6 litres of pickled wild garlic buds down and I’m running out of steam (and vinegar. and space…🤣)
I mix up the flavours quite a bit each spring, and usually add in whatever I have when making; leftover slice of citrus peel, a few mustard seeds etc - this time, in place of the peel, I added in some hogweed seeds which have an almost citrusy, clovey, cardommy type of flavour.
Finally done preserving the buds, there are plenty more growing at the allotment but they will be left to flower now - one small batch of flowers has already been picked for drying and these usually get used as toppings and garnishes to soups and rice dishes throughout the year, but then it’s on to preserving the delicious capers which (in my opinion) are better than the buds 🤤
SIDENOTES;
Quantities:
Buds and vinegar - just enough to fill your chosen vessel(s)!
Spices - To taste! I usually use a few peppercorns, pinch of salt, hogweed seeds and chilli flakes, and 2 tbsps sugar per 500ml jar
Please also see my stories for notes on sustainable foraging if you’re new to the game ☺️🌿
Was trying to take a leaf out of hum.daddy’s book but just got pelted instead 🤣 only time you’ll catch me with a worm in my mouth 🪱😉
On a more serious note, I haven’t seen the little fluffball since the last reel I posted of him, and I’ve visited 4 times since which is the longest I’ve not fed him for 🥺 I hope he’s ok and just nursing some new babies! ❤️
At the end of last year I discovered a rancid pond underneath bucket fulls of cherry tree leaf and larch needle sludge in my new allotment.. and, after much cleaning, i now have newts! 🦎
The tadpoles are steering well clear, and are hanging out at the other end of the pond - literally every last one of them 😆 and if it wasn’t for the mass wriggling causing for a closer inspection, I’d probably never have even noticed them!
I actually didn’t even notice there were two until I watched the video back (there ended up being 3 but I didn’t catch the last) Did you spot it?🦎👀
Opening the creaky greenhouse window for the first time in over 5 years! This is the greenhouse that was on my second plot when I took it over last September, it’s a little smaller than the one on my first site, but in much, much better condition!
It currently houses my peach tree (that I dragged inside before the last bout of snow and I won’t risk another move to the outdoors whilst it’s in fruit so here it stays)
Over summer the space will protect my cucumbers and a few tomato plants, then come autumn I plan on turning it into a winter greens paradise…. If I doesn’t get completely filled with allotment junk by then 😆
Do you have a greenhouse? And what do you grow in it? I’m looking for some more inspiration for plants/trees I can grow in here next season!
Just a baby sparrow to put a smile on your face this morning 😃
This little guy was brought into the house yesterday by my cat 😤 luckily he was fine, and was flapping about the living room shouting his little head off - who knew they could be so loud 😆😆
On a more serious note, cats kill more house sparrows than any other bird in the UK, and an estimated 30 million birds are killed by cats each year. (These are reported numbers, so probs way higher)
I will make a more in depth post in the next few days on ways you can help protect birds from your pets this season ❤️
Anyway I picked him up and carried him back out to the garden where the rest of the fledglings are learning how to fly, he was trying to wriggle out of my hands the whole journey to the garden, but when he heard the parents birdsong and I opened my hand to let him wobble off, he just sat there looking a bit confused for a while 😅😅 I waited until I saw them reunite, and then went and put my cat in lockdown!!!! 🐱❌
I also posted this to my personal Instagram account yesterday and had a few messages from friends saying that the parents would disown them now they can smell me, this is a myth - birds don’t recognise their young by smell. If you see a baby bird then unless it’s in danger leave it alone, the parent is probably foraging food nearby or off collecting one if it’s other stray children 😆 if the bird is in obvious danger, you can move them from harms way (but never far from where you found them) and they will find each other by calling out 🥰
A full on week of plant bothering in just a few seconds 💚 taking in all of that late spring beauty of the woods, fields and marshlands around Yorkshire, what a wonderful time of year to be a forager! 🧺
I’m working in derby today 🛹 but looking forward to a full Sunday of planting out tomorrow, hope you have a lovely day whatever you get up to! 😃
Did you know that trees can talk to one other? 🤯🌳📞
Mycorrhizal fungi are the silent messengers of the forest floor, building a complex underground network of organic fibres (mycelium) that interconnect with the roots of trees, allowing them to send messages to one and another - and even warnings of preemptive attacks! 🤯🌳
Not only that, but ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF)** like this Larch Bolete found in my allotment this week, also help to protect plant roots from pathogens and environmental extremes, moderate the effects of heavy metal toxins in the ground, AND promote soil structure. What little troopers!
