Appearing this week...

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Appearing this week...

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cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:51 pm Post subject: Appearing this week...

First appearances of many, many great wild edibles this week. At least around here.

Tuesday I noticed more hawthorn; more than just the odd flower, it's beginning to bloom. Great stuff to chomp on.

Today I noticed the first elder in bloom (heck, it's early), cuckoo flowers (ladys smock, or Caramine pratensis if you must) blooming across the fen. My absolute favourite wild flower, and damned fine eating too. I don't know what it is about this unassuming little brassica that takes my fancy, but I can't get enough of this flower. Oh, and that was on the way to a patch where I pick chicken of the woods, and you'll know from elsewhere (if you read the foraging forum) that my hunch on that was correct.

Lots of small shoots of water mint too, but oddly that's LATE this year. Or later than it was last year, at least. My watermint wine had been going a fortnight by this time last year.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:32 pm Post subject:
Elder blooming already? wow

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:38 pm Post subject:
Way early. Just the first few blooms.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 8:42 pm Post subject:
I'm just getting apple blossom on my trees, and a few buds burst open on the flowering cherry. Wonder how many weeks we are being you? about 8 I would guess.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:14 pm Post subject:
Depends on the tree, our big old apple tree is just opening it's flowers and our small trees have been opening for a week. Other people have had 'em open for a couple of weeks. I do love the smell of simple apple tree blossom.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:46 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

I'm just getting apple blossom on my trees, and a few buds burst open on the flowering cherry.

Wonder how many weeks we are being you? about 8 I would guess.

Belfast I always figured looked a fortnight behind Nottingham. Nottingham always looks no more than a week behind Cambridge. So I figure three weeks, give or take.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:52 pm Post subject:
I wonder if there is a way of reliably checking, perhaps taking a few wild plants, first swallow etc?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:01 pm Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

I wonder if there is a way of reliably checking, perhaps taking a few wild plants, first swallow etc?

Someone has to be doing some regional phrenology.

It's difficult, though. The local variation is fairly great too. Trees near roads are warmer, for example. Bishop Stortford, right by Stansted Airport, usually seems a fortnight ahead of Cambridge in Spring, and it ain't far away.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:16 pm Post subject:
Same her as JB, apple is now coming into bloom, slowly.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:38 pm Post subject:
Would this help? https://www.phenology.org.uk/

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:44 pm Post subject:
Thanks...look at it later.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:45 pm Post subject:
very much so, we seem to be way behind on flowers.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 10:46 pm Post subject:

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 5:07 pm Post subject:
Strangely, Cab, our Hawthorn and Elder are nowhere near flowering, but the water mint's about 6" tall! Still no shrooms, though...

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue May 03, 05 8:25 am Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

Strangely, Cab, our Hawthorn and Elder are nowhere near flowering, but the water mint's about 6" tall! Still no shrooms, though...

I think our watermint is slow because the level of all our lakes and ponds here is so low; we had another dryish winter after a moderatly moist summer, and in truth we never really recovered from the droubt of the year before.

Still only the one elder here that's flowering, although more buds are promising to burst soon, and lots of hawthorn. As usual for here, the white flower hawthorn are out first.

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