Down to the River and Up to the Trees: Discover the hidden nature on your doorstep

Whether or not you do go and pick your own, it’s good to be aware of that sense of disconnection that can sometimes exist between the food on our plates and its origins in nature. Next time you have a meal, why not try the following:

Take a good look at the food in front of you. What are the basic ingredients?

What plants and/or animals did those ingredients come from?

Can you make a conscious connection between your meal and the various elements in it – animal, mineral and vegetable?

In what ways might those elements be nourishing you? How might they be feeding the ways in which you see the world, as well as the cells in your body?

Wild Rosehip Soup (#ulink_2995713e-64bb-573b-a4c0-e2abe144415f)

Nyponsoppa, or rosehip soup, is a traditional Scandinavian favourite that I used to enjoy as a child when we lived in Sweden for a few years. It’s made from the bright orangey-red fruit of the dog rose (Rosa canina), which grows wild in hedgerows. The soup is served as a snack, or as a dessert with almond biscuits on the side.

While you can make the soup from freshly picked rosehips, it’s much more usual to make it from dried hips. Pick your own in the autumn and dry them slowly for a few hours on a tray in the oven on a very low heat. (You can see why the Aga was invented in Sweden.) When you’ve taken the dried rosehips out of the oven, let them cool and store them in an airtight container somewhere dry. If stored well, they should last a couple of years – so it’s worth getting your supplies in.

Serves 4

500 g (1 lb 1 oz) dried, whole wild rosehips

1½ litres (50 fl oz) water

150 g (5 oz) sugar

1½ tbsp potato flour (or cornflour)

Double/whipped cream, to serve

When you’re ready to make your soup, soak the dried rosehips in half of the water for a few hours or overnight. Then cook them in the same water, over a medium heat in a large saucepan, until they are soft and sticky, which should take about 25 minutes.

Blend the rosehip mixture with a stick blender or in a mixer, then strain through a fine sieve and return the liquid to the saucepan. Add the rest of the water and stir in the sugar. Mix up the potato flour or cornflour with a little water and pour the mixture steadily into the soup, stirring it in.

Cook until the soup thickens, then remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool a little. Ladle the lukewarm soup into bowls and swirl through a little double cream or add a dollop of whipped cream before serving.

Hedgerow Jam (#ulink_8ba5b16a-f941-5d88-9a20-aa65fe31d001)

What could be nicer than homemade jam on hot toast? What’s more, blackberries can be picked for free from hedgerows and thickets throughout the summer. To make about six jars of your own blackberry jam you will need:

1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) blackberries

4 tbsp water

Juice of 1 lemon

1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) sugar

Tiny knob of butter (optional)

Wash the blackberries and put them in a large pan with the water and lemon juice. Simmer gently over a low heat until the fruit turns squishy. Add the sugar and heat gradually. While you are heating the mixture, put a saucer in the fridge to chill.

Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the jam to the boil for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. To test whether your jam will set, plop a teaspoonful on the cold saucer and poke the edge of the jam. If the surface wrinkles, it will set.

When the jam’s ready, remove the saucepan from the heat and skim the foam from the top. To dissolve any remaining foam, stir a tiny knob of butter the size of a fingernail into the froth and remove with a spoon. Allow the jam to cool and thicken for about 10 minutes before pouring carefully into sterilised jam jars and sealing straightaway.

Tradition has it that the devil was thrown out of heaven on 29 September, Michaelmas Day, and landed on a blackberry bush. He promptly peed on the berries in revenge, which is why it’s best to pick them before October.

Mushroom Mayhem (#ulink_dc6f0153-0212-595f-a879-01847c0185a0)

As a child I used to go mushroom picking with neighbours and return home with baskets full of chanterelles and ceps. These days, however, I’m more cautious. While mushroom foraging is a lovely thing to do, it can occasionally go very wrong. If it appeals to you, please consult a reliable field guide or go picking with somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Or you could try growing your own.

For those with limited space there are mushroom windowsill kits. You can make your own version by sprinkling some grain spawn for oyster mushrooms onto the soaked pages of an old catalogue or paperback. Once you’ve done this, wrap the catalogue in a plastic bag. Punch small holes in the bag and leave the package somewhere dark and warm for a few weeks, keeping the contents moist but not dripping wet.

(If the package turns black, it’s gone mouldy and is no good.) When a white furry layer of mycelium appears over the catalogue, place the package in the fridge for a day or two to shock the mycelium into action. Then store the package in a cool spot such as under the sink or in a cellar. If all goes to plan, over the next few days tiny mushrooms should start to sprout. Let them grow until they look big enough to eat.

If you’ve more room and patience, you can plant mushroom dowels impregnated with spores in holes drilled in a hardwood log, then seal them over with beeswax. This process can take over a year to yield results, but it could be the gift that keeps on giving.

Grow Your Own (#ulink_42404e27-76aa-5f2f-847f-bd5d4e16e148)

It’s fairly easy to grow your own vegetables wherever you live. To grow your own potatoes, any sturdy container will do. You could, for instance, use an empty dumpy bag, folding down the sides so the bag is about 40 cm (16 in) deep, or use an old compost bag or burlap sack.

For drainage, pierce a couple of small holes in the bag and add a layer of sand or other drainage material such as broken crockery or pebbles at the bottom. Then cover this layer with about 10 cm (4 in) of soil and compost mix.

How many seed potatoes you plant will depend on the size of your container, as they shouldn’t be crammed in. For a 40 litre (8.5 gallon) container, plant just three seed potatoes. Then cover these with enough soil–compost mix to keep them hidden.

Position the bag in a sunny spot and keep the soil moist. As the plants grow and shoots come up, carry on covering these with the soil–compost mix. That way, your plants will send out more roots – giving you more potatoes. When the soil level reaches the top of the bag, let the plants flower and die. Now it’s time to dig around in the soil for your crop. Depending on the type of seed potatoes you use, it may take around 90 days to get to this stage, but it’s well worth the wait.

Worm Wizardry (#ulink_16a66899-4c25-5da9-aeb0-dc6d424582c5)

My friend Bill has fallen in love with his pet worms. They live in a wormery in his shed, are no bother and eat up leftovers. To make your own wormery and create compost for flowerbeds or plant pots you will need:

A large plastic or wooden box with a lid, approximately 46 cm wide by 35 cm high (18 × 14 in).

A drill with a 12 mm (½ in) drill bit.

Bricks or blocks to stand the wormery on.

A tray or bucket.

A couple of sheets of newspaper and a piece of cardboard.

Worm bedding such as old compost or coir.

300–400 composting worms such as tiger, brandling, manure or red worms, available online and from fishing tackle shops or manure heaps (not earthworms, as these live in soil, not compost).

Drill 15–20 holes in the bottom of the box to let in enough air for the worms and to allow any liquid to drain out. Drill a few more air holes in the lid and at the very top of the box’s sides.

Stand the box on the bricks or blocks in a sheltered spot where the wormery won’t get too hot or cold. Place a tray or bucket underneath to catch any liquid, which can be used as a fertilizer when diluted with 10 parts water.

Cover the bottom of the box with a layer of newspaper or cardboard, and cover this with about 8 cm (3¼ in) of moist bedding material that the worms can burrow down into.