There’s something very soul-satisfying about ambling along ancient tracks, and even more so when you’re able to forage some of the autumn fruits which often line them. In today's post, we'll be covering a lot of information from points to consider when first foraging fruits, through to storing your finished preserves. More than just a list of practical info though, we'll also be talking about that wonderful sense of connectedness that comes with gathering from the land, and the feeling of continuing ancient traditions so please do scroll down and read on ...
Here's a guide to what you can discover:
One of my favourite places, now sectioned off as part of a protected reserve, has the deep ditches of prehistoric trackways still scored deep into the earth, dating back to the Iron Age (around 2,100 years ago), and most likely far back beyond that.
There are paths in use today which extend from either end of this ancient section, and they’re clearly also following the original route. There’s something especially wonderful about gathering a hedgerow bounty from here. I’ve learned this week that “hedgerow bounty” isn’t a term that everyone has heard before so, for those who are less familiar, it simply means the plentiful harvest from the wild hedges – the blackberries, sloes, medlars, rosehips, and other fruits too.
Medlars
Medlars are an unusual and quirky fruit which can still occasionally be stumbled upon. Though they’re known as medlars today, for most of their history, they were known in Britain as “open arse” due to their shape! Medlar trees were once a staple of English places, from the highest royal courts, to the lowly village green, and the popularity of the trees reached its peak in the 1600s before suffering a steady decline. Today, they’re a forgotten relic, an oddity, which often go unrecognised and are simply left to rot on the ground. Ironically, the fruit does actually need to be rotted (known as “bletting”) before it can be eaten, or a bout of violent diarrhoea will follow your feast. I’ve never tried them myself, but the bletted fruits can be cooked, or made into jelly.
The wildness of foraging
We have the good fortune of this particular hedgerow being peppered with damson and bullace trees, along with the more common fruits like blackberries and elderberries. Damsons and bullaces are a very unusual find in a hedge, and there’s even a wild pear tucked in there too which is a real rarity!
This year, we’ve watched the branches getting heavier and weighed down with beautifully plump, purple damsons, and have been patiently-but-impatiently waiting for the moment they became ripe enough to gather. As ever, it feels like a game of chicken – do you dare chance a few days’ extra ripening at the risk of a fellow forager harvesting them first? Wild food harvesting can be a competitive game!
In a world that’s full of shrink-wrapped, far-flown, out-of-season foods, where everything is intensively farmed, regulated, licensed and sold, there’s something fantastically rebellious and feral about foraging wild fruits. Our haul yielded a large bag full of 15lbs (just under 7kg) of damsons, though this was just a tiny dent in what had grown there, leaving something like fifty times that amount still on the branches for the birds, animals and any fellow feral foragers wandering the same paths.
Damsons and bullaces
Damsons are very similar to plums, but a little smaller. The fruit can be a little more sour than plums so is generally more suited to being cooked than eaten raw. The ones we gathered weren’t overly sour – they were gently sweet with a tart edge to their flavour. Bullaces are also closely related and they look like large sloes - the tremendously sour, dark-coloured fruit of the blackthorn. Our bullace-foraging efforts collected roughly 5lbs (a little over 2kg) of those which are stored in the freezer for easy use when they’re needed.
If you haven't seen them before, bullaces can be tricky to identify because the colour can vary from very dark, through to pretty much the same blue as sloes. Bullaces are bigger than sloes but smaller than damsons. Sloes seem to hug the branch as they grow whereas damsons and bullaces tend to hang down a little. You can also tell sloes because they are the fruit of the thorny blackthorn, so look for the tell-tale spikes.
Above left and centre: Two different shades of bullace. Right: Sloes
Preserving the Old Ways
There's a natural pairing between Witchcraft and foraging - the inner urge to gather from nature, whether it's hedgerow fruits, nuts, or roots, and to then transform it into different things.