Diversity of EMF is an important factor in aiding the resilience of forest ecosystems in the face of environmental factors like pollution and climate change. And unfortunately according to surveys, the level of mycorrhizal colonisation in conservation sites around the UK has dropped significantly in the past few decades (thought to be due to air pollution😔), which makes it all the more important to spread knowledge and awareness of these beautiful little beings. 🍄✨
**There are many different types of symbiotic relationships fungi can have with trees and plants (90% of land plants have some sort of relationship with fungi!) - two major ones being endomycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal - but it’s a bit much to get into now so will save for another time.. or you could just Google it 🤪
Ps; apologies if my speed talking and erratic hand movements are distracting for you, I struggle to contain my excitement when it comes to all things fungi, is it obvious? 😆🍄
Rhubarb and Wild Rose compote with Elderflower pancakes! 🤤🌸🥞
If you’re apprehensive about using foraged ingredients in your cooking, one of the best ways to widen your comfort zone is to start cooking with familiar wild foods first, slowly throwing in a pinch of this and that here and there 🤏
This lazy breakfast recipe uses a few really common plants that can be foraged in your local park or gardens right now. and is perfect for a late Sunday morning at the allotment 🌿
For the compote, I just cooked down some rhubarb with a bit of lime juice until softened - you can add a couple tablespoons of sugar here if you want a sweet compote, but I like it sharp 😄 in the final few minutes add in your foraged rose petals and keep the heat low whilst you prep the pancakes
I always make up a jar of pancake mix and keep it in my shed for a quick breakfast when I’m camping, and it’s fun to mix it up with whatever’s in season - a few plantain or hogweed seeds in autumn, some lemon balm and wild flowers in spring etc, but this time I used some sprigs of elderflower that grows abundantly in my allotment at the start of summer - just pick off a few blooms and add them to your mix and make as normal… preferably in the ashes of a wood fired bathtub 😜🔥
Hope you’re having a relaxing Sunday morning so far whatever you’re up to! 🥰
There are healing plants all around us, in fact - most wildflowers have some sort of history of medicinal use - you just need to grab yourself an ID book and a picnic, and head out to a field or woodland… you’ll be surprised how much plant medicine you can gather in just a few hours!
While most plants make us feel good just by being around them, there are some that are more special in the mood department than others - one very well known plant is St Johns Wort, a plant so magical in its abilities to alter our mental makeup, that it’s not recommended for use alongside other medications for anxiety or depression (always check first before taking plant medicine!)
You can make an infused oil by filling a jar with wilted tops and adding olive oil. Take a tablespoon as needed or use the oil to make a soothing salve 💛
Pineapple weed is also used to help treat anxiety, it’s aromatic compounds (that are enhanced when you crush the plant) lowers stress levels and it’s calming qualities have a mild sedative effect - perfect for aiding sleep! 🍍😴 The flowers can be made into teas or cordials, but one of the easiest ways is to dry the flower head and add them to your fruit nut and seed mixes for when you’re out and about! 🥾
Mugwort is one of the most magical of plants, often called the ‘Mother of Herbs’, it has a long history of bed time use - particular to help aid night travel and lucid dreaming. It’s flowers and leaves can be dried to make a calming tea, it’s effects heightened when mixed with soothing pineapple weed which helps to soften Mugworts strong flavour! ✨🪴
Do you have a favourite plant to chill you out? Lavender? Mint! Lemon balm? Pineapple weed? Or just weed? 😆
We found tiny little demogorgons! This creepy looking thing is actually a type of mushroom called the Devil’s Finger fungus. It’s in the Stinkhorn family - and it actually grows in the UK 😱 albeit a pretty rare sight!
