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A fruitful trip to Bristol…
Sunday 17th: Temple Meads Station to Easton, via the Bristol & Bath Railway Path. An abundant green passage-way.
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Pants foraged: Nettles, Yarrow, Red Clover, Rose.
Also saw rosehip, rowan-berries, hawthorn and blackberries but didn’t pick them.
I arrived at Eastside Roots garden and their storm kettle was already on the boil, fuelled by dried buddleia branches from the clearance of the site. I made one pot of nettle tea, and one blend of red clover and rose, which was delicate and good for the heart!
The garden was busy with volunteers planting a herb spiral, and hauling soil onto the new ‘living roof’ with an ingenious pram-wheel pulley.
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Sharing tea brought out several stories today. Kumi, from Japan, told me a recipe for Mugwort Rice-cakes, using the young spring leaves. Kean told me that he’d spent a year drinking wild teas whenever he was working outside (which was most days). There’s always something you can use, although certain plants taste better than others. His favourite s are ground ivy, nettle and wild mint. And Kam explained how she drinks nettle tea every day to help with anaemia, as it is so high in iron.
I also heard a potted history of Eastside Roots, and how this vibrant growing space came into being from a rail-side waste ground.
Monday 18th: The storm kettle is leaking. Woe is me.
Tuesday 19th: I visited Biggles’ bike workshop, a treasure-trove of bike parts, piled to the ceiling with frames, wheels, tyres, tubes, and crazy inventions. A very inspiring chap!
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I went to Narroways hill in St Werburghs, for a gluttonous foraging expedition! Climbed plum trees with Claire to pick a pile of delicious sweet wild plums. Dave of the Selfsufficientish-ists came to meet me, and gave me lots of foraging-in-Bristol tips. He told me that Rosebay willow herb can be used as a tea, and is popular in Russia. We picked haw-berries and blackberries, yarrow, nettles, blackberry leaf, black horehound, sage, rosemary, wild marjoram, and rose.
The herbs will be dried for teas, and the fruit will be used for jam.
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