Hedgerow foraging in October: five things worth picking, and how to be sure

There is a particular pleasure in coming home with something you did not pay for. October is the month for it: the hedges are loaded, the weather is still kind enough to be out in, and most of what is worth picking is easy to recognise.

Before anything else, the rules. Only ever eat something you are completely certain of. Certain means you would stake a week in bed on it, not that it looked about right. Leave plenty behind, because birds and mice are relying on it far more than you are. Pick above knee height away from paths, and never strip a bush bare. Ask before going onto land that is not a public right of way.

This guide deliberately sticks to five things that are difficult to confuse with anything dangerous. It says nothing at all about mushrooms, which are a different subject needing a different kind of expertise.

Blackberries

The last of them, and often the sweetest. Tradition says leave them after Michaelmas at the end of September, which is really folk memory for the fact that late fruit goes mouldy and maggoty. Use your eyes: firm, glossy, deep black is fine. Dusty or weeping is not.

Sloes

Small, round, blue-black, on a viciously thorny blackthorn. Too sharp to eat raw, which is why nearly everyone turns them into gin. The old advice to wait for the first frost is sound, and a night in the freezer does the same job of splitting the skins.

Elderberries

Drooping clusters of tiny purple-black berries on red stalks. They must be cooked, never eaten raw, and the stalks are stripped off and discarded. Cooked into a cordial or a syrup they are superb, and they are one of the easiest hedgerow plants to learn.

Rosehips

The bright red fruit left behind by wild roses. Full of vitamin C and traditionally made into syrup. The hairs inside the hips are an irritant, so hips are always strained thoroughly through muslin rather than used whole.

Hazelnuts

If the squirrels have left you any. Ripe when the husk turns from green to pale brown and the nut comes away easily. They keep well once properly dried.

Afterwards

A hedgerow walk pairs well with a short stop somewhere. The Parish Larder directory lists producers near you who may well have the cream, the sugar or the pastry your haul is about to need.