Jam is always satisfying to make. Just imagine a winter’s night, tucked up with hot buttered toast spread with a generous dollop of your own hedgerow jam. It takes you straight back to the warm sun, the summer rains and the buzz of the bees along the track. When you make jams, and chutneys (more on that coming in part 2!), and all manner of goodies, you’re not only preserving the fruit. You’re also preserving the energies of the gathering place, and your memories of that time. If you forage from an ancient holloway, you’re bottling the spirit of the place. If you gather blackberries with your children, you’re capturing the laughter and sticky fingers of the day.
Another aspect of this is that you’re also continuing a tradition which people have been doing since the beginning – preserving the harvest to enjoy it later. Even when we reach back past the time of modern sugar, people were preserving in various ways - storing fruits in honey, and also cooking fruit with honey to produce a solid texture. Fermenting, drying, and pickling were also well-known methods. Preserving is a part of our internal seasonal rhythm.
I remember preserving being a part of my childhood – watching my mum making jams and marmalades, and also my grandmother. I picked up the skills they used, and their confidence in the methods. In turn, my children have grown up with the same experiences. When you forage fruit, and make a simple jam, you’re literally preserving the Old Ways. Food for thought, eh?
Name origins of the damson and bullace
Damsons and bullaces are both types of plum. In the Anglo-Saxon era, the fruit of the plum tree was known as plúm-blǽd.
By Medieval times, damsons were known as damascenes which in turn came from the 14th century Latin prūnum Damascēnum, the Damascus plum.
The name “bullace” comes from the Middle English bolace or bolas, which is from Late Latin bulluca (“kind of small fruit”), in turn from Proto-Celtic *bullākā, and that is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeHw- (“to swell, puff”).
Anthocyanins
The wonderful colours of plums, damsons and bullaces, comes from anthocyanins (an-tho-SY-uh-nins), which is a group of deep red, purple and blue pigments found in plants. In acidic conditions it appears as a red pigment, whereas in alkaline conditions it appears as a blue pigment. Does that mean the chalk-grown damsons on the South Downs in southern Britain are more blue-skinned than somewhere with acidic soil? I’d love to know!
Anthocyanins are also found in similarly coloured fruits such as sloes, elderberries and blackberries. They’re part of a larger group of plant chemicals called flavonoids which have some rather excellent health benefits. Studies suggest that flavonoids can help to lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease by helping to lower cholesterol, help to prevent neurological diseases, and even slow cancer growth. The perfect justification for a dollop of jam in your porridge!
On with the practicalities of foraging and preserving your harvest!
Foraging spots
It’s always worth avoiding foraging next to busy roads, due to pollution, and also anything at the sort of height a dog will wee over. We’re lucky with miles of pretty pristine ancient hedgerow off the beaten track here, but your foraging locations may need to be tempered with what the land around you offers.
If you’re in the middle of the city with little chance of escape, do what you can. If you know you’re gathering from somewhere that's likely to be higher in pollution, give everything an extra wash. If possible, try to seek out the quieter spots, or the forgotten and slightly wilder waste grounds or boundaries.
The best spots of all are the places where the decent stuff grows - those secret locations where there's the best of the best, but you never want to share those locations ;-)
“The first rule of Berry Picking Club is you don't talk about Berry Picking Club”
Of course, this is the point in the post where I have to place a shameless plug for our Woodlarking foraging bags. The bags themselves are made of a strong, long-lasting woven fabric and are available in two sizes and two different designs (full range here). The purchase of a bag also helps to support this blog and enables us to take the time to write new posts :-)
Fruit flies
It’s worth mentioning that as much as you want your foraged goodies, fruit flies will want them too. They’re pesky, annoying little things and persistent too! If you don’t have the room to keep all of your harvest in the fridge, try to at least keep it covered or bagged to deter them. It’s usually best to use it all quite soon after gathering, but some fruits, like apples and damsons, can last for a while out of the fridge. If you’re not using them quickly, check them over each day and remove any which are split, or rotting. Wash and dry any others which also have the juice on them from split ones or you’ll find yourself hosting a party for the local fruit fly population!
How to prepare hedgerow fruit for preserving
How to prepare damsons
Damsons, like plums, contain a stone in the centre which you need to remove. There are several methods and we tested these out over the course of several batches of jam.