First discovered just 100 years ago, thought to have been brought over from Australia or New Zealand when tropical plant exportation was rife. Thus, they like it WARM, and as such, are only found in a handful of places - mostly (or all I think) reported in the south of the country 🌞
We found these little guys trying to bite our ankles at heligangardens in Cornwall last week, I lost my sh*t when I saw the first one and just stared and pointed to it with one hand, and the other hand covering my mouth! 🫢😮
Devil’s Finger’s fungus is one of the mushrooms on my ‘Need To See Before I Die’ list, and I’m stoked with how many absolutely perfect specimens we found. I took so many photos so do expect lots more stinkhorn content from me soon! 😆🐙👹
Do you have a mushroom or plant you are dying to see?
Happy weekend from my little bubble to yours 🥰 Here are a few snippets from my week gone past, July is such a beautiful month and I’m making the most of this beautiful weather we are having while it lasts 🌞👌🏽
Yesterday we drove to Marsden and camped the night next to a skatepark, and today we are heading to Sparth reservoir - the new SUP is coming out and I’m going to try my hand at a different board sport 😮 Here is a fun Danni fact - I can’t swim!!! So wish me luck 😂
What have you got planned for the sunny weekend?
5 years in the making 🫶
I recently spoke to jacks_patch for the foodgroweracademy podcast about the space i have been creating in my city centre allotments. We spent an hour chatting about nature based growing,
foraging and off grid living, my 640sqm forest garden and all of its unusual little quirks - including how I built my skate ramp and outdoor bathtub! We also got into how I started gardening, where it’s taken me since, and what my plans are for the coming year.
If you’d like to listen along whilst you’re pottering in the garden today, you can find the link on the foodgroweracademy website or on their Spotify, channel, and I’ll link it in my stories later too 🥰
I’m off to work for a few hours now, and then my afternoon plan is to figure out what to make with all these cherries! 😮🍒 Have a lovely Sunday and don’t forget the suncream! 🧴😆
It’s a total coin toss between the skate ramp and the wood fired bathtub for my favourite allotment feature 😄🪙🤷🏻♀️🛹🛁🪵🔥
The reason why I believe strengthening human connection with nature is so important, is because close encounters encourage relationships, and relationships bring about understanding. When we understand something we have a deeper appreciation and respect for it - and when we respect something, we are much more likely treat it better. 💚
Grief is a powerful emotion, one that comes and goes in waves. Sometimes it can feel as though you’re drowning but it can also be used as fuel to drive, guide, and to help you find meaning - because when all the rules are scrambled, you realise that you can just make your own.
I started this account when I couldn’t send my mum anymore updates of my new allotment, it’s been nice to share the journey with people as interested as she used to be. 4 years on and the garden (and life in general!) is more magical than ever ☺️💙
Simple luxury 🛁🌿🔥
Looking forward to life slowing down and the drought to be over so I can spend my evenings in here again 😊
Does anyone else get that sudden change in enthusiasm from harvest time to when it becomes time to actually deal with all of the food that past you was so excited to pick and lug home? 😆🙋🏻♀️
Slowly making my way through hundreds of Victoria plums (38kg to be exact.. I haven’t even looked at the grapes yet😆) and though I suffer from plum moth most years, I have a tip that has never failed me… 👇🏾
Plum moth larvae cause a false early ripening, and so often when the first batch of plums have worms the rest gets ignored to rot on the tree. I wait until the first ripe plums have fallen from the tree (trying to remove what I can so the worms don’t become more moths) and then I pick the ones that ripen later. The ‘second’ batch of plums are usually the ones with no damage done by the worms. The first 20 or so plums I picked a couple of weeks ago had a worm inside every single one, the batch I have in my kitchen I have so far found 3 worms in about 200 plums 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
Do you suffer from plum moth? Do you use things like pheromone traps to help or just wait forthe late plums like me? 😋
For another Danni plum tip, head to my stories 😃
The best salt you’ll ever have 🤤
Porcini (ceps, penny buns etc) are also called ‘King Boletes’ and are considered one the tastiest wild mushrooms in the world. They have a really umami earthy flavour and make for a pretty intense seasoning when dried and turned into a powder for use when cooking, but blitzing the powder up with sea salt flakes is probably the easiest way to make every single meal a gourmet one 😆 I just had some on my stew made with the leftovers from the fridge and vegetable bowl and it was so good. Definitely recommend if you have surplus this season! 🍄
Have you found any ceps yet this year? If not, check out my last porcini post for tips on where to find them 🧺
#boletusedulis #porcini
The most abundant month in the garden, September is when my little food forest really comes to life! 😍🌻
Porcini season is in full swing in Sheff and the pantry is STOCKED! We’ve got two huge kilners of dried shrooms, a couple little ones of both porcini powder and porcini salt, and a big box of chunks in the freezer. I have been a little slow to get out / not eagle eyed enough this year to have found very many baby bouchons which is poor work on my part because I really wanted a couple of jars preserved in oil for instant pizza toppings over winter.
