Spring/ Summer umbellifers

As a kid growing up in Skegness I was always building  dens; if on the dunes hinterland it was in Sea Buckthorn and Hawthorn (now that's hardcore) but equally there was a wooded walk behind where I lived and any den there was made in cow parsley...Well I was told it was cow parsley, called it Cow Parsley and I don't recall any nasty blisters or any odd smell, so was it?

Fast forward to 'not so long ago' and the above answer on a pictorial quiz that John Rhyder posted on Facebook. Two things stand out to me; whilst I was sure of my id I still finished my answer with a question mark, and that three hours had passed and no one had posted an answer.

As I type this I am moving ever closer to a test of my id skills, During the Spring I have arranged to meet up with Forage London and as we look at edibles I have specifically asked for a location that will test my umbellifer skills, Joe O' Leary on a forage day and a day with Coastal Survival foraging by the sea, coupled with this masterclass I have joined I hope to hone this information.

So the identification of the umbellifer (Apiaceae) family...Along with the bowdrill, possibly one of the bushcrafting holy grails? all subjective but maybe. I have tried to get a handle on the local species (and beyond) and decided that I'd get my thoughts and pictures down before either source covers this family with me. There are probably other identifying features that I may not know which isn't a good start considering the plants involved so suffice to say: This is not a definitive id blog page...Don't take my word for it! 

Alexanders

 

I'll start off on a positive note with one I'm certain of to the extent that I've harvested it and made a rather fine soup. A Roman introduction, Alexanders are often found at coastal locations and as we had a Roman settlement near the river in my hometown I guess that accounts for them growing near me. It was superceded by celery as an edible which it bears a similar flavour to but only if the skin is scraped off the, green, smoothish hollow stalks, which is a skill because the stalks collapse easily and the skin is sticky when scraped. Leaving the skin on gives it a similar, but stronger taste to celery leaves.

 It has a slightly yellow flower head (which you can just see peeking through in the top picture) and is perhaps a little more compact when compared to similar sized umbellifers. To me the slightly toothed leaf isn't lacy either and is probably the most similar to angelica. It bears hard black seeds (maybe 3-4mm?) in Autumn.

Angelica

The following pictures were taken in Galloway in Scotland, I haven't found this locally but the search goes on.

It was a fine day when I chanced upon them and it was  noticeable that several flower heads had an abundance of winged insects on them. It was also striking how different the flower colour could be between white and a purplish hue. 

 

The plants I saw were, from memory, about three feet tall and again varied in colour. the darker colouration was solid, as opposed to blotchy.

The finely toothed leaf has more than a passing resemblance to that of elder and Angelica is probably best known as a sugary cake decoration.

The stems are hollow and the smaller lengths have this curious d shaped internal 'hole' and two channels on the outside.

Wild carrot

I don't think I've got a shot of the leaf of the wild carrot but the flower is unmistakable with Nigella like bracts  extending around the edge. It is also called Queen Anne's Lace and if you look at the flower head in the centre of the lower picture you can see a reddish mark, this is supposed to resemble lace that Queen Anne spilt blood on after pricking her finger. The flower head curls up into a bird nest type shape later in the season.

The root does indeed taste of carrot but in my experience they are a bit tough, and it isn't orange, or purple for that matter. It grows to somewhere between one and two feet in height.

Cow Parsley

So was this the plant that I played in as a kid? I guess the next visit to Skegness will have to include a short walk to where I built those dens 'a few years ago'...OK, last century.

 

I'll start off with a shot of a broken main stem. It has a modest internal diameter in comparison to that of hemlock which is featured later. Interestingly these two stems were side-by-side and yet there is a clear difference in colour.

 Kevan Palmer hosting a foraging talk/ meal in St. Albans. Cow Parsley was amongst the plants talked about.

It grows in sizable patches around me and it seems different to Hemlock in the following ways: The Hemlock leaf seems to be a darker green, floppier and definitely more lacy in structure. there isn't any noticeable smell, there can be varying amount of purple on the stalks but it looks more like a wet in wet watercolour wash than dark blotches and the stems have a noticeable groove to them.

Both have hollow stems but the hollow part of a Cow Parsley stalk is  smaller in comparison to Hemlock (as detailed earlier).

