A question I am often asked, especially at this time of year is...What is there to harvest during winter..? Well the short answer is lots! The long answert will be reproduced here over the coming fortnight! One reason I offer full time all year round foragng walks and courses is because if I dont go out in winter, I am missing out on vital pieces of the foraging jigsaw! My winter explorations reveal more and more about plant life, that I probably wouldnt have come to realise otherwise. As these winter foraging photos are uploaded I hope you will begin to discover quite what you are missing out on, and that this will spur you on to don the wellies, scarf and overcoat and get out silently hunting... If you have my 2015 calendar you will already have a head start! By using the plants featured in November, December, January, February and March, then extrapolating through the genera and plant families, you will quickly know the variety of opportunities that can be found now, and all winter long too, if there isnt 6 inches of snow hiding it! We start with one of our really common biennial brassicas - hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale). The rosette growth is what you will encounter now. This is a reasonably hardy biennial that can take some mild frosts. It has course, pinnately lobed leaves, which refine in form dramtically as the flowering stem grows (May onwards) The yellow flowers are tiny, approx 3mm wide, with 6 stamens. $ longer than the other 2. Like all brassicas the seeds are borne in pods, which in the case of this species, are adpressed tightly against the stem. From a distance the plant has a tangled wire appearance with tiny yellow dots at the tips of the stems.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 10:18:30 +0000
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