Boxing day mushroom forage

Boxing day, and I'm preparing a dish to take to a cocktail party.

So I decided to combine the traditional Boxing Day stroll, with a bit of food foraging.

December might not be the most fruitful time of the year, but as it's mild this time around it's an ideal chance to search for edible mushrooms.

Sure enough, I found oodles and oodles of these things:

Jew's Ear fungus. Not the prettiest name, but the fungus itself can be quite pretty, as the sunlight shines through the silky, salmon-coloured flesh.

I found these in a boggy part of my hometown (Castleford, West Yorkshire). They almost always grow on old, slightly rotten or damaged Elder trees. And of course, on a patch of boggy wasteland, such specimens aren't hard to find!

So I picked about half a kilo of Jew's Ear, and the plan is to fry them - whole - with just some light seasoning, and use the cooked shrooms as a stylish garnish for my mushrooms vol-au-vents.

I hope they're as good as they look!

Goodbye, Telegraph Hill...

Goodbye, Mr Fox.

 

 

 

I'll miss you, and everyone on TH!

 

xx

Final forage around Telegraph Hill?

I am preparing to possibly leave Telegraph Hill and move in with friends in Brighton.

Today I was invited by Louise and Ella at Grow Wild, to lead a farewell forage around Telegraph Hill. We went out under leaden skies, to find a whole host of wild weeds still growing. We identified nettles and dead-nettles, mallow, cleavers (goosegrass), dandelion, plantain, mint and chickweed. All these were growing just behind St Catherine's church, around the edges of the new community garden. I picked mostly nettles (both stinging and 'dead' varieties) which I made into a hearty soup for my lunch. I also showed them the sloe-berries in the Lower Park, which were picked to make sloe gin.

I made certain to share a link to the Transition Lewisham Foraging Map, an open resource for all foragers in the area. Here's a link: http://goo.gl/maps/ds38T

More info about local foraging might also appear on the Grow Wild website.

Concern Bake a Difference event...

Thanks to all who came and contributed... We had a fabulous day, baked innumerable cakes, and raised £73.57 for hungry and malnourished children. 

Okay, I'll enumerate the innumerable cakes:

1x weird sugar-free egg-free Yorkshire Brak

12x chocolate brownie buns

1x magical apple meringue pie

2x experimental orange & caraway syrup cakes

1x plate of delicious bread-buns

1x plate of gluten-free, blue cheese straws

1x heart-shaped coffee cake

and lots of love.

Faerie Bake and Share

Sunday 14th October, from 11am. Secret roof-terrace in Islington, London...

Join us for a morning of fun, coffee and cake, all for charity!

From 11am we will come together to bake our own selection of sweet treats. What would you like to make?? Help and advice will be on hand from White Rose and other expert bakers. 

When they're ready we'll enjoy our treats, hot from the oven! There'll be plenty of time to chat and relax over tea or coffee. 

There should even be plenty of cakes left over to take home or share with friends!

The event is on behalf of Concern's 'Bake a Difference' campaign. The aim is to raise £100 on behalf of malnourished children. Entry is NOTAFLOF for faeries, but please consider a donation of £10 if you can afford it.

Please RSVP on the facebook event page, or by emailing dazflint@hotmail.com - this will help us prepare enough ingredients for the day! Don't forget to mention any special dietary requirements... :)

Address details and more details will be sent to attendees before the event!

More details at  http://www.facebook.com/events/422860547770679/

xx

A New Look for Common Growth

The Common Growth community food garden now has a colourful new look! 

From this:

To this!

At the end of July a host of volunteers called at the garden for an afternoon of barbecue and handicraft. We painted a set of plywood letters (and colourful shapes) which are are now decorating the fence. Passers-by can no longer say they don't know where we are! :)

And then here's our latest harvest, which in the height of summer is starting to look almost as colourful as the fence!!

