It’s been a while since I last wrote. December through to April are times when I mostly rely on food from my ‘stash’, aka my chest freezers. Every day I’m tucking into a bowl of soft fruit that reminds me of summer. I picked several kilograms of raspberries and blueberries back in July – their vitamins are a precious resource in the darker months.
While food in the wild is scarce right now, I have noticed that it is worse than other years. The weather has been all over the place, with temperatures on Christmas Day in double figures, spells of prolonged heavy rain, sudden and short-lived frosts… Yesterday, while sliding around on icy pavements, I heard the birds singing their mating call. The natural world is confused.
Normally around now we find plentiful supplies of Velvet Shanks. Only a handful so far. My usual oyster trees have got nothing on them.
Thankfully today I serendipitously stumbled upon a nice log full on my way to the Post office:
My foraging knife finally got put to good use again – I could almost hear it breathing a sigh of relief. I picked enough to make us a tasty and fulsome soup for tomorrow’s meal.
The signs of the natural world are worrying me though. What will 2024 bring?
The healthy forager 