Wash the damsons and check them over. Remove any which are damaged or mouldy. Remove any stalks, leaves, etc.
1. You can cut each damson in half lengthways, twist to remove a half of the fruit, and then carefully cut out the stone from the other half with the tip of a small, sharp knife. Some of the fruits will squish and smoosh as you work with them but that’s fine because it’s all going to cook down and disintegrate as it boils anyway.
Pros: You know you’ve removed every stone
Cons: Can be fiddly. The firmer fruits are easier to work with, but the softer, riper fruits can break down a lot and lead to some wastage of the flesh as it comes away attached to the stone.
2. Place the whole fruits into the pan with liquid. Make sure you carefully measure the amount of liquid needed for your chosen recipe as this cooked mixture will become your preserve. For jams it will be water, for chutneys it will be vinegar. Some websites or books say to cut a slit into each damson first to help the stone-removal process, but we found it makes no difference at all.
Bring the fruit/liquid combination to the boil and then simmer until soft. Placing a lid on helps to speed this process up. Use a potato masher to break up the pulp and free up the stones. Something like a strainer spoon is useful so you can scoop up some mixture, and squish it about to find the stones.
Pros: Less wastage if fruit is soft
Cons: Can be difficult to know if you’ve removed all stones
How to prepare bullaces
Wash the bullaces and check them over. Remove any which are under ripe, damaged or mouldy. Remove any stalks, leaves, etc.
Bullaces also contain stones which need to be removed. Use method 2 as for preparing damsons above. Removing the stones from bullaces is easier than damsons and it takes around half the time. The stones tend to rise to the top which also helps.
How to prepare elderberries
Use a fork to “comb” the elderberries from the stalks and into a bowl. Fill the bowl with water to wash them, and you’ll find that the green under ripe berries begin the float to the top. Remove these, along with any others which are damaged or mouldy. Remove any stalks, leaves, etc.
How to prepare blackberries
The easiest of the lot - simply wash the blackberries and check them over. Remove any which are damaged or mouldy. Remove any stalks, leaves, etc.
Substituting shop-bought fruits
If you can make a preserve from wholly foraged fruit, excellent. It’s not a competition for the foraging purists though so just do what you can. Homemade jam using shop-bought fruit with (or even without!) a handful of wild blackberries is perfectly fine. Plums are very similar to damsons and they’re more likely to be found in shops. If you need to, swap the damsons for plums and use them just the same. It will still taste wonderful on your toast, or dolloped into your breakfast!
The differences between US and UK preserving methods
One thing I should add first is that I think US and UK preserving methods may be slightly different. In the US, you're all much more used to canning than we are, so (from what I've seen on groups at least) you seem to process your jars after filling them whereas, in the UK, we sterilise our jars in the oven (method below, or you can carefully bring them to the boil in a pan to sterilise – there are lots of instructions on Google for that) and pour the almost-boiling jam straight into the hot jars and seal them. The method I'm describing below is the UK method and uses UK measurements.
Pectin makes your jam set
Pectin makes jams and jellies set but damsons are naturally high in pectin so you won't need to add any to the damson jam recipe below. You can use ordinary granulated sugar, or jam sugar (which has pectin added and, even though it's not needed, it's fine if it's there) or, you can use preserving sugar. Cheaper granulated sugar will work just as well for this.
Making jam safely
It goes without saying that extra care should be taken when boiling sugar. It's not a time for having kids and animals under your feet ... boiling sugar will stick to whatever it spills onto, skin included, and causes terrible burns. That said, there's no need to be scared of doing it, just think ahead and prepare your area. Clear your space, and lay out the items you’re likely to need. It’s important for children to grow up seeing preserving, and cooking in general, but keep it safe. The resulting preserve is well worth the effort and once you've done it a few times, it becomes second nature.
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Equipment needed for jam making
Large pan I use a stockpot and that's suitable for the amount of fruit in the recipe below. I recommend this as a maximum amount at a time or it can become hard to get it up to the necessary temperature.
