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By Jasmine Birtles, financial expert from Moneymagpie.com
Summer is the perfect time to take a ramble, so why not pick up a few meals for free along the way? Whether you’re walking through the countryside, or even your local area, there are a wide variety of seasonal fruits, nuts, edible flowers and seafood (if you’re closer to the shore) within easy reach, if you know what to pick.
Finding Food
It may sound difficult but there are loads of places you can go to pick up tasty free food. Try foraging in hedgerows, woods, and on the seashore. Have a look at Wild Man Wild Food (http://www.wildmanwildfood.com/) and Moneymagpie’s food blogger, Sarah Lockett (http://www.moneymagpie.com/blogs/food-and-family), for some useful recipes and tips for finding free food.
There are thousands of different varieties of berries, mushrooms and flowers. However some varieties, especially fungi, can be poisonous. So despite what your guide book says guidebook – if you’re not sure, don’t eat it. When picking have a look around the area to make sure it’s not an old industrial estate or road verge, the area may have been sprayed with pesticides, or contaminated by oil or ash.
It is a good idea to take a small knife with you when you go foraging. You can use it to cut mushrooms off their stalks, thereby allowing new ones to grow in their place.
Know your Rambling Rights
The law gives people a right to roam on foot to access open country in England and Wales. This includes mountains, moors, heath, registered commons and land that has been opened up voluntarily by landowners. Legally, a person may take away foliage, fruit or parts of the plant without committing an offence, unless it is done with the intention of selling them or for any other reward.
Top summer foods for free
- Blackberries
Blackberries grow on thorny bushes so it’s a great idea to tackle them with gloves. They tend to ripen in late summer, but don’t pick them after October – legend has it the Devil pees on the blackberries on 10 October and they become unfit to eat. Berries can make rich coloured sweet wine, pies and other desserts, but the easiest is jam.
- Mushrooms
Mushrooms grow above the ground and you can identify them by their smell and colour. But with 3,500 known species, it is vital that you know the difference between the edible and poisonous species. Horse mushrooms and parasols are readily available in fields in Dorset, and beech and open mixed woodlands are good locations for many edible species. Mushrooms can be eaten raw as crudités with dips, sautéed in butter with garlic and cream or as part of an English breakfast.
- Mussels
Wild mussels are found at the beach in blue, boat-shaped shells. Inside they are a nice saffron colour. If you put them in a sinkful of cold water, the bad ones will float. Also throw the ones that are already open. You should then remove any barnacles, sand or grit with the cold tap running, and the beard must also be removed. Rinse the wild mussels several times but do not let them sit in water, as freshwater will kill them.
Mussels can be added to seafood soups, stews or rice dishes and are simply delicious steamed in white wine, garlic and parsley. As long as they are cooked, they can also be added to salads, pasta dishes, stir fries, sauces, soups or stews.
- Seaweed
Devon and north Cornwall locals love their laver, the local name for seaweed. It needs to be thoroughly washed when you get it home, and then simmered in a pot without water for around ten hours. Most seaweed found in rock pools is called carrageen.
- Elderberries or flowers
Pick these flowers in June or July, in the early morning when fragrant and fresh. Cook them with fruit or infuse them into syrups and custards. The purple berries grow fruit in August and September. Raw elderberries are poisonous, they must be cooked. Elderberry cordial and jellies are tasty and sweet, while elderberry chutney is a must to try.
- Watercress
A green weed with a peppery flavour, watercress can be added to salads, scrambled eggs, game bird dishes or made into a soup. Wild watercress can still be found growing in clumps among the rocks in clear-running streams and brooks. Watercress is usually very clean on purchase. Discard any wilted, yellow or bruised leaves or stems. Remove any string-like roots and use your fingers to pick the sprigs from any particularly large stems. Don’t remove the stems entirely – that’s where most of the flavour is.
Freegan Foods
It may sound odd, but every day supermarkets throw out enormous quantities of food that have gone past their sell-by dates (and so cannot be legally sold) but are still good to eat and often in top-notch condition. They throw them into the big bins behind the supermarket where they are fair game for foragers – or ‘Freegans’ as they are known.
Although you might be hesitant to take vegetables or fresh fish and meat, if they are in packaging and have clearly-marked use-by dates then after a good scrub they should be fine to eat. Freegans constantly find ready meals with the plastic packaging intact but no outer cardboard packaging. There are often also full jars and tinned items, and even ice-cream, all with sell-by dates far in the future, but the packaging is dented or tarnished in some way.
For more information about freeganism have a look at Freegan Info (http://www.freegan.info/).
Grow your own
Once you cover the set-up costs of owning a plot of land or growing in your own garden, there is great personal and monetary satisfaction in growing your own fruit and vegetables. With fruit trees you are growing for the future, years of a good harvest can save you hundreds, even thousands, of pounds. You can re-use the seeds from vegetables like potatoes and pumpkins, and harvest other seeds from friends’ patches. From a tomato plant on the balcony to a herb garden on your windowsill, savings can be immense.
Here's more information on growing your own and making money from it.
Freebies
Everybody loves a good freebie, so see our ideas on how to get something for nothing
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