November and December might seem too late in the calendar year to harvest fruits, but there are plenty of winter foraging opportunities along our canals and rivers.
Pick up your basket and take a walk along your favourite stretch of the canal to forage for fruits, leaves and nuts that you can turn into festive foods and drinks. Enjoy them yourself in the lead-up to Christmas or wrap them up and gift them to your loved ones.
Christmas drink ideas from foraged finds
Forage for wild ingredients to create unique and seasonal drinks with nature’s bounty. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Pick sloes for gin or cordial
Sloes are best harvested after the first frost, typically between late October and November. The frost softens the berries, making their sharp flavours more mellow. You can mimic this effect by freezing them overnight.
Look for sloes on blackthorn bushes along hedgerows and woodlands on our canal towpaths.
Sloe gin recipe:
500g of sloes
250g of sugar
1 litre of gin
Wash and dry your sloes, pricking them with a fork
Fill a sterilised jar halfway with the sloes, add sugar, and top up with gin
Seal and store in a cool, dark place, shaking gently every few days
After a few months, strain and bottle your sloe gin
Sloe cordial recipe
1kg sloe berries
1 litre water
1 juiced lemon
Granulated sugar 80g per 100ml liquid
Muslin cloth (optional)
Bring the sloe berries, water and lemon juice to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes
Break up the cooked sloes with a wooden spoon or potato masher, don’t worry about the stones as you will sieve them out later. Simmer for a further 10 minutes
Pour the mixture through a sieve. Line your sieve with a muslin if you want your cordial to be clear
Measure the juice to calculate the amount of sugar required (80g per 100ml)
Clean the pan you used, pour the juice back in, add the sugar and heat slowly until the sugar dissolves
Bring the mixture back to the boil and simmer for another 10 minutes. When the cordial has cooled, pour into a sterilised glass bottle or jar
Sloes grow along our canals during the autumn. Forage for sloes and use what you pick to make sloe gin
Collect pine needles to make vodka
Fresh pine needles can be foraged throughout the year, but winter is the perfect time for harvesting when their vibrant aroma is at its peak. Choose young, green needles from edible pine varieties, like Scots pine. Avoid yew and other toxic evergreens.
Pine needle vodka recipe:
A handful of fresh pine needles
500ml of vodka
2 tbsp of honey
Rinse and roughly chop the needles
Add them to a sterilised jar and pour vodka over the top
Seal and let infuse for 1-2 weeks, shaking occasionally
Strain into a bottle and sweeten with honey
Make mulled wine with rose hips
Forage bright and firm rose hips in autumn for a unique spin on your mulled wine. Wait until after the first frost, which softens their texture and enhances their flavour. You’ll find them on wild roses in hedgerows or woodlands.
The rose hip is the fruit of the rose plant, usually orangey-red in colour.
Rose hip mulled wine recipe:
750ml of red wine
A handful of fresh or dried rose hips
2 tbsp of sugar or honey
A cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves
Heat the wine gently in a pan, but don’t boil
Add the rose hips and spices, letting it simmer for 15-20 minutes
The rose hip is the fruit of the rose plant, usually orangey-red in colour and ready to pick during our autumn season
Forage brambles for whisky
Blackberries are at their best from late summer to early autumn. If you’ve frozen a batch, they’re perfect for festive recipes during the colder months. Look for wild bramble bushes along hedgerows or woodland edges.
Go for shiny black berries as those with any red on them won't be ripe just yet.
Bramble whisky recipe:
500g of blackberries
250g of sugar
1 litre of whisky
Add blackberries and sugar to a sterilised jar
Add the whisky, seal the jar and shake gently
Let it infuse in a cool, dark place for at least a month, shaking occasionally
Find out more about where and when to pick blackberries and what you can do with them
Christmas food ideas from foraged finds
Make your Christmas table unique with these wild and wonderful food ideas.
Make a crumble with crab apples
Crab apples ripen in late autumn. You’ll find these small, colourful fruits hanging from trees, along hedgerows or in orchards. Look for firm, bright fruit with no signs of bruising or rot.
Crab apples are exceptionally tart when eaten raw, but delicious when cooked in a crumble.
Crab apple crumble recipe:
500g of crab apples, peeled and chopped
100g of sugar
150g of flour
100g of butter
75g of oats
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Cook the crab apples with sugar until softened, then transfer to a baking dish
Rub together flour, butter and oats to form a crumble topping
Spread the crumble over the apples and bake for 30-35 minutes
Roasting acorns
Acorns can be foraged in autumn from oak trees. Choose firm, brown acorns without holes or cracks.
Be careful that raw acorns contain tannins which can be toxic. You'll need to leach your acorns to remove these tannins.
Acorns are an important food source for plenty of wildlife – and make a festive snack for us.
Roasted acorns recipe:
Prepared acorns (soaked and boiled)
1 tbsp of oil
Salt or cinnamon sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Toss acorns in oil and spread on a baking tray
Roast for 15-20 minutes until golden and season
Collect hazelnuts for nut butter
Hazelnuts are ripe in late summer and early autumn. Forage them from wild hazel trees, choosing hard, brown shells. Dry them for storage until ready to use.
Hazelnut butter recipe:
200g of hazelnuts
1 tsp of honey or salt
Roast the hazelnuts at 180°C for 10-15 minutes, then remove their skins
Blend in a food processor, adding honey or salt if desired
