Everything is Food - Fruit Trees & Shrubs
by
Stephen Watts
Fruit Trees & Shrubs
Fruit trees
Keep you eyes open for apple, pear, cherry and plum/damson trees, but especially
apple. In the last year I have got food from about 15 – 20 fruit trees being
neglected or under used.
As I am writing this there are some apples in my room from three trees which
were found on abandoned allotments. Now they have all vanished to make way
for student accommodation. Your neighbour might have a tree in their garden
which they just don’t bother using, leaving the fruit for the birds
Shrubs
Wild Rose/Dog rose, rosa spp..
This grows all over Sheffield, from the city centre to the country. The
flowers can be eaten but the hips (fruit) are my favourite part. They can
be picked in autumn and winter. There are cultivated roses which have fatter
hips with more flesh but less intense flavour. I test out most of the rose
hips I find. The flesh has to be soft to make pleasurable eating. WARNING:
don’t eat the pips/seeds (although I have on occasion). These have tiny fir
like brushes on which can be an irritant to the gut (they have been used as
an itching powder!)
I have found that you can pull all the seeds out at once by there attachment
to the little black bit on the bottom: tear the skin around this bit and pull
gently, aiding the seeds out with a slight squeeze with the other hand. I
gave some of this fruit to a child today and asked him what he thought of
it. He said it tasted of sweets. I totally agree. Yummy snack while giving
yourself a fat dose of vitamin C.
I have tried making rose hip syrup but since it uses sugar and cooking in
the process I don’t bother. When I did make it however it was very popular
with other members of my family!
Free food and wild foods are self-sufficiency topics covered in our
book, Low Cost Living.
For more information on the book see
Low Cost Living
Bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus
These are abundant on the heaths and moors surrounding Sheffield. Picking
is time consuming but done with friends makes the task a chance to have a
good chat and a summer break from the treadmill of nine to fives. It is difficult
to gather any real quantity in a short space of time so if time is food you’d
be better off with black berries.
Bilberries are brilliant for the eyes and improving vision.
Articles On Wild Food, Edible Plants etc
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