Jam thermometer* (optional but recommended)
Jam funnel* (to make jar filling much easier)
Jars and lids It’s always a good idea to prepare a few more jars and lids than you think you’ll need. Personally, I like to use Kilner jars (I think the US equivalent would be Ball Mason jars). I buy a few more each year and I think of them as a lifetime investment to be used again and again.
Small 250ml jars (available in packs of 6* or packs of 12*) are an excellent size for all sorts of preserves, and they're especially nice for gift-giving. You can stack two or three jars containing different preserves, into a tower and pop them into a cellophane bag. Tie it up with a ribbon and, voila, a really heartfelt and homely gift.
The larger 500ml jars (also available in packs of 6* or packs of 12*) are my go-to time and again. They're just so practical, and also look rather wonderful on your kitchen shelves.
Lids and rings Kilner preserve jars have a two-part lid made up of a centre disc and an outer ring. If you're reusing older Kilner jars, a new lid* should be used each time, but the ring* part can be reused if it’s not rusty.
If you don’t have Kilner jars, you can easily use jars saved from shop-bought foods, though the glass will be a little thinner and less tolerant of the heat so it’s easier to crack. Discard any jars with chips or cracks in the glass.
General everyday kit Scales, a measuring jug, a ladle, a clean plate (for testing to see if your jam has reached setting point), a few table/dessertspoons, a bowl for skimming any scum into.
Lastly, be prepared for a lot of clearing up! Everything gets spattered when the jam is happily blipping away, and everything you touch will become sticky. Be prepared for washing up and wiping down and, honestly, it's all worth it in the end!
How to prepare the jars for jam
You’ll need to have the jars ready to go into the oven for around 20 minutes before you need to fill them, so time your preparation accordingly.
Wash your jars (even if they’re brand new, or were stored clean) in warm soapy water, rinse well, and place them on a baking tray whilst still wet - they'll dry off in the heat of the oven.
Place the washed lids (and ring seals if you're using Kilner jars which have two-piece lids) into a container and pour boiling water over to cover them. These can just be left in the hot water until you're ready for them.
You need the oven temperature to be high enough to sterilise your jars, but not hot enough to crack the glass. Place the tray of jars into the cold oven and then switch it on to the lowest setting. If you don't have a particularly low setting, leave the door slightly ajar to stop your jars overheating.
Always remember when working with glass jars to match the temperature of things like for like: cold jars into a cold oven, hot jam spooned into hot jars :-)
Damson Jam recipe
1.5kg/ 3lbs damsons
375ml/ ¾ pint water (for US readers, US and UK pints differ. My calculations tell me that ¾ UK pint is equivalent to 12.68 US Fluid Ounces but please check this for yourself to be sure)
1.5kg/ 3lbs sugar
Knob of butter (optional - this reduces the amount of scum)
Method for making damson jam:
De-stone the damsons as above. If you’ve cut the stones out by hand, you should then place the uncooked, halved damsons into the pan with the measured water. Bring to the boil and simmer until soft and pulpy. If using the simmering method for de-stoning, you’ve already reached this stage. Both methods continue below.
Add the sugar and stir it over a low heat until fully dissolved. Then you can add a jam thermometer, stir in the knob of butter (if using), and slowly increase the heat. You may still find that a fine bubbly scum begins to rise to the surface. It’s nothing to be concerned about as it’s just tiny air bubbles which bubble up through the jam. It doesn’t look overly nice though so you can carefully skim any scum off with a spoon every now and then.
Increase the heat more, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. You'll know a rolling boil when you see it - the liquid literally does roll as it boils, and it will continue boiling unhindered when it's stirred. If you're using a jam thermometer, bring the temperature of your mixture up to 220F which is the setting point for preserves like jams, jellies and marmalade.
You can also test to see if you've reached that by placing a few drops onto a cold saucer (it helps if you pop one in the freezer just before starting). If it forms a skin which wrinkles when you push it, you've reached setting point. I find that it always takes a bit more boiling than I expect to get to setting point. It seems to stay just below it for quite a while, and I keep testing my samples on the saucer. Suddenly, you’ll realise that your sample has cooled into something that’s just like a blob of jam instead of a syrup and, unsurprisingly, you’ve finally reached setting point!
