Foraging

 The hedgerows are full of food. The trees are giving us hazelnuts, plums, apples, pears and berries. It is such a lush time of year. I love teaching the boys about the food that is all around them and what plants are called. It is an important life skill to be aware of the plants in your environment and to know what is edible and what is poisonous.

We went out on a walk around Monkston together, foraging as we went. We found wild raspberries and blackberries, it began to rain on us or we would have eaten the lot, especially Miles. We stopped at a playground. We found Mirabelle plums and hazlenuts which we took a few of but also a row of crab apple trees which we have taken note of and will return with the trailer to forage a load and maybe make crab apple jelly to jar up. Caden is now making a meal a week but crab apple jelly would be a great thing to know how to make. 

Here they are at a playground we stopped at. 

When we got home they collected the eggs our chickens had left for us.

Here are some things we collected today. Rosehips for juicing (high in vitamin C and everywhere) 5 eggs from the chickens, apples, pears and plums. 

Our neighbours came round with 2 huge marrows that they had grown and couldn't use so we made an enormous plum flapjack and shared it with them in return. 

Caden and Miles have really been back into their Skylanders since I had a massive toy clearout and organise. Here he is with his collection (that he brought into my bed early one morning to show me).