More summer cooking with foraged food

The German-style 'Green Sauce' makes a return to my dinner table, with this elegant creation:

Fried Polenta with Green Sauce and Crumbled Cheshire Cheese with Chives

The Green Sauce can be made using any foraged leaves (whether raw, or blanched if necessary - as in the case of nettles). Here I used a mixture of plantain, wild London rocket, chickweed, and frozen wild garlic leaves.

Basically you take a cup of green leaves, a generous slug of good oil, some garlic (though I used frozen garlic leaves), a tablespoon of cider vinegar, and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream (or creme fraiche I suppose). Just blitz everything in a blender - season and flavour with capers, lemon juice, even anchovies or chopped boiled egg.

Here I've plated up my fried polenta, dressed it with lashings of the Green Sauce, and crumbled over some delicious Cheshire Cheese with Chive from Boyer's of Camberwell. I've finished the plate with a trio of fantastic Sicilian olives from the farmer's market on Telegraph Hill.

Enjoy!

The Cafe on New Cross Road

It's 'back to the drawing board' for the cafe on New Cross Road - variously known as Come the Revolution and Cafe 465. Unfortunately the couple running the cafe still weren't making enough money, and have had no choice but to close down again.

However, the leaseholder is in this building for the foreseeable future, and is already formulating plans to reopen in a new guise. Not as a cafe though! New developments should become clear soon enough.

In the meantime, I am likely to continue using the space to host Wild Food Cafe workshops and similar events.

Grow Wild

Just submitted my application for the role of Food Activities Coordinator with Grow Wild, a new lottery-funded project being run by Edmund Waller school to promote healthy, food-related activities around our part of Lewisham. I'd love to take my 'food activism' to the next level, and work with this new outfit!

A weekend with the Faeries

Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th July were World Pride weekend, and the focus of two events in the Albion Faerie community.

On Saturday 7th we hosted a picnic in beautiful Phoenix Gardens, Soho. We had a wonderful, magical day -  and miraculously, a whole stretch of afternoon without rain, allowing us to lay out on my glamorous, pink satin blanket...

(I have re-posted this image as it is in the public domain)

On Sunday 8th it was back to the Sundown Schoolhouse, a temporary Queer meeting-space on the roof of the Hayward Gallery. We had 40+ people turn out for an afternoon of community-building and companionship - all facilitated by the usual tea, cakes and sympathy which I lovingly provide!

This is me in the guise of White Rose, my Faerie alter-ego and willing party hostess...

Delicious Lavender Biscuits...

Following the Wild Food Cafe, I just got an email asking me for a recipe for some lavender biscuits I served. Since I've written up the recipe, I thought I'd post it here, too.

The biscuits take their flavour from a lavendar sugar, which is really easy to make, Just steep a handful of lavendar flower heads in a jar of caster sugar for around 1 week. You should shake it every so often, otherwise the sugar tends to clump together!

You can use the sugar in all kinds of home baking, but here's my recipe for Lavender biscuits. They were absolutely delicious served with vanilla icecream and a drizzle of elderflower syrup!

Lavender Biscuits:

1 cup lavendar sugar
1 cup of fine, plain flour
1/2 cup of softened butter, at room temperature
1 egg, beaten (with a few drops of lemon oil essence, optional)

cups should be about a small teacup size.

Cream the lavendar sugar and butter together; mix in the egg; incorporate the flour.

I pressed the mixture into yorkshire pudding tins to create little medalion biscuits. You could also press it into a large tray to make a single slab. Grease your trays liberally!

Bake in a medium oven for 10mins, then take them out and allow to rest for at least 10mins. Return them to the oven for another 5 or 10mins, and finally take them out again to cool right down. (This is a genuine 'biscuit', meaning 'twice cooked'!)


If you time it right, you should get a lovely crisp edge and a soft chewy centre.







Enjoy!