Turn the heat off and let the bubbles die down, then do one more careful skim of any scum on the surface if needed - don't stir it in. Carefully take your jars out of the oven. Use a jam funnel and ladle the hot jam into the hot jars. Carefully add the lids and tighten.
And you're done! Leave the jars to cool. It's so satisfying to hear the "pop, pop" as the lids seal :-)
Damson Hedgerow Jam recipe
1.25kg/ 2lbs 8oz damsons
250g/ 8oz hedgerow berries such as blackberries and elderberries
375ml/ ¾ pint water (for US readers, US and UK pints differ. My calculations tell me that ¾ UK pint is equivalent to 12.68 US Fluid Ounces but please check this for yourself to be sure)
1.5kg/ 3lbs sugar
Knob of butter (optional - this reduces the amount of scum)
The ratios of different fruits aren’t set in stone but there are a couple of things to note:
1. You need the overall weight of the fruit to remain at 1.5kg/ 3lbs for this recipe as you’re using that weight of sugar
2. Juicier berries contain more liquid than damsons so you may need less water if using a higher ratio of blackberries, etc.
3. Elderberries and later-season blackberries are low in pectin so, if you use a higher amount of them, you will need to add pectin. Jam sugar (specifically jam sugar, not granulated, or preserving sugar) is an easy way of adding this.
Method
Prepare the fruit as above. Use the method above for damson jam, adding the blackberries and elderberries after simmering the damsons. Bring to the boil and simmer until all the fruit is soft and pulpy. Add the sugar and continue as above.
Damson and Bullace Jam recipe
The bullaces add a wonderful flavour to this jam. They’re a very unusual fruit to find but are well worth searching out if you can!
1.25kg/ 2lbs 8oz damsons
250g/ 8oz bullaces
375ml/ ¾ pint water (for US readers, US and UK pints differ. My calculations tell me that ¾ UK pint is equivalent to 12.68 US Fluid Ounces but please check this for yourself to be sure)
1.5kg/ 3lbs sugar
Knob of butter (optional - this reduces the amount of scum)
The ratio of damsons and bullaces is easy to change as they’re very similar, and bullaces are high in pectin too.
Method
Prepare the fruit as above. If you’re using the simmering method to de-stone the damsons too, it’s best to do these in a separate pan to the bullaces. Make sure you split the 375ml/ ¾ pint of water between the pans so you’re not doubling up on the liquid.
After de-stoning and softening the fruits, combine them in a large stockpot and continue as for the damson jam recipe.
How to store your homemade jam
After your jars have cooled, check them over to make sure the lids are tight, and they have sealed properly – you’ll be able to push down on any that haven’t. Use any unsealed jars first rather than storing them away. Label the sealed ones and store in a cool dark place.
We've successfully kept preserves for over a decade, though obviously, when you open a jar, check the seal is still intact and that it looks and smells as it should. As long as the seal remains good, they seem to get better and better as they age.
Hedgerow etiquette
Leave food for the wildlife
Leave fruit on the lower branches so animals have easy access have easy access because it's their food source too.
Know your plant id
Never consume a wild plant unless you are absolutely certain of its identification. Take a book with you to aid id if you need to.
Choose your spots wisely
Where possible, avoid collecting next to busy roads. Head off the beaten track when you can to avoid pollution.
Widen your foraging area
Only collect flowers, leaves, fruits and seeds where they are in abundance, and forage across a wider area if possible. It's very easy for an area to become depleted through over foraging.
Use what you take
Always leave plenty behind, take no more than you plan to consume.
The unseen world
As we’ve discussed before, the further back in time we look the more we discover that the physical landscape was once considered to overlap and intertwine with everything unseen – spirits dwelling within stones, dryads within trees, naiads in the wells and streams.
The people never doubted the existence of Barrow Wights, Faery forts, the Fae, and the Otherworld. Dragons were firmly known to slumber deep within the hills, and even the flight of birds carried meaning for those who could read it. And, if we’re once again following the rules of the non-physical world, we’d do well to steer clear of lone hawthorn trees – we’ll write about those in another post!
