Tag Archives: wild fruit

SMALL STEPS

Blogging isn’t easy for me, so I’m trying a new approach – very quick posts.
Yesterday we went for a bike ride along the old East/West Berlin border. Really recommendable! The part we went to is between a river and an autobahn and it’s really green. There is quite a few people there, but it’s still kind of mystical. I’ve never been there before. We even went outside Berlin, crossing the border to Brandenburg, the next state. We saw horses, sheep, lots of birds and a crane.

rocket

On the way we’ve found some wild rocket. I have been finding it around Berlin quite a bit this year, never noticed it before or knew it grew wild. Just came across the smell one day and thought I’d try it. It tastes amazing! Quite peppery and so much better then from the store!

In one of the little towns outside the city we came across some bushes of different kinds of cherry plums next to the road. The bigger yellow kind, some red ones and some small unripe looking things, literally the size of cherries. I first was worried they’d be really sour. But they are delicious, bursting in your mouth, just a bit tangy, but also really sweet. So, we were grazing from these bushes for a while and then took some home too.

plums

Another good thing about them, they are really easy to pick, coz not on a tree. If I get a garden I need to plant a couple of those. I didn’t like the yellow and red kind too much. Too floury, not so juicy and refreshing.

We also went into a garden colony, which was very neatly kept, around the corner from us. And people had put out baskets with apples and little pots with plants to take. Very sweet!

Yesterday was great! We’ve been having really great weather the last couple of days, actually the whole summer has been pretty good so far. I’m soaking in the last rays, getting worried autumn will be here soon.

Anyways, we had an awesome day out, it was really cool seeing a very different side of Berlin, at times I thought myself in another town and to get some foraging in.

Have a great week!!!

Day Out/Forage, The Beginning

Now I’m back at work, at my day job. Difficult to keep up with changes when I’m working 40 hours a week, but I’m saving up some money at the moment, so i can make a transition at some point.

Most things are easier when you have a lot of time, like you might decide to eat healthier for example, you have a lot of time to prepare healthy food and read up on new recipes. You work and you’re trying to exercise more, maybe by the time you get home you are already too exhausted… not saying it’s impossible, it just takes more effort.

I find having breaks so inspiring, i had a week off over Christmas and i got so much done! Like relaxing, going for drives in the country and starting new projects.

Sometimes when you have time off all the time, you don’t appreciate it so much and get kind of sluggish, need to kick your own arse to get things done.

Anyways, we went to Daylesford area yesterday, 2 hours outside Melbourne, for a picnic, they have a lot of springs around there, so we went to one and filled up some water(you can bottle the water for free and there are like springs all over the place). They are supposed to taste quite different too.

The water at the spring we went to has quite a lot of sulphur in it, so it smells like rotten egg. It tastes like rock. With bubbles. It tastes a bit like rotten egg too, so at first i had to spit it out. But then i figured out you can drink it, just don’t breathe while you’re doing it.

So the water is quite bubbly which is nice.

 

Image

But after about an hour, well it turns a bit like ..gross.

 Image

On our walks lately i have been keeping an eye out for edible plants. While i don’t know many yet we came across quite a couple of wild plum tress on the side of the roads and fields.

So i tried them, they seem okay.

Some of them taste like what i can only describe as floury(not good). Most of them are sweet and juicy, but have a sour skin.

 

Image

I used to use tree sap and burn it on incense charcoal, used to smoke my flat out, sometimes it was so smokey, that my neighbours almost called the fire brigade. We found some sap. We been burning this with a little bit of wood and it just smells delicious!

If you do pick the dried sap don’t pick too much off one tree so it doesn’t start bleeding again.

 Image

 

What do you pick up on your trips into the wild?