Berry nice – in praise of our humble local berries.

Aug 19

6 min read

Fruit of the forage: Why pay a small fortune for food when you can pick it on a hedgerow?

A tiny 120g punnet of blueberries now costs €2.99.

That's 5c for each tiny berry.

Now, don't get me wrong...blueberries are a delicious and healthy food.

But why hatever happened to our equally delicious - and completely free - humble blackberry?

Thanks to our glorious summer, they are blossoming on our hedgerows earlier than usual this summer.

Yet in restaurants and cafés you rarely see them.

Instead, menus are dominated by its blue American cousin, which has become our national go-to berry.

Pricey blueberries are in everything from smoothies to, God help us, our supposedly ‘traditional’ scones.

Have we been so dominated by US culture that now that we think we’re Americans?!

Blackberries grow everywhere here - whether we like it or not.

Blueberries need a specific type of soil and will die or wither in most parts of this island (I know, I’ve tried to grow them!).

Yet, according to Teagasc, we gobble up tens of millions worth of blueberries every year – only 5% of which is grown in Ireland.

And every single one of them could be replaced by free, blackberries (fresh or preserved), taking a sizeable bite out of our national shopping bill.

Blackberries don’t even get a mention by Teagasc as an economically significant crop, although it does offer some advice on picking them.

Teagasc’s Countryside Management Specialist Catherine Keena says blackberries were once so much part of our culture that they feature in many old sayings.

One is: 'ní fiú sméar san fhomhair é' (it’s not worth an autumn blackberry), she says.

Another myth provides timely advice on when to pick them. “According to folklore blackberries shouldn’t be eaten after hallowen when the púca spits on them,” says Ms Keena.

This is not bad advice as they will be damaged by frosts and fungus if not mythical demonic creatures.

(Even more damaging to our local blackberry crop are local councils who seem to start chopping back hedgerows at around the same time blackberries fully ripen – from September 1 onwards.)

Every hedgerow in Ireland has lots of other berries too, some sweet, some tart and some tasteless – but most nutritious.

Damson and sloe berries appear later in the autumn, but are great for the easiest alcoholic liquor recipe imaginable – simply pop them into a bottle of gin and leave for a few weeks to create a delicious Christmas liquor. (Blackberries also work).

Haw berries are ubiquitous in hedgerows and are colourful and nutritious if a bit tasteless.

Berries, fruits, wild garlic, edible flowers and an abundance of tasty greens are growing all around us just waiting to be picked - for free.

And there’s no annoying, nature-damaging and expensive-to-dispose-of plastic packaging involved.

Foraging is a way of life we’ve lost – despite Ireland being a relatively low-density, rural island.

Yet as food inflation shoots up quicker than a bramble branch, Irish people are again taking to the hedgerows.

A growing army of foragers are literally getting us back to our roots by cashing in on all this free and healthy nosh.

One of them - Jenny Boylan - grew up on a farm in County Louth.

“Both of my grandmas were phenomenal, rural women who made their own jams and butter. They fed six and seven kids respectively from veggies growing in their gardens,” she said.

Yet it took living in the Middle East to really opened Jenny’s eyes to the joy of foraging.

“I couldn't believe the connection that they have with the land. If they have an upset stomach or fever they know what tea to drink. They know wild plants and how to pickle or preserve them. Though I grew up on a farm, I didn't know this stuff. When I came back I looked at hedgerows and couldn’t tell one end from another. I made it my mission to learn.”

But how much can we save by foraging?

Our table gives a small sample selection of foods that can be replaced by foraging.

Salads bought in bags not only ramp up our food bills – they are pretty tasteless and unvaried. It’s usually just some form of lettuce.

But lettuce is just edible greenery that grows everywhere - free.

Rocket, mint and rosemary literally cost a packet. Yet you can garner as much as you want if you can find a few local plants.

I cheat a bit and plant herbs in local flowerbeds (a practice called guerilla gardening!)

I’ve also noticed my rocket plants have spread around the neighbouring verges and taken off so I’ve no need to plant them at home either.

To save most money, if you’re that way inclined, forage for plants with health-giving properties – like the humble nettle.

Jenny says its seeds rival the health benefits of ginseng, which costs €29 a bottle!

That stinger that literally scarred my childhood until I wore long pants can in fact be easily disarmed and is incredible versatile.

The stinging is caused by acid that easily neutralised by heat or drying.

It can be used in tea, soup, pesto and boiled it makes a tastier substitute for spinach.

Expert foragers like Michel chef Christian Amys (now a dedicated berry-picker) report knocking up to 50% off all their food bills, which would save a family thousands every year, though that’s pretty high target.

‘Herbs – particularly wild marjoram and parsley – I no longer buy because I can get them for free in nature,’ the former Masterchef contestant told Mail Online.

‘My clients tell me they don’t buy samphire any more because it’s so expensive. Why pay that when you can forage it for free?’

I caught fresh mackeral off Howth a couple of weeks ago and decided to forage on my local Burrow beach for some samphire to go with it.

This is a delicious salty and succulent plant that you will normally only ever get in high-end fish restaurants.

I didn’t find any samphire. But I found something similar.

I showed a picture of it to Visham Sumputh, head chef at Dublin’s Etto restaurant, who’s a keen promoter of sourcing local ingredients.

He immediately knew what it was: “Salty finger!”, he exclaimed.

This is a samphire-like plant used by coastal communities for millenia – and it goes great with all fish dishes.

It’s even tastier than samphire, which, if you can get it at all, costs €22.50 a packet (see table).

Why on earth would you want to pay that when you can literally pick it - or a tasty substitute - near your local beach?

*CASK (Climate Aware Sustainable Kitchen) brings together Irish chefs, foragers and organic growers to collaborate on promoting sustainable living in Ireland and Crete.

Jenny hosts foraging workshops in Sonairte eco-centre and gardens.

Pick and go - Sample savings from foraging

Food	Where	Cost/saving	All-Free Foraged alternative
Spinach	Tesco (350g)	€1.82	Plaintain/nettles(boiled)
Ginseng	Holland and Barrett(90 capsules)	€29.99	Nettle seeds
Blueberries	Tesco (375g)	€5	Blackberries
Mint	Aldi	99c	Wild mint. Nettles or dandelion roots (for tea)
Rosemary	Tesco	99c	Wild rosemary
Lettuce	Tesco (bag)	€1.49	Plaintain, dock leaves
Rocket	Tesco 110g	€1.39	Rocket, dandelion leaves, young hawthorn leaves
Apple and Blackcurrent cordial	Aldi	€1.49	Elderberry Cordial
Samphire	Eatmorefish.ie (200g)	€22.50	Samphire/Salty Finger
Nori (seaweed for sushi)	Asiamarket.ie	€9.35	Kelp
Garlic	Tesco	87c	Wild garlic

Food sources are quoted as samples only. No reflection on pricing of any outlets. Make sure to fully check identity of foraged plant.

Don't worry be 'appy'

Aspiring foragers can save a fortune, but they also need to take care.

Deadly nightshade, as the name suggests, is one of several to know about and avoid.

You can attend workshops with experts like Jenny.

She also recommends an app called Flora Incognita to help identify plants. “It's free and it's run as part of a project so the information is fed into a wider study European biodiversity,” she says.

“The level of information is fantastic. I'll take a photo of the flower, the leaf, the stalk, the whole plant to make absolutely sure. It's really important that you don't eat the wrong thing,” she says.

As always - if in doubt – leave it out!

Useful websites:

www.sonairte.ie