Blackberries and the Fae
There's a long-held belief (or knowledge, depending on your perspective ...) that when the Fae pass fruit on the trees, they feed upon it by taking the nourishment from within but leaving the physical fruit behind. This causes it to rot in place - from blackberries, apples, to plums, dewberries, and all manner of things. Sometimes you can stumble upon randomly withered sloes, or half a spray of elderberries which are plump and ripe, and the other half which are shrivelled and spoiled. These are the fruits which have been touched by the Good Folk, the Faeries.
This, no doubt coupled with the change in season, led to the old belief that some fruits must not be picked past a certain date, but must be left for the Fae. Blackberries have been used as a food source, unsurprisingly, since ancient times. In 1911, the body of a Neolithic man was found in Walton-on-the-Naze on the east coast of Britain, and his belly still contained blackberry seeds from his last snack. It would be wonderful if only we could know the folklore and superstitions he knew of the blackberry, as it seems to attract more superstition than many plants, particularly surrounding the last date it can be foraged.
The date seems to vary in different folk tales, from 29th September through to Samhain on the 31st October, and this may simply be down to the regional variation in the seasons - fruit in the north of England can ripen seven weeks later than in the south. It's a commonly heard belief that blackberries mustn't be picked past Michaelmas, 29th September. Michaelmas is a Christian festival and the date was long considered to mark the change in season between the lighter and darker halves of the year. At some point in the past, the warnings of them needing to be left for the Faeries after this date probably became adapted for a Christian audience. It was then passed on that they weren't fit for eating after this time because the devil had spat on them (or worse, depending on who told you the tale!).
Today, many people have forgotten this unseen world completely. We’re steered away from it in modern life and by modern society, and we’re programmed not to look for it. Some of us are still aware of it though – sensing it in the green places, and feeling the echoes of it in the wilder land.
Perhaps “rarely seen” would be more accurate than “unseen” because there are glimpses occasionally for those who stumble upon it. For those who still sense it, there are a few additional guidelines to keep within the unspoken rules of the land. As you know, there's more out there than your human eyes can see - be respectful ;-)
Leave food for the Fae
Folklore says that hedgerow, woodland and forest fruits that hang low should be left for the Good Folk to gather at their convenience. They are said to consider it very rude to take from them and make them work harder for their bounty. It’s always worth heeding the warnings in the old tales, and making sure that you never offend the Fae.
Follow your gut feeling
Let your instincts guide you. Sometimes, you can look at a tree or a bramble patch, filled with perfectly ripe fruit, but something makes you feel an aversion to picking it. Follow that feeling and leave that part of the harvest for whoever is steering you away from it. If other people go along and pick everything that’s there, no worries – that’s their choice to be made, and their karma.
Remember, when you’re foraging, you’re taking part in an activity that thousands of generations of your ancestors have done. There are times when you’re woodlarking and your inner voice will tell you to go this way, that way, and to look up here. Sometimes it will lead to the most amazing little hoards of hedgerow bounty. This is proper feral foraging – following your sixth sense, the wildness within you. Maybe there’s even some ancestral memory in there.
Say thank you
Thank the land, thank the spirits and the Fae folk for their generosity and kindness for the gifts you have taken. There are times when you’re foraging, when you’re completely in the moment. Take the time to stop, look around you, just stare up at the trees, and feel that sense of home and connectedness.
As you're aware, there's much more to woodlarking than meets the eye ... happy foraging!
As a long time jam and chutney maker I find that boiling my jam jars and lids is the way that works best for me. I love to make apple chutney in the fall, I look forward to canning time every year. What a wonderful site this is.
I am new to face book. How do I became a follower or part of your blog group? I would like to be able to have easy access and participate in this beautiful work. I am a forager from way back.
Wow, how nice is this!!!! I have been following your FB page for awhile now. Love it. And this!!! This is amazing. Chock full of information and gorgeos step by step photos! I love it!!! So happy I logged in at just the right time. Coincidence? never not in our world! )O(
If you ever do a email Newsletter count me in. Thank you for sharing your gifts & Talents
Many Blessings,
Kit G.