Wild Food Cafe, Sunday 24th June

There aren't many pictures of me on this blog, so here's one from the foraging workshop on Sunday. We're busy gathering lavender flowers, which we used to make lavender sugar. The sugar adds a subtle aroma to your home baking!

We gathered our lavender from three useful sources: The children's playground outside the Laban centre; Deptford churchyard; and Margaret MacMillan Park. One participant commented how fascinating it is to compare the different varieties - they look, smell and taste very different!

Here our foragers are looking around Sue Godfrey nature reserve, where we collected a host of different greenery for making 'German Green Sauce.' I'll upload the recipe in a later post!

We ended the afternoon at Cafe 465, where we prepared a lovely midsummer's lunch...

Sundown Schoolhouse of Queer Home Economics

Yesterday I was invited down to the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank. I was there to represent the Faeries amongst a wider group of queer folk.

We spent the day in and around the 'Sundown Schoolhouse of Queer Home Economics', a fabulous geodesic dome tent on the roof of the Hayward Gallery. The dome was created by Fritz Haeg, an American artist and Faerie who has visited our Sanctuary at Folleterre last year. The day of events was arranged by Paul Green of Avant Gardening, London's foremost guerilla gardeners!

We made a fanzine, heard some presentations and watched some fun films. I cooked up a big vegan lunch, which we enjoyed in the open air, and later we learnt to integrate Buto (Japanese performance art) into our home cleaning regimes - very valuable Faerie skills! :)

One of the nicest outcomes is that we have been invited to use the dome tent for Faerie functions over the next three weeks, whilst it remains on the roof of the Hayward. More info should follow shortly!

 

 

 

Wild Food Cafe returns!

I can now reveal details of the next Wild Food Cafe - see the listing below:

 

 

Back by popular demand, the newly renovated Cafe 465 will soon be hosting another Wild Food Cafe.

On Sunday 24th June, local forager Darren Flint will guide us through Deptford's green spaces gathering edible foodstuffs on the way.

Then we will return to the cafe space to prepare lunch!

We will have egg salad with German Green Sauce, followed by elderflower fritters for desert.

Bring a clean, dry jam jar, and we will make lavender sugar for you to use in your home baking!

The workshop will run from 11am-2pm approximately (details TBC).

A suggested donation of £5 will cover the cost of ingredients and use of the cafe space (including refreshments throughout the day). If you will have trouble meeting the cost please mention this in your booking, as there are other ways you can offer support. No-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Space is limited and your place must be booked in advance, on a first-come-first-served basis. Please email dazflint@hotmail.com to reserve your space.

Thank you!

Cafe 465 now open!

Worth noting that the community cafe on New Cross Road (previously known as Come the Revolution) has reopened as Cafe 465.

The cafe will offer healthy, home-cooked food at keen prices. We will also continue to offer a bookable space for the community, and a rolling programme of events; I have been involved with the cafe since it opened last year, under different management.

Only time will tell, but we hope that these recent changes will improve the fortunes of the cafe, so that we can continue to offer a valuable meeting-space in the heart of New Cross...

More from Nick at Brockley Central...

Jubilee Weekend

The Jubilee weekend is coming up, and I've lots of food-related tasks to do!

My good friend Scott will celebrate his 30th birthday up in Leeds on Saturday. I'll be helping to put on a fantastic spread at the church space he's booked for his party. Being a good Yorkshire boy he's also requested a tea-loaf instead of a traditional birthday cake - so I'll have to bake up something special!
The next day I'll be back down to London - with a picnic in my trolley - to meet my friends the Faeries down on the river, for the Jubilee Pageant. The weather looks like it might be less than ideal (this is becoming the running theme for this summer, and for my blog!) but I'll bring a travelling picnic anyway. At the end of the day, what could be more British than standing in the pouring rain, waving a little plastic flag, with a cream-cake in one hand and a glass of Pimms in the other??

To top it all off, I plan to wear my 1950's housewife's dress. If that sounds strange, perhaps you should read a little more about the Albion Faeries...

