Summer Foraging

Summer is a time of abundance, and with the Summer Holidays just around the corner, foraging is a great activity for the long holidays and a great way for us to all experience new food that has grown wild and is free!

But when it comes to foraging, plant identification is key. If you are not 100% sure of the plant’s ID then don’t risk it. There are many amazing plants to be foraged, but there are also some look-a-likes that aren’t edible, so it is good to double check.

So to help you out let’s look at plants that are easy to identify and are in season at the moment so you can get out and enjoy some of nature’s forage-able treats during the summer months.

Borage

Borage, also known as starflower, has long been prized for its health benefits. Both leaves and flowers are edible with a light honey like flavour. The flowers can be eaten raw, added to salads or to give a natural light sweetness to deserts.

The leaves work better cooked into soups and sauces as they are denser in texture. Both flowers and leaves can be steeped in boiling water to make tea, or dried and used as a herb for seasoning for many dishes.

Borage is in flower from June to September and can be found in many regions of the UK, favouring sunny areas with damp soil, so keep a look out when you are next out and about.

Wild Strawberries

Wild strawberries are easy to identify and pack a nutritional punch. Being high in Vitamin C, Potassium and a good source of fibre, makes these forage-able gems worth the effort of scrabbling around on the floor to find them.

The wild strawberry is in fact a member of the rose family, and can be found across the UK and many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Look out for them along patches of grassland, hedgerows and on the edge of deciduous woodland.

These little plants thrive in areas with a little moisture and sunshine, and are in fact surprisingly hardy. The fruits can be eaten raw or cooked into a variety of recipes. They aren’t as sweet as cultivated strawberries but are still juicy and refreshing!

Red Clover

Red Clover is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the legume family and grows abundantly across the UK. Both leaves and flowers are edible. The leaves can be tossed into salads and used in teas, but the flowers have the best flavour and more health benefits.

The flower has a slight pea flavour with a fragrant sweetness when eaten raw. The flowers work well broken up over summer salads, steeped in hot water to make tea, added to bakes or if you have enough of them you can in fact make red clover jam!

Elderflower

In early summer the Elder tree produces large heads of tiny, white, fragrant edible flowers. And this is a sure sign of summer, making its appearance from May well into July, when the pollinated flowers then develop into Elderberries.

These flowers truly are a taste of summer and a very versatile ingredient too, working well in cordials, champagne, summer jellies, sorbets and tasty crispy fritters as a tasty snack.

Be sure of your plant identification, these flowers should be growing on a tree and not amongst dense hedgerows. Be aware that there are many plants that have a similar-looking flower and grow on the ground that definitely aren’t edible. So remember, the Elderflowers come from a tree, not a shrub.

Elderberries

Elderberries start to ripen from early July, depending on the weather conditions, so keep an eye out for these purple gems that pack a nutritional punch and are bursting with flavour - but DON’T eat them raw!

Unlike the flower of the Elder tree that can be eaten both raw and cooked, the elderberries do need to be cooked before consumption. Ingesting raw elderberries can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Commonly cooked into a syrup, elderberries are packed with health boosting vitamins. Elderberry syrup is traditionally used to prevent or ease cases of the flu and heavy colds. The syrup can be made at this time of year, and if stored in a sterile bottle in the fridge will last until winter. These berries also work well in jams and other sauces too, so why not experiment with different recipes?

Blackberries

The blackberries are growing in abundance, and by the look of the hedgerow we're in for a bumper crop this year!

But why should we eat wild blackberries?

Firstly, because they taste amazing! Fresh from the hedgerow these little sweet juicy gems taste way better than any berry you'd buy in a supermarket. Packed full of flavour, they are unlikely to have been sprayed with chemicals and aren't packed in unnecessary plastic packaging either, which makes them an even better choice.

Wild blackberries are packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals packing a nutritional punch to your daily fruit intake - in fact they are nutritional dynamite!

As well as eaten fresh, these versatile berries can be used in a multitude of recipes, and work well made into fruit leathers or blackberry flapjacks to take out on your adventures.

Wild Rose/ Dog Rose/ Climbing Rose (Rosa)

Rose grows wild in woodlands, wastelands, hedgerows and parks. As well as being known for its decorative qualities it also has nutritional and health benefits too

The flowers emerge from early summer, maybe a little earlier in sunnier patches. When foraging, just pinch off the edible petals from the flowers as this is the only part of the plant that you want at this time of the year.

By only removing the petals, you are then leaving behind the part of the plant that will develop into rose hips later in the season. These are also forgeable, as well as being an important stage of the plant’s reproduction for the next generation of rose.

Rose petals have a lightly sweet and floral flavour. They can be eaten raw, but due to their dry texture they work best with fresh summer fruits and salads, or in jams and jellies. The petals can be dried and used as a tea, for baking or a nice addition to granola.

As well as plant identification, also remember to only take what you need to make sure you are foraging sustainably. Foraging is a fantastic skill, it’s a great way to eat wild nutritious foods but we need to just be considerate to the wildlife that rely on them too, and by only taking a small amount from different patches we can have the best of both worlds - enjoying forageable treats AND caring for natural habitats at the same time! It’s a win win!