end of January in mild winters there are shoots of both Stinging Nettle  and Clivers (or sticky willy) are coming out.  They might be only a few cm high, but these were traditionally the Spring Tonic after a winter eating only pig fat and root crops like turnips and potatoes. A heavy diet. These two herbs were made into a blissful soup that helped with liver clearance. Nettle is one of the foragable treats. It has a unique and blissful flavour (see notes below on incorporating this healthy brew into your soups, supplied by Jess, HerbalWays)

Other plants you can forage just now for a good health boost:

GORSE – Ulex Europaeu

These bright yellow flowers found growing on the gorse bush and they have a delicate coconut flavour. They can be eaten raw or dried and made into a tea. The flowering buds can also be picked and pickled similar to capers. But beware of the plants sharp needle like spikes! The plant is in full bloom in spring and right through to August but the bushes are to be found in blossom all year round.

There is an old saying: ‘when Gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season,’

The flowers should not be consumed in large quantities but a few as a wayside nibble or a handful added to salads or sprinkled on risottos or other dishes is fine.

Stinging Nettle – Urtica Dioica

The all too familiar nettle leaves are now starting to appear. Nettle are very nutritious, rich in vitamins and minerals. Grab some gloves and pick the fresh young tops and put them in a pan. Cover them with a small amount of salted water and cook for ten minutes, drain then add to the rest of your soup ingredients and cook for another ten minutes, then liquidise.

Opposite- leaved Golden Saxifrage – Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

The plant grows along the ground putting down roots and potentially forming large, dense mats.  Found by damp, forest paths and ditches and streams, the small leaves are worth picking and adding to salads. They have a mild watercress taste.

This time of year they could be mixed with young dandelion leaves and sorrel leaves.

Jess Lucas, Herbal Ways

To keep going and growing, we need your help!

‘The Forest Bee’ is run totally by volunteers, but with our growing success we are now struggling under the weight of the work – please come an help if you can.

Join our Management Committee

Help us grow ‘The Forest Bee’ into an even more useful resource for the people of the Forest of Dean.  The Committee meets most months, usually on a Tuesday or Thursday morning.  We are a friendly bunch with love of the Forest and its people at our hearts.  New ideas to help support the local community are always welcome.  We are happy to reimburse your travel expenses.

Distributors

About 1-4 hours 3 times a year, plus a few top-ups when you are out and about.  Travel costs will be reimbursed.  Areas we could do with more help in are:

Drybrook,   Ross-on-Wye, Soudley, Chepstow, Distributors – just a few hours 3 times a year for Bream, Chepstow, Drybrook, Llandogo, Mitcheldean, Longhope, St Briavels, Llandogo, Newland and Redbrook, Mitcheldean Longhope, Bream.

Ideally you will collect from Lower Lydbrook, but if that doesn’t work for you we’ll get the brochures to you somehow.

Next issue comes out at the start of January, so we’ll be asking our distributors to help during the first week of the New Year.

Brochures go to local shops, cafes, doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries, craft, cycling, tourist & leisure centres across the Forest.

Computer Person

Someone who is digitally confident and competent to update our website with all  the new listings (August, December & April), which takes between 6 & 10 hours.  Our website is Word Press with quite a lot of options for editing by us.

Also help with designing our digital ads, coverting promotional material from our advertisers & listers into jpegs and liaising with our social media volunteers.

Marketing/Publicity Officer

We have a volunteer covering the southern area of the Forest, but it would be great to have someone in the north too.  You need your own initiative, be self-motivated and confident enough to reach out to potential new listers and advertisers in the Forest area.  Experience with press released and designing advertising/promotional material would also be useful.

Social Media Officer

We have Facebook and Instagram covered, but could do with a bit more Twitter chat!

Newent Representative

Making contact with tutors and groups in the Newent area to encourage them to join The Forest Bee as well as liaising with local businesses both to hold copies for us as as potential advertisers.

Young Persons Representative

To explore opportunites available specifically for young people in the area, encourage voluntary groups to take advantage of our free editorial opportunities, to perhaps write a column specifically aimed at young people, and encourage youth groups to advertise with us.

Grants Opportunities

Someone to keep up to date with grant opportunities available that may be suitable to help support The Forest Bee in its aim to grow to an even better local community resource.  Also, an opportuntiy to develop your skills in writing grant applications.

Email us at info@theforestbee.co.uk , or contact Jaqui on 01594 861278 or 07919 851669.

The Forest Bee is looking for a young person (or two) to develop our new ‘Young Persons’ section.

Are you studying for a Degree, HND or OND in Business or  Media, and would you like a real live project to work on to develop your skills and enhance your CV?

We at The Forest Bee would like to develop a section specifically for the young people of the Forest of Dean area.

There are two strands to this:

Research what is available locally to support young people in the voluntary sector.  In your section, you can choose to donate editorial space of around 200 words to a voluntary group you feel are doing some excellent work to support young people locally, or you may choose to feature a couple of organisations, sharing the space between them.

Research groups, courses and activities available locally, contact the organisations and see if they would like to ‘list’ their groups/courses/workshops in our next edition of The Forest Bee. It only costs £5 for up to 3 listings in our brochure, and they then get free listings on our website.

Should you choose to, you can also help grow our social media presence.  We already do Facebook and Twitter but there is so much else out there nowadays, you could find the social media that most young people use and develop that too.

If you are interested, or would like to know more, please contact us.  Contact details can be found on our ‘Contact’ page.

Brought to us courtesy of Jess at Herbalways.net, who also runs Herbal medicine workshops.

This time of year takes a sharp eye to spot any plants to forage. But if you look hard enough and the weather is mild, you will still find some wayside nibbles. Of course it is important to know your plants, be able to recognise them, especially at this time of year when their descriptive qualities are not as obvious. As always a good plant/fungi guide is very important to confirm that you have the correct plant.

Sorrel– these juicy, lance-shaped green leaves are good to nibble on as you walk. Or gather some to eat in a salad. They make a great thirst quencher when out walking. Common sorrel’s basal lobes or lower edges of the leaves, point backwards and its smaller relative Sheep’s sorrel, has a stalked leaf which basal lobes widespread or pointing forwards. In Tudor times sorrel was a prised vegetable but due to its high oxalic acid content it should be consumed in small amounts.

Here are some of the different sorrels, common on the left, sheep’s on the right:

We are now gathering the information for our next brochure, coming out at the start of January and running on to the end of March.

It’s still only £5 to list up t0 3 courses, groups, workshops or one-to-one learning opportunities, and you will be listed on our website too – what a great investment.

You can place an advertisement with us for just £22 for 1/8 page, going up to £130 for a full page, all full colour.

We are a voluntary group set up to promote community opportunities across the Forest, so please give us yur suppo9rt and help us share your group activities with the rest of the Forest community.