Don't forget that The Big Lunch also comes to Telegraph Hill on Sunday, 3rd June. If you're not down by the river, it's a great chance to meet local people and enjoy a festive, party atmosphere - all fuelled by good home-made food! It will be all afternoon, out on Kitto Road outside St Catherine's Church, Telegraph Hill.

Common Growth Community Garden

So the poor weather continues apace, but things are looking green and lush down at Common Growth on Sandbourne Road... I was in there yesterday pottering around in the drizzle!

I'm sure I can't remember such a disappointing summer, weather-wise. And I grew up in Yorkshire!!

...and even more nettles!

Just a quick recipe for nettle soup. I feel like we should be eating summer salads by now - maybe that's just wishful thinking - but the weather, and the garden, suggest that nettles are still on the menu!

NETTLE SOUP

1 cup broth mix, soaked as per instructions
1 cup diced onion, carrot, potato etc.
1 cup chopped nettle-tops (or any other foraged greenery!)
Stock cube or 1 teaspoon bouillon

Bring the soaked broth mix to the boil in 2 to 3 cups of stock. Cover and reduce to a simmer (typically for 40mins). Halfway through the cooking time add the chopped vegetables. For freshness of flavour, only add the nettle-tops in the last few minutes of cooking!

Serve with warm crusty bread. Try chopping brie or camembert directly into the hot soup, as the French sometimes do.

More nettles!

Or here's an idea: wild nettle quiche. You can find your own easy quiche recipe online; just add steamed nettles (see post below) as your filling. For extra flavour you could add butter, and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Last night's dinner, a light and fluffy nettle quiche...

Recipes from the Wild Food Cafe...

Aha! I now have photos and recipe sheets saved from the Wild Food Cafe, and I'm going to share them here for all to enjoy.

The guiding principle behind Wild Food Cafe is to make foraged food easily accessible, from begining to end. So the recipe below uses nettles - supposedly one of the first plants that children learn to identify across the temperate world (and for good reason!)

Since we all know what a nettle looks like, we can all find them. But then you need to know how to pick them without getting stung! It turns out it's easy - just wear a pair of gloves. Your winter gloves will do, or a pair of leather driving gloves... rubber 'marigolds'... whatever you have available! If you're gentle, you can gently pluck out the tips of the plants without getting stung. Give it a try! :)

Nettles are available through most of the year, but they're best in the springtime when they're really tender, with an almost fruity aroma. If you're picking later in the year, only take the young, highest tips of the plant. The older leaves lower down are coarse, and they contain a chemical that can exacerbate arthritis - so it's best to avoid them.

So now you know how to pick them, here's a recipe for Wild Nettle Pakora...

OVEN-BAKED WILD NETTLE PAKORA

1 cup of gram (chickpea) flour
Half-teaspoon of baking powder
Generous tablespoon of curry powder and spices, to taste – try cumin, coriander, turmeric etc.

1 cup peanuts (or any crunchy, chunky veg such as cauliflower or grated carrot)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup or more of chopped, steamed nettles

To steam the nettles, put them with a spoonful of boiling water into a pan with a tight-fitting lid. The nettles will quickly wilt, becoming dark green and soft. They will be ready within a minute or two - they can no longer sting you, and they are ready to eat!

Now combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add one cup of cold water, to form a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Place dollops of mixture onto generously oiled and pre-heated baking trays or pudding tins. The dollops should hold their own shape - you may need to adjust the consistency using a little more gram flour or water!

Drizzle with a little more oil before baking for a crisp, golden finish. Bake in a moderate oven until risen and well browned – perhaps 20-30mins.

Serve hot or cold with a yoghurt and mint dip, or sweet chilli sauce.

Because they're oven-baked, these pakora are really healthy - although you can also deep-fry them if you're feeling naughty! They're packed full of protein and essential nutrients - and they're vegan, too.

