Foraging around Malvern
Submitted by johnh on Fri, 03/09/2010 @ 12:40
Foraging at the Youth Centre on Saturday 28 August
Ginny and myself with help from Tom had a preliminary foraging session around the Youth Centre to see what was available. The yellow plums had all been picked, they were small sweet plums and were described as delicious. There were also some red plums which were good for cooking with a bit of sugar. There were raspberries growing wild now almost finished as well as numerous blackberries still available. The walnuts should be ready in a few weeks. Incidentally I picked up one windfall and took it home. Cutting through the outer flesh to the nut inside my fingers became covered in a brown stain which hasn’t quite worn off yet. There were also large rosehips and also many elderberries ready for picking if you can get to them through the undergrowth. We saw bamboo shoots in the field behind the Youth Centre on the left hand side.
The main find however is the large pear tree covered in pears of two different types. These should be ready to pick in a few weeks. Many of the pears are high up so we will need some steps and some equipment to pick these.
Please let us know if you can help with the picking. Date to be arranged.
Linda
Other information of interest:-
1. Pear tree ready for picking in Great Malvern Primary. Will make enquiries.
2. Many wild hops seen in on the main road between Ryall and Upton – on the right going into Upton.
3. Apples and pears from a neglected orchard on ground outside Poolbrook now almost ready.
4. Fruit trees along the Guarlford Road should be investigated to see what we can forage.
Comments
Fruit Picking
Fruit picking around the Malvern area has gone very well on a small scale. The reponse to the article in the Gazette exceeded my expections and we now have around 30 locations with surplus fruit on offer. A small group of us have gone to several gardens over the last few weeks and picked large quantities of cooking and eating apples and pears. Householders were only too happy for us to take as much as we wanted and for it not to go to waste. The fruit was given to various care homes, the homeless shelter in Worcester, a school, friends, family , workmates and neighbours as well as being offered on Freecycle.
There is however still a vast quantity of fruit in the gardens of most of the people who responded which we have not been able to pick and will therefore go to waste.
I would like to say that the response from TMH to my request for fruit pickers was very disappointing to say the least, apart from a very small group who volunteered . This is very basic stuff. We should be able to get several teams together to collect this fruit. However it seems to me there is a lot of meetings and talk but not a lot of action when is comes to actually doing something.
I hope we can get more organised next year.
Linda Hirschhorn
Foraging at the Youth Centre on Saturday 28 August
Well organised Linda. I'm looking forward to the next Foraging session to collect the pears.
Ginny
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