Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 5645 Location: East london/Essex
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 6:40 pm Post subject: Raiding friends gardens
I have been looking out in all my friends gardens over the last few months and have been able to spot loads of stuff to forage in the future, there are apple trees, blackberries, elderberries, cherries, hawthorn as well as the normal netles and dandilions. non of them are intrested in much of it and have told me i am welcome to it!
Treacodactyl Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 25795 Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 6:50 pm Post subject:
Yep, me too. It sometimes amazes me that people leave their old apple trees to drop the fruit and rot and at the same time they'll buy apples from a supermarket.
That's one of the reasons for trying to make our own cider this year. Not only do other people's gardens have plnty of foraging but they can be a very good source of free plants and space for you to grow your's in.
Another tip is to give people cuttings of your fav plants and if you ever loose your plant you should be able to get a cutting off someone else.
Went to a barbecue at a friends hous last summer, and while there answered questions on what kinds of trees are in the garden. They'd already identified the pear tree, but the elder trees, plum trees and apple trees were going unidentified and untouched!
Heartbreaking, isn't it? Seeing all that good fruit going to waste?
how long had they been living there? i mean, if they hadn't been there long enough to see the trees fruit fair enough, most people wouldn't know BUT if they had been there long enough surely they'd at least recognise plums and apples?
we have several plum and apple trees around here that conveniently hang over walls and are easily accessible from the pavement (especially at night when no one is looking )
i must admit though, i am still not quite certain what an elder tree looks like... i know there's supposed to be a lot of them around the water of leith area (which strangely is nowhere near leith) so i may check that out, they sound amazing!
i was quite pleased last year when i correctly identified a beech tree before it even started 'fruiting' even though i'd never seen a beech nut or beech tree in real life...
Last edited by ButteryHOLsomeness on Thu May 12, 05 9:35 am; edited 1 time in total
i've got a question for you about identifying fruit trees...
we've got this huge what i believe is some form of apple tree that hangs over the wall by the bus stop i used most frequently when leaving from my home.
i *think* it's an apple tree but when i tested one that looked ripe it was hard and was fairly grainy more like pears and it had a thick skin slightly hairy too and mottled green like a pear. they're not bramleys and definately not medlars so i'm wondering if anyone has a clue what they might be. they definately look like a somewhat lumpy apple. oh, it wasn't bitter or sour when i tasted it but would definately be more of a cooking fruit vs eating it straight off the tree.
once i get my new camera charged up perhaps i could take a photo and post it for all of you to see... the blossoms look like apple blossoms to me as well...very curious
Yeah, a quince (or japonica). Sounds most like a Japanese quince, from the colour and growing habit. Mottled green friut eventually going yellowish. A useful fruit, if we're right. Flowers vary from white to vivid red.
If it's flowering at the moment, I believe the flowers tend to be a bit bigger, and open wider/flatter than apples; possibly a bit more gappy, and less pinky. But generally, appley. (This is just from memory...)
I love quince jelly.
joanne
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 7100 Location: Morecambe, Lancashire
Posted: Thu May 12, 05 10:18 am Post subject:
Ooooh thanks for that - I knew ours was a quince but not what sort - Its definately a Japenese one with gorgeous apricot coloured flowers at the moment
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