Now you know how to make steamed nettles, you can add them into any recipe where you would use leaves like spinach. How about adding nettles to pasta sauce, curry, or a vegetable stew?

Foraging, whatever the weather!

Last week's Wild Food Cafe was a resounding success. Despite the atrocious weather, more than a dozen hardy folk turned up to gather a wild feast from around Margaret MacMillan Park in the heart of Deptford. We were in good spirits, and enjoyed home-made pesto, wild rocket salad, and various other treats!

Thank you to all who came - and watch this space for information about a midsummer forage!

Enjoying our feast at Come the Revolution community cafe...

Last week I was lucky enough to join a walk along Deptford Creek at low tide. It was cold, wet and muddy - and totally worth it!

I'm a great fan of the Deptford Creek honey that's sometimes available locally, and our guide confirmed that there are hundreds of native, introduced and exotic plant species found along the creek that contribute to the honey's distinctive flavour. This same wealth of plant-life makes the creek a genuinely unique urban habitat. Nowhere else in the city - or anywhere in the world - has quite this blend of species.

There wasn't any foraging on this occasion, but the grounds of the creekside centre itself are a great source of edible plants - as is the surrounding area. 

I'd recommend the regular creek walks to anybody who's interested. Details are online at www.creeksidecentre.org.uk/ 

Yes, it was as wet as it looks!

Wild Food Cafe, Sunday 29th April

Lewisham forager, Darren Flint will be running a wild food cafe for one day only on Sunday 29th April.  

In the morning we will gather a wealth of wild foodstuffs from around the heart of Deptford. 

Then we will return to a local community cafe for a series of hands-on cooking demonstrations. 

Finally we will enjoy our home-made feast of wild food! The menu will include traditional nettle soup, wild rocket salad, pasta with a pesto of spring leaves, nettle and peanut pakora and more. Participants will learn how to prepare all these easy dishes so that they can use foraged foods with confidence.

The workshop is suited to people with any level of experience of foraging. Darren has held family-friendly forages before, and will do so in future, but sadly this workshop is not suited to young children.  

We will gather from 10am and finish by 2pm at the latest. 

A suggested donation of £5 will cover the cost of ingredients and use of the cafe space (including refreshments throughout the day). If you will have trouble  meeting the cost please mention this in your email, as there are other ways you can offer support. No-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Places are limited, please RSVP to dazflint@hotmail.com

Foraging in Margaret McMillan Park

Foraging in Margaret McMillan Park at the weekend revealed a pleasing array of edible plants.

In the space of a few minutes I found:

Three-cornered Leek (growing along Watson's Street)
Clover
Nettle and two types of Dead-Nettle
Chickweed
Comfrey
Bindweed
Dandelion
Good King Henry - I think!!
Horse-radish
Mallow, and...
Yarrow.

Missing was my favourite weed, wild London Rocket. I can't work out why it won't colonize Margaret McMillan, when it's all over the rest of Deptford like a rash. Such are the mysteries of life. On Sunday I was even eating rocket right from the platform of Deptford station (not where people are walking, don't worry!)

So why this exhaustive list of edibles?

I've been practising for a really exciting workshop I hope to run in a few weeks' time - a 'wild food cafe'. Watch this space for more information! :)

Salad Box project at Common Growth

Here a group of families with young children are participating in Common Growth's salad box project. (Common Growth is the community garden that I help to run on Sandbourne Road, Telegraph Hill)

The project is based on reclaimed fruit boxes that have been taken from Lewisham market. We have cleaned and painted them and lined them with heavy-duty plastic.

Then they are ready to be decorated by the children! We paint our boxes and together we fill them with compost and plant our salad seeds.

Here is a video of the recent open day at Common Growth, where I talk a bit about the project:

Eventually we will donate some of the salad boxes to local elderly people, so that they can enjoy growing fresh healthy salads in their own homes.