IS IT autumn yet, or is it still summer? No-one seems to really agree when the seasons swap over.
September 1 is regarded by many as the first day of autumn, but others would say it is September 21/22, the autumnal equinox when the sun rises and sets exactly 12 hours apart.
The dates are arbitrary and for me autumn has arrived when the leaves are falling from the trees – already I have seen a few but not a full autumnal ‘fall’.
For amateur foragers it is the best time of year to seek out ripe berries and, if you know what you are doing, to gather mushrooms.
As a challenge – and with a vague sense that perhaps I should get a bit of practice in case there is ever global disaster of some sort which wipes out civilization and I have go native and fend for myself (you know how these things can keep you awake at night) – I like try my hand as a hunter gatherer now and again.
Blackberries are easy, they are everywhere at this time of year – although it is advisable to not to gather those which grow along roadsides as they will have absorbed exhaust fumes. But after gathering a few handfuls, stabbing myself a number of times with the briars, I began to think that while they might make a nice dessert or the basis for a juicy drink, they aren’t going to keep the hunger pangs at bay.
A rocky shore is one of the best places to seek out free food – bladderwrack seaweed is ugly to look at but is full of nutrition. Wash everything you gather in fresh running water before cooking to get rid of toxins and then boil up the kelp with some nettles to make a good stock, then strain it and add whelks and sea lettuce. You’ll need a pin to pull the whelks from their shells and then mix them back into the soup.
The best time to gather mushrooms is early morning when they have just appeared. But again, only pick mushrooms if you know what you are doing as edible ones and poisonous ones can look quite similar.
Field mushrooms are the easiest ones to spot as they look exactly like the mushrooms you would buy in a shop. A dozen of these make the basis of a substantial meal, but for a bit of variety I decide to add some crunch and a bit of spice.
For the crunch, add chestnuts, prised out from their prickly skins and roasted in the ashes of a fire pit and then pounded up and scattered through the mushrooms which are fried in their own juices with garlic-flavoured ransom seeds, to give it a bit of extra flavour. These flower in May and June but can be stored,
The dish can be enhanced further with a bit of ketchup – not out of a bottle of course but made from hawthorn berries, boiled and strained to separate the hard skin and the stones inside from the soft flesh which when mixed with a bit of honey makes a piquant accompaniment.
They honey came from a jar – but obviously in a post-apocalypse world I will have learnt how to gather the honey myself from a beehive. That is, assuming, of course, that the bees survive the apocalypse.
The hawthorn berries can also be fermented to make a rosé wine and elderberries could be added to give it a few more subtle tones. Global catastrophe in which only a few survivors remain or not, there is no reason not to continue the tradition of wine o’clock.
