Joanne Roach (00:14)
Welcome to the Food for Kids podcast, I'm Joanne from the Foodies. It's the time of month where I usually talk through how to buy, store, freeze and use up a category of food. I usually base these loosely on the groups of foods in my children's veggie patch stories. So during the course of the year we get to cover all the major families of fruit and veg.
However, this month's book is Blackberry's Sunbathing Day, which is a story that sneakily teaches children about how fruits ripen. So our food of the month is blackberries, which we will cover here, and there is a quick snippet from Kate at The Full Freezer about freezing them too. So if you've been around for a while, you'll still get the usual run through. But because we covered quite a lot of the storage and preservation advice for berries back in June when we looked at strawberries, I don't just want to repeat the same advice. So before I get into how to make the most of blackberries,
I'd like to answer a broader question related to blackberry picking that I see a lot, which is how to introduce foraging to children in a way that's safe. The Foodies as a project, is very focused on seasonal produce, which mostly ends up being the foods that are coming out of your veggie patch or allotment if you've got one, or that will be bit cheaper, tastier and more local in the shops each month. But there's obviously nothing more seasonal and natural than something growing wild in the countryside that you can forage.
I don't cover these items every month because it's not something that all families have time or access to all the time in their busy lives but I do think that it's something that's worth trying to fit in now and again as part of the overall rich childhood experience. It's one of those things that's very memorable and you can do it just a few times and and vibrant in your child's memory so a little bit goes a long way now and again and have a lasting effect.
So the arguments for sometimes going foraging with children are that it helps your child to connect with nature and not just in terms of appreciating that it's beautiful and that it has lots of lovely mini beasts to enjoy, but with that added layer of understanding that nature provides food for all parts of the ecosystem, that our ancestors would have survived on the bounty of nature before we developed agriculture.
And that connection to having an adventurous spirit while we're out in nature and nature's generosity is something that can really stick in children's heads and help them to care about the environment in a slightly different way. Not only that, it's fun to do, it gets you and your children outside into sometimes different places than you would normally go or looking at everyday places with a new appreciation and it gives you something fun to cook or taste when you get home.
Time spent in nature is proven scientifically to be restorative both physically and mentally and this provides something fun to do as a change from other outdoor activities.
Lots of parents love the idea in principle of foraging with their kids but are scared to try because they're worried about getting something wrong and eating something poisonous by accident. So I'm going to briefly address those issues and then tell you what you can do and how to start finding out what's right for you. It is sensible to be wary of eating the wrong thing and it's really important to make sure that children understand that they should never eat something that they find growing wild without asking an adult. It's also sensible to make sure that the place that you're foraging from is safe to be in, checking for hazards that are not right for your child's age and stage, such as nearby fast or deep water, a busy road or farm animals. There are some regulations and etiquette about foraging that you should know, you're generally allowed to pick small amounts for personal use, but not for commercial use without permission, that you should always find out if the land is public land or private and ask permission if it's private land. Make sure you're not straying into protected spaces like a nature reserve or a site of special scientific interest or indeed accidentally picking a rare species and be very careful of farm animals.
In addition, the done thing in foraging etiquette is to only take up to about a third of what you find, leaving roughly two thirds behind for animals, for regenerating the plant or for other people. That said, most of the plants that you would actually consider foraging for with children are pretty abundant, even in built up with any of those rules. I just thought I would flag them up so you know the general score.
I'm going to link in the show notes to a couple of websites which are really good and focus specifically on foraging with kids or in a family group and they have lots of helpful advice as well as cool projects to do with your children.
I'm just going to do a quick run through here of five things that you could forage with kids that are really recognisable and that you can make something nice to eat without really needing to know very much.
The first one is our subject of the month which is blackberries. They've been ripening for a few weeks now as I record this in September and we've got a couple of weeks left to find some in the wild. I have a full blog post on my website about how to make blackberry picking safe and fun with kids so I won't go into detail here, I'll just link to it in the show notes. But you can obviously pick blackberries with kids, you can eat them straight away, although it is worth giving them a wash if you are at all unsure about whether there have been animals around or lots of exhaust pipes. You can store them as you would store shop bought blackberries. I will link to the episode about storing berries so you can check that advice there. And if you find a bumper crop somewhere, you can freeze them and here is a short piece with Kate Hall about how to do that.
Joanne (05:26)
We're lucky again to have our resident freezer geek here, Kate Hall. So Kate, September is blackberries So if you've been blackberry picking with your family and you've got some extras or you've been to a pick your own, what would you do to get them into the freezer?