This is a shot of cow parsley in the early stages of flowering, the individual flowers all seem to have one petal larger than the other four and face out from the individual 'pom pom'. In general the flowers look delicate and the plant looks quite dainty compared to some of it's lookalikes and sometimes the stem appears (to me at least) to zig zag slightly between leaf shoots.

Hemlock

This is a shot of the flower heads, taken by a roadside with the right hand side one more developed than the left. Like Cow Parsley each individual flower has a slightly larger petal on each.

 You can see from this shot that the hollow middle is quite a size in relation to the thickness of the wall. Cow Parsley has a  smaller diameter hole.

 

The stalks do have a familiar purple blotchiness (as opposed to a uniform area of colour) but equally, the above right picture does actually show little in the way of purple markings.

They can grow to some size, this stem id about one inch in diameter.

And talking of size...This is a shot of the edge of a 'forest' of Hemlock near were I live. The Hawthorns, grass and fence posts in the foreground give you an idea of the size these beasts can reach, not as tall as Giant Hogweed but more on that leviathan later.

 

The two leaf shots here give a good idea of the lacy pattern, especially when compared to cow parsley. The other identifier is the mouse cage smell that is associated with this plant. 

Hogweed

Whilst I would never risk consuming anything from this family without 100% clarity, I'm 99.9% sure that I've got this plant 99.9% nailed down.

 

There can be some variation in the leaf shape but it's essentially similar throughout and more importantly, vastly different to Hemlock's lacy leaf.

The flower buds borne in paper like parcels before unfurling

The flowers are quite distinctive, the individual clusters, to me at least, look pom-pom like and the petals are notched.

 

 The hairy stalks are rather grooved too, again with some purple like colouration but not blotchy.

Hemlock Water Dropwort

And so to the second plant in John's Facebook question. This is another plant that I don't knowingly have near me (again, these are from Galloway in Scotland). These are also pom pom like but very spread out. There are supposed to be some similar plants to this in looks but the only plant associated with water that I'm happy with is Watercress...anything else is a no no.

Giant hogweed

Finally, whilst they aren't everyone's cup of tea, there is a large patch of waste ground near me that always produces an impressive patch of the much maligned giant Hogweed which occasionally makes the news when an animal or human gets blistered by the powerful combination of sap and sunlight. 

The advantage of the Hogweed growing where it does near me is that it is next to a train bridge and as a result it means it is possible to look down on these leviathans instead of straining to look up.

The size is impressive but the flowers and leaves are equally so and quite distinctive.

This fox disappeared into the Giant Hogweed plants shortly after I snapped this picture, I hope he hasn't brushed any broken stems! 

Pignut

Often found on forest floors and field margins this diminutive little plant hides a fantastic tuber away. The leaves are like Dill and Nigella and only just protrude a little way out of the ground in the Spring.

This is the little tuber that is edible. As it grows with other plants it is important to lift it with the above ground parts and stem still attached for positive ID

The outer skin is easliy removed a combination of rubbing and nail action and the size of plant above ground has no correlation to the tuber size below ground. Taste wise I've seen it described in several ways but I always think of a fresh Cobnut. 

As Summer approaches the plant flowers and again it has a small but perfectly formed flower that is atop a stem only a few inches high.

Ground Elder

 

A nightmare for gardeners due to it's tenacity it has a leaf structure and flower reminiscent of Elder. It is low growing and the leaflet nearest the plant usually has a curious double structure in that it forms a near 90 degree angle.

Now in review I think/ know I've got the ID correct for Alexanders, Angelica, Pignuts, Ground elder and Wild Carrots but I at the time of typing I still have reseravtions about harvesting stuff I haven't had before, especially the early Spring growth. I think I'm 100% sure on hemlock to know that from another umbellifer (mainly Cow Parsley). As a footnote, this Hemlock v Cow Parsley video is excellent and this is a good carrot test Facebook photo album.

Any comments welcome, especially on any errors in my assumptions.

John Rhyder Bark Workshop

If you've ever been to the Weald and Downland open air museum you'll know that it's a fantastic and timeless place to visit and I had the double pleasure of doing a bark workshop with respected professional bushcraft instructor John Rhyder there.

I'd seen that he had done various courses at this location before and decided to message him via Facebook in late Autumn to see if he was doing any this year and managed to inadvertently do so whilst he was on holiday. He said he'd get back to me and, to his credit, he did and despite it being a bit of a drive I couldn't book this date quick enough.

