Wild harvest

NATURE’S TUCK SHOPS open for business every August. They have no shelves, only stems. And there are branches just about everywhere – hedgerows, scrub and woodland edges – all of them open air and stocked with juicy and shuckable treats. Everything within reach is free on a first come, first pick basis.

Nothing tastes so good as plump and glossy blackberries scoffed fresh from a thorny bramble cane, already in fruit by the time autumn rolls around. They’re delicious in pies, crumbles and preserves, too. By mid-September, energy-packed hazelnuts should also be ripe enough to pick. Nutritious beechnuts are usually ready to gather at about the same time. Crab apples come into season soon after; the tangy, fun-sized ancestors of cultivated apples make scrumptious jams, jellies and liqueurs. Encased in prickly husks, sweet chestnuts start to fall in October, ready for roasting at Christmas. The acidic kick of sloe gin is another festive flavour – and now is the time to get picking the blackthorn’s powdery blue berries for a matured batch to enjoy next winter.

It’s important to be a mindful forager in autumn, leaving plenty for others – wildlife especially. Many birds and small mammals are piling on fat reserves or stocking up for the cold months ahead. Squirrels are renowned hoarders, caching nuts and seeds in treetrunk crevices. Look out for jays, too, cannily stashing acorns in the ground.

WALK HERE: There’s bound to be a bountiful foraging spot somewhere near you. For a nourishing walk replete with healthy hedgerows in Dorset’s Toller Valley, head to Kingcombe Meadows: walk1000miles.com/bonusroutes

AUTUMN BLUES Top: Jays are known to bury acorns at woodland edges. Those they don’t retrieve can grow into oak saplings. Above: Too tart for eating, sloes are ready to pick for gin-making after the first frost. Pricking and freezing them replicates this ‘bletting’ process.