Though, I’m not complaining with this years haul because it’s been an absolute banger so far… just LOOK at this beautiful beast bambi_price spotted from across the forest floor 😍 it was MASSIVE and came close to 2kg which meant, whilst mine were cute and firm, his basket definitely won the weight round on that walk 😂 We actually found a few much bigger but they were in no state to try to pick up 🤢
How has your porcini season been so far?
The most beautiful things are often the most misunderstood, and the Amanita Muscaria is a fine example 🍄❤️
The UK seems to have a nationwide epidemic of Mycophobia, indifferent to, fearful of, or just plain creeped out by mushrooms. I have 5 blocks of lions mane growing in the living room right now and my friend shuddered when she realised they were ‘alive’ 🤣
As with many mushrooms, eating Amanita Muscaria raw can be pretty dangerous and certainly unpleasant - though rarely fatal. It’s thought as many as 8-10 large caps could top a person off - but i don’t think this has gone through any kind of rigorous testing 🤷🏻♀️😆
A. muscaria do take quite a bit of preparation if you’d like to chow down on them for dinner sans psychedelia, lots of boiling and changing of water is involved. Some cultures drink the spent water too, and I think A. muscaria actually predates alcohol by something stupid like 10,000 years! 🥴
Topical tinctures are a great gateway into the wonderful world on medicinal mushrooms for those too nervous to eat them yet, and A. Muscaria is said to be one of the most potent and effective topical tinctures of all, helping to provide instant relief to many sciatica sufferers. Natures very own ibuprofen! 😄
Tinctures work by drawing out the active compounds in organic matter and transforming them into a conveniently concentrated liquid. All you need to do is fill a clean jar with your mushroom and top with a high proof alcohol like vodka. Leave in a dark cupboard for 4-6 weeks and shake whenever you remember. Once strained and decanted, it will keep well into next mushroom season and you can rub it onto painful areas as and when needed, or soak a cloth in the liquid and use it as a compress! 🤕
DO NOT take this tincture internally, fresh A. Muscaria contains high levels of ibotenic acid and it will likely make you sick. There are other methods for tinctures you can ingest but this one isn’t it. Amanita Muscaria
Woodlands, hedgerows, country lanes and even parks are brimmmming with edible jewels right now and trees are literally drooping from the weight of their fruits. What a wonderful time of year to be a forager! 🧺🌰🍏
It’s also a great time of year for beginners to get their footing, with so much of the widely known fruits available(apples, plums, pears etc) it really gets people out and looking closer at the trees and shrubs in their local areas. You don’t have to be super knowledgeable or adventurous to be a forager, it’s something that everyone can and should work into their every day lives and it can all start with what you already know.
If you’re making a crumble this season, why not harvest some Angelica seeds (or hogweed if you can still find them!) to add a bit of foraged wild spice to your sweet things? Or maybe try some ‘regular’ foods from more unusual ingredients; like ketchup made from hawthorn berries, plantain seeds mixed into bread dough or rowan berries in place of cranberries for a tart xmas sauce 😋
Here are 20 born edible and medicinal plants that you can forage this month! Let me know if there’s any on the list you’re still yet to find!
1. Porcini
2. Angelica seed
3. Sloeberries
4. Japanese Knotweed
5. Jelly ear fungus
6. Pheasant berries
7. Crab apples
8. Apples
9. Pears
10. Hawthorn berries
11. Yarrow
12. Chess apples
13. Rose hip
14. Hazelnut
15. Rowan berries
16. Guelder rose
17. Plantain seeds
18. Fuschia
19. Brown birch bolete
20. Amanita muscaria
Happy foraging!