 

It seemed strange getting to such a popular location with no other visitors there and it did give me the chance to take a person free shot of the main set of buildings. Ten of us formed up (even though I could have sworn it said eight maximum) and enthusiastic staff got us all a hot beverage to start the day off, in a proper china mug I'll have you know! The museum holds courses in various buildings and we were led to a custom made education room (number 30 on this map) which had a lot of antique tools on the walls which really set the tone. 

And as we entered John was  by several boxes of tools and handmade containers that he had brought for the day. I was under the impression that he was a fairly quietly spoken individual and that proved to the case, but he is but doesn't need to be loud because he was a good teacher with a sense of humour and was both both patient and encouraging and often referenced indiginous folks and their crafts.

 

He started by running through some of the afore mentioned items he had made, different barks that he has used and so on.

 

And it wasn't long before he tasked us with prepping our bark and duly did a sharps safety talk before demonstrating how to efficiently strip the outer bark off the wood he had cut for us. He said that he has a lot of Sweet Chestnut in his woods and that he'd harvested it at 6pm the previous night so it was nice and fresh. I've not really used any before and so was keen to see how it worked out and indeed to see what the purple tinted sap was like too.

 

The museum provided us with hot beverages and biscuits and cake and after stripping the outer bark John then cut, spudded, measured  and removed the all important  inner bark. He stripped several lengths throughout he day to make sure folk had spare if needed.

We then crowded around to watch the magic begin. I was surprised that I was the only one to bring a camera and I had it set to take multiple pictures. Good job I did as he has very dexterous hands and lots of shots were obscured by them. 

 

His woven basket soon came together and  he then tasked us with getting our own bark sorted. John made a four strand one but did advise that finishing it off can be a bit fiddly due to the narrowness of it so I did an eight strand one because as you can see in the above picture I had a single tannin laced beverage and lots of tannin laced strips!

 

I found the steel ruler difficult to hold steady due to the wet nature of the fresh bark and some of my strips did vary in length somewhat and another time I will simply do it by eye which I had initially decided to do. Still, I was more than happy with my attempt and John had explained several ways to finish it off and as I'd made mine wider I wanted to bury the ends inside. The good thing is that I had a wider neck to my container (everyone elses was half the width of mine of course) but as it took me longer I had to stop finishing it off and bring it home to do one evening.

Just before dinner I showed John a small length of lime bast cordage that I had made to get a his views on it's quality, and I'm pleased to say that it past muster. After a break for dinner (John lived so close that he went home for some!) he took us through the theory of a square version of the woven basket which took the skills needed from a two to a three dimensional weave if you will. They look fantastic but a beginner will earn his stripes making one methinks.

And onto containers made of a single piece of bark. We were taken through the process of making a fruit and berry basket with a concave base, and a flat bottomed container. again we were tasked with stripping our own logs and the warm day had made this task harder as the bark wasn't as giving this time round. At this stage it was also noticeable that my fingertips were a light purple colour and that the water ran dark when you washed your hands.

The staff  brought is in more refreshments as I set about making a flat bottomed one. I was rather satisfied with the result and even left a small leafy branch on  one of the pegs securing the shape. Actually John mentioned that tannin rich solutions are good at lining the stomach so inhibits absorption which is handy in this case.

As I did some fine adjustments I noticed that the brim was a little distented on one side, and I noticed that there was a little bit of outer bark and 'hard brown bits' that were so resistant to being removed that I left them on lest I punch a large hole in the bark. I guessed that this area was the cause of the problem and sorted it by pushing my tupperware lunch box into the basket and packed it out with outer bark shavings. Job done-nearly...Again this project will need further work at home, not because I didn't get it done in time but John said that sewing it up needed delaying to allow for the drying process to occur.

I had a smaller piece of bark left over but alas it wasn't the right dimensions to make a fruit and berry basket but the tannin stained scratchings out on this offcut caught my eye and did make me wonder if it would be possible to do some sort of artwork on a future basket, or indeed a herring bone pattern on strips.

