Tom Parkinson is a forager by definition, if not entirely by trade. Foraging being what it is, Tom reluctantly earns the bulk of his living behind a desk like most Londoners. At weekends he runs guided foraging walks, and makes a range of foods and products using seasonal wild ingredients gathered within Greater London.
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A bit of an old chestnut
October 18, 2009
Only the last few bumble bees, buzzing around grumpily and crashing into living room walls, seem to be resisting the arrival of Autumn. Everyone else is getting on with it, particularly the squirrels of Greenwich Park, who are racing against the foragers to gather up chestnuts for the winter. The soil in the flower beds is pitted with little craters, and if you hang around long enough a squirrel will hop along, dig a hole, drop a chestnut in cover it up again, before darting off for another.
Chestnuts offer a guilt-free harvest in London. The squirrels in parks have their diet supplemented with monkey nuts all year round, and there are so many chestnuts to be had that anyone who wants to get a bag full can do so with ease.
I’ve been having raw chestnuts for breakfast every morning as I walk through the park. They’re best roasted, but a freshly fallen nut, shelled and rubbed to remove the bitter pellicle (the thin, translucent inner skin) is glorious, as crunchy and creamy as a Kentish cobnut.
We made a little video which you can watch here.
www.londonforager.com/roast-chestnuts-video.htm
Chestnuts are extremely versatile. They make fantastic puddings, ice-creams and fondants, and also go well with braised kid or beef. They also form the basis of the classic confectionery marrons glaces, but I wouldn’t recommend trying these at home- it’s a lengthy delicate business that’s best left to the commercial kitchen.
Aside from chestnuts, we’ve gathered bags and bags of Malus Golden Hornet crab apples, damsons and sloes this month. People have been asking about sloe gin- where to find sloes, when to pick them etc. I’ve yet to find a wild blackthorn bush here, and I can’t work out why this is (our sloes were from Bedfordshire, not London). So I’m afraid I can’t help out with the first one. As for picking them, rural wisdom dictates that you should wait until the first frost. This ‘bites’ the sloes, breaking the skin and softening the fruit. If you don’t want to wait however, you can simulate Jack Frost’s cruel embrace by bunging them in the freezer. Then let them thaw and they’re ready to be made into sloe gin.
Don’t feel that your dreams of liqueur making are shattered though just because you can’t find sloes. Damsons are a worthy substitute, and pretty much any fruit will sing if steeped for long enough in alcohol. There are a few basic principles regarding the sugar/booze ratio for different fruit, and some fruits will need a syrup rather than powdered sugar, but beyond this you can experiment and the results will rarely be disgusting.
There’s still time to make crabapple schnapps for Christmas if you can’t get hold of sloes. There’s nothing to it, just cover a couple of handfuls of crabapples in 50cl or so of neat vodka, seal in a kilner jar and store in a dark place until mid December. It’s just as good as sloe gin.
We’ve got a couple of other liqueur recipes on our site, and I’m in the process of putting together a pdf which I’ll put up for download later in the week (promise).
www.londonforager.com
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