*Amanita muscaria is poisonous unless properly prepared!! See my last couple of posts about them if you’re interested in how i use them for medicine 🍄🫶🏾
Beefsteak fungus is an edible mushroom that grows almost exclusively on oak trees, when sliced it is eerily similar to raw meat and even bleeds a red liquid when cut!
Don’t get too excited if you’re hoping this will replace your steak and chips - slightly citrusy, tasting nothing like meat (or mushrooms weirdly) the flavour and texture is (imo) more akin to watermelon than a sirloin, and so pairs with sorrel quite nicely 🍉
I have experimented with beefsteak a few ways and still think my first endeavour of ‘beef jerky’ 4 or 5 years ago was the best attempt. Marinated, thinly sliced and dehydrated - it was almost like the real thing!
I would consider Beefsteak fungus to be a beginner foragers mushroom because there really isn’t anything like it. If it looks like a big ox tongue poking out of an oak tree, with slightly marbled flesh that bleeds a red liquid when squeezed, you’ve got a beefsteak! 👅
What would you make with it!?
Orange Peel fungus are fascinating things, they are tertiary decomposers, meaning that they rely on primary and secondary decomposers to do their dirty work before sweeping in to break down the leftovers, returning things like hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen back into the soil. These types of decomposers play an important ecological role for soil dwelling organisms who only get to make use of the nutrients thanks to saprophytes like the Orange Peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia)
Being tertiary decomposers, it means that you’ll often find OPF growing around other mushrooms, and with them being so easy to spot from a distance, they are a great one for foragers! 👀🧺
OPF is also one of the few edible cup fungus out there, and whilst perhaps not the most exciting culinarily speaking, their bold and striking colour makes it look pretty cool on plates - especially when paired with those on the opposite side of the colour wheel like amethyst deceivers or wood blewits 🧡💜
These little guys are ascomycetes which means they shoot their spores out like little exploding bombs rather than drop them from the cap, if you want to see a cool video of the spores being released then check out the_foraging_course_company who uploaded one just yesterday! 🤩
Have you ever found OPF? Or maybe the super similar but much redder ‘scarlet elf cup’? 🧚♀️
Every year the garden gets more magical, I hope this little one sticks around for another winter with me! 🫶🏾🍃🪄
Don’t mind me, just reminiscing on all this mad grape potential before my freezer cut out whilst I was away working last month 🥲🍇 It’s the highs and lows of gardening that makes it fun, right? 🙃🎢
Seriously though, it is another season down, and another lesson learnt. The mistake I made of leaving my produce in the hands of technology is not one I’ll be too quick to make again, and the trauma has spurred me on to learn new methods and processes of preservation… so every cloud and all that 😆⛅️.
Did you have any mishaps or accidents this year? Please do entertain me! 😄💚🫶🏾
Whilst this little forest garden will still be throwing out the goods over winter, there are a few beds ready to be put to sleep for the next few months.. this is how I do it! 😊
💚 I wait for a couple of good rainfalls before getting to work weeding the beds by hand. In the summer I like to use a hoe to get rid of any stray weeds at surface level, but those still left at this time of year I prefer to hand pick - it’s much easier when the ground is soft so this is why I like to wait until a rain 🌧
💚 Though I have practised mulching methods since taking over my plot 5 years ago, it is pretty big (640spm-ish!) and so some parts are still heavy clay. For the past 3 years I have been using Activearth from enviiuk it’s a soil conditioner that helps to break up and aerate compacted areas, encouraging more earthworm activity and increasing biological activity. Initially I used this on just one of my 3 bigger beds to see the difference it made, and since it’s worked so well this year I have decided to use it on the other 2 beds that are still quite compacted to speed up the process a bit more 😎🪱
💚 Finally I’ll take up a bunch of fallen leaves and decomposed woodchip from my paths to completely cover all exposed areas 🍂 This will provide some protection from the elements over the next few months, but more long term it will be providing lots of lovely nutrients, improving soil structure, and encourage more fungi and soil dwelling critters too! 🦠🍄
I am slowly but surely getting everything organised for next spring, I have 8-10 more beds to weed and mulch, and then it’s on sorting all of the inside structures! 😃🏡
What’s on your list for the next few weeks? 🌱🪚🛠😴
#ad #enviiactivearth
It was an incredibly abundant year for my plum trees, maybe the biggest harvest of my 5 years in the garden! I’m so grateful for this little fruit orchard I inherited 😍 The squirrels took more than their fair share yet again, but there was more than enough to go around this time! 😄🫶🏾🐿
I lost around 50% of these in my freezer outage last month 😔 but before that I managed to make a bunch of compotes, purées and dehydrated breakfast toppings for theskateretreat and I also squirrelled myself away a few jars of plum and hogweed jam.