The day drew to a close and I had another look at the bits John had brought along for us to see. Whatever the world's biggest car park (the M25) chucked at me I'd had a good day; it was a laid back group which was made up of men and women and we all did the weaved basket but some then did one piece baskets, one attempted the '3D' basic and one chap admirably stuck at finishing the first project. I am just starting a six month work sabbatical which is a long service award and I've been planing stuff for some time, one of John's Weald and Downland days was on the list for some time and I wasn't  disappointed. If you live within striking distance of this fantastic place do consider either visiting or doing one of John's or indeed any of the courses on offer. Have a look at this page for more details. 

Oh, and the M25 behaved itself there and back.

a look at the fine detail of John's arrows

Bushcraft's Iron Man

I found out recently, and quite by accident, that my body is too efficient at processing iron and therefore I've have to make some  dietary changes as well as undertake theraputic venesection -Nice.

Now the outdoors connection might not be immediately obvious but it will become clear just what an impact it has. There are two types of iron which are effectively primary and secondary so the obvious iron candidates are things like... 

...Steak and venison...and therefore jerky...

...And a lot of boil-in-the-bag meals...

...Iron enhanced white flour (and therefore bannocks) and breakfast cereals too...

...Use of ironware therefore Dutch ovens...

...Vitamin C is accelerates iron absorption therefore some wild Spring greens...

...And vitamin C rich needle tea...and Rosehip...

...Alcohol accelerates absorption too, like vitamen C rich blackberry vodka.

It's therefore rather obvious that I'll have to make some notable changes to my bushcraft activities, at least when it comes to food and drink. Still, tea and coffee are iron inhibitors so it's not all doom and gloom!

.

Bushcraft Magazine's May Day Meet 2016

For some reason I've never made it to a Bushcraft Magazine May day meet before so I was rather looking forward to this year's event.

It is held across the first May bank holiday weekend and I purchased a day ticket for the Friday but it suddenly dawned on me that this was a half day for setting up. I made contact to raise this and it was sorted in a quick and friendly manner with a minimum of fuss and I re-arranged to the Sunday. This sorting out of the ticket was  actually a foretaste of the day... 

My drive was a little over an hour on a gloriously sunny day and I passed converted oasthouses, lambs, vineyards and hedgerows and ditches brimming with life. I've never seen so much Lady's Smock and Hemlock Water Dropwort!  The old satnav did a good job getting me to the minimalist signage at the dead end lane which leads to the site. I let out a wow when I saw the meet as the first impression was of an intimate bushcraft event...It was. A day ticket can be a purchased for participation and non-participation (I had the latter) and so I could get stuck into activities if I wanted to.

I had initially said a hello to Steve (one of the organisers), the Woodlife Trails crew there, and then headed to see Mark and Helen at Beaver Bushcraft to leave a knife  for some TLC sharpening.

I had arrived before the show's 10 o'clock start time and all those in attendance are called to the fire circle for an outline of the day and what's happening where. As it came to an end I headed to see Ross at Kaos Blacksmiths to see about getting involved, only to find out that the Sunday schedule was full, perhaps I need to email another time...

Straight afterwards I saw Hannah Nicholls and went and introduced myself as I am attending a day that Natural Pathways are running, she was heading for a shelter building workshop and I tagged along to take some pictures...And ended up getting stuck in. Although I have built shelters before, both for myself and with our Cub Pack I did pick up a few tips from Hannah. I excused myself before the shelter session was finished as I was going to see Mark about my knife.

He was just about to start it as I came by, so I went and grabbed my lunch and watched and we chatted between the occasional crowd forming and he talked me through the process he was using to sharpen my knife. Obviously getting this close to their stand meant I ended up making a purchase, silly boy I never learn.

 

I had another wander round the place chatting to various folk and then went to see Will Lord to see if I could abuse some flint. He set me on the road and again, like Mark, we chatted about everything from courses to parenthood. He also had his stone age Action Man out on display in the front of his impressive display yurt type tent. I didn't get to finish my arrow head but it was well on the way to at least looking the part and has really whet my appetite.

I had to leave late afternoon so I didn't see the whole day out, but equally I'd got a lot out of the preceding hours. I think meet is the correct way to describe this event and as Steve said they organise it and it gathers it's own momentum and there were so many friendly folk there saying hello and everything happens at it's own space. It's not a commercial venture, more a small scale meetup which is better maximised if you can stay for the duration . I've not used a lot of photos as I said I'd send  a lot of them to Bushcraft magazine for possible use.