I’m not a foraging expert. I’ve only been doing this properly for a few years, and there’s far more I don’t know than I do.
But I enjoy it. It gets me out of the house, is helping me foster an interest in nature within my children and I get to make tasty stuff from the things I find. And since Sussex Smokehouse is all about using what’s local and seasonal (where possible), it makes sense to share what I’m finding, learning, and experimenting with, right?
So this is the start of an occasional series about foraging around Crawley Down – what’s growing, what I’m picking, and what I’m doing with it. No promises on regularity. Just updates when I find something worth sharing or if I’ve had a decent day out with the boys.
Keeping it local
Within walking distance of home, there’s more edible stuff growing wild than you’d expect.
I’ve found three different types of plum, wild apples, crabapples, rosehips, sloes, bullaces, elderflowers (and later elderberries), cobnuts, and abundant hawthorn around the village. Most of it’s in hedgerows, along footpaths, or in the alleyways that criscross the area. You don’t have to travel to forgotten corners of the countryside to find wild food.
Some of it I pick with my children – blackberries mainly. They’re easy to identify and the kids love them. Other times I’m out with friends, investigating new spots and seeing what’s worth coming back for.
What do you make?
A couple of years ago we were treated to a huge crop of blackberries in West Sussex. I worked at a business based on a farm at the time and many lunch breaks were spent in the brambles with a couple of colleagues who quickly became firm friends and foraging buddies. We ended up with kilos of blackberries and I’m still finding the odd drupelet in my freezer now.
Once I’d made more crumble and pie filling than I knew what to do with, I had to get creative. Since that summer, I’ve made:
- Creme de Mure
- Blackberry Cheese
- Sloe Gin
- Hedgerow Jelly
- Hedgerow Tonic
- Rumtopf
- Wild Apple Jelly
- Berry-infused Tinctures
And I’m excited to get out and see what I can find this year too.
What won’t be happening
I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert. I won’t be writing definitive foraging guides or telling you how to identify every edible plant in Sussex. I only know how to confidently identify one type of mushroom and you don’t want to make a risotto with it, if you catch my drift…
There are people far more learned than me spreading the knowledge already. If you want proper foraging education, get a good guidebook (I will be sharing my favourites at some point – of course – content is content) or go on a course with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
This is just documentation. What I’m finding, what I’m trying, what’s working. If it sparks an interest in you, fantastic.
What to Expect
When there’s something worth sharing – a good haul of sloes, a new hedgerow jelly recipe, or a public location that’s particularly abundant – I’ll post about it here.
No fixed schedule. Just occasional updates when foraging season gives me something interesting.
Let’s go for a forage!
What we are watching: Scavenger’s Reign (probably for the third time now)
What we are listening to: Unlearn by 2econd Class Citizen