It’s a basic recipe with few ingredients but it really is delicious and the hogweed seeds give it a bit of autumnal spice, so if you happen to have collected any hogweed seeds and plums earlier this autumn then you must try it! 🙌🏾
PLUM + HOGWEED JAM
🌸 1 kg plums
🍯 1kg white sugar
🌱 1 tablespoon of hogweed seeds
🍋 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Halve the plums & remove the stones, add to a pan with the lemon juice and cook over a low heat until they soften up. After around 5-10 mins add the sugar and hogweed seeds, mix well and simmer for another 10-15 mins, or until the jam starts to thicken, stirring every now and then. Next you can do the wrinkle test* to make sure it’s set to your liking, and then pour into hot sterilised jars - filling to the top but making sure to keep the rims clean. Screw on the lid and either keep in the fridge or water bath the jars for 10 mins before storing on the shelf ☺️
*to do the wrinkle test you can put a spoon and small plate in the freezer before you start and use them to test drops of jam - if after a few seconds the jam drops form a ‘skin’ that wrinkles when you push it with your finger slightly, then your jam is set! If not, you can cook for a little longer 🫶🏾
I’ve been having this on everything from toast to ice cream but it’s especially good for spooning into little puff pastry cases and baking for a 10 minute sweet treat 😋🥧
Wh
Summer was a whole lot better with this contraption on the plot this year! 🌞💚🔥 Looking forward to steamy winter baths here but less looking forward to getting out when it’s freezing cold outside 🥶😄
Which would you rather for a wood fired bath? A balmy summers evening or a fresh snow day?? 🌞🛀❄️
I can’t wait to get back to the plot this week, I have lots of redesigning to do in this area over the next few months with some more big projects to get stuck in to. my favourite! 😃🙌🏾
First port of call after my weekend away was checking on the garden birds, topping up the feeders, scattering seeds for the ground feeders and smashing through ice so they could all have a drink and a good wash 🥰🧡🤎
Robins (and other small birds!) can lose up to 10% of their body weight in a single winters night!! And they need to eat up to 50% of their body weight each and every day just to keep up their fat reserves… foraging itself takes up a lot of energy, so this time of year becomes a constant struggle to keep up with the fuel needed for all that work! 🥵
We can lend a helping hand though, and there’s plenty of scraps we can leave out that don’t require a walk to the pet shop; things like👇🏼
🤎 Mild cheese either grated or cut into tiny cubes
🧡 Cake or biscuit crumbs
🤎 Unsalted crackers
🧡 Fat rendering - but no turkey/chicken/veg fat as it can reduce the efficiency of their waterproof feathers
🤎 Dried fruits, seeds and berries like rowan, elder, angelica, hogweed, blackberries, raisins, sultanas, chopped dates etc etc - don’t use raisins on the floor if you have a greedy dog!
🧡 Crushed and unsalted peanuts
🤎 Even roast potatoes, just pat any grease off first!
Of course, if you do have suet pellets, mealworms, sunflower hearts, and all of the usual nutritious bird food - do leave that out too! Think about the different types of birds that visit your garden and where they like to eat, if possible scatter in a few locations as territories are fiercely held this time of year and this will help to reduce any potential conflict 😆
I was surprised to see a second robin within very close proximity to my usual robin yesterday, and after approx 15 minutes of coaxing I managed to get the new one to feed from my hand! Which makes me wonder if those days when I thought my robin was more shy than usual.. if it was actually the same robin I thought it was!? 😮 I’ll be keeping a closer eye over the coming weeks 😆