Kate (05:41)
So super, super simple. If you've got the space to freeze them as they are, then I would just give them a really good wash, soak them in some cold water and everything to make sure there's nothing on them. There's no ooglies hiding. And then just let them dry off. So pop them onto either some kitchen towel or a really clean tea towel. Let them just dry through so that they're not going to end up icy. And then you can just pop them onto a tray. Just a nice lined tray that will fit in your freezer and allow them to freeze through and then once they're frozen, they can just be bagged up and then whenever you want to use them, whether you're putting them into perhaps some smoothies or you're using it in baking or maybe you want to make sorbet or something, you can just grab a handful of them straight out of the freezer and just use them from frozen or even snack on them frozen as they are if that's your cup of tea.
Joanne (06:31)
Cool, so you can just eat them straight from frozen like a snack.
Kate (06:35)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Joanne (06:37)
That's brilliant. do you have any videos on your channel that are about freezing berries and how to open freeze things?
Kate (06:44)
Absolutely. ⁓ if your audience hop over to Can I Freeze It? then I've got a couple of videos. so they can certainly check that out
Joanne (06:51)
So I'll link to those in the show notes. That's great. Thanks, Kate
Kate (06:54)
Thanks, Jo.
Joanne Roach (06:59)
So that's freezing them. I've also always found that they freeze great but they don't dehydrate well or rather they do dry out nicely but when you come to eat them they seem to be all seed and not enough flesh so they just end up gritty in your teeth. So we don't bother drying ours we either freeze them like Kate's instructions or we make them into an amazing jam with just sugar and lemon juice.
For using blackberries up as well as eating them as they are, don't forget that blackberries pair beautifully with apples and at this time of year you can often find your neighbours offering free windfall apples on their drive or their step to use up. Just cut off the bruised parts and make them into a crumble with your berries or whip both up into a puree to make ice lollies or mix that puree with cream for a blackberry and apple fool or you can make cakes or crumble bars or clafoutis which is a fancy name for basically a super easy open tart. I will link to recipes for all of those in the show notes and all of them can make a decent handful of berries go a really long way when they're mixed with some apple and either some creamy or doughy ingredients. So that's blackberries which is easy forage number one.
The other four things that I think make good starter foods to forage with children are cleavers, nettles, dandelions and wild garlic.
You can also obviously get elder flowers in spring but make sure that you know what you're picking as there are some other flowers which look similar but are not edible so just get some advice or look them up well before picking those.
So my first one out of these four is cleavers. Its proper name is gallium aparine or we call it stickyweed or goose grass or sticky willy in the UK. They're pretty easy to identify and they will have come into the house on your children's clothes or sometimes stuck to your dog or cat. They're really high in lots of antioxidants and have traditionally been used as a diuretic or lymphatic aid as well as an immune support. You can cook cleavers down like spinach but the best way to explore them with kids is to steep them in cold water overnight because cleavers gives a slightly cucumberish taste to the water so it's really fun for kids to compare cleaver water with some water with a slice of cucumber in. It's not something you would eat lots of, but it's just a fun one for children to understand that that funny thing that sticks to their cardigan sleeve is something that our ancestors would have used in food and medicines throughout the centuries. Cleavers can cause irritation for some people on their skin. My daughter gets a rash if it scratches her skin. So be aware of that. And as with all of these items, make sure that it can't have been sprayed with weed killer or pesticides. I will link to an article about collecting cleavers with kids in the show notes. This is just a fun experimental one rather than a regular collector in my opinion but it is easy to spot through most of the year.
Next up is wild garlic, which is only around in the springtime, usually in shady areas or woodland edges. You can tell by the smell that it's in the garlic family and it's absolutely delicious, like a cross between garlic and spinach. There are a couple of plants that look similar which are poisonous, which lily in the valley and lords and ladies, because of this I will link to a video and an article in the show notes about safely picking wild garlic.
The garlic family form bulbs, a bit like daffodil and tulip bulbs, so it's really important to always pick some of the leaves off several plants rather than taking one or two plants. Leave the rest of the plant behind so it can send some energy down to the bulb and come back next year. If you take the whole plant it won't be there next time. Wild garlic is amazing to make pesto with instead of basil and garlic, I'll link to a recipe for it. It's a really nice one for children to use their senses and identify that smell.
Dandelions might seem like a weird one to forage, but they are a powerhouse plant and the whole plant is edible. People have used the leaves in salads or cooked like spinach, the flowers for salads and to flavour batters and sauces, and the roots to dry and make coffee substitute. My favourite way to use them with kids is to pick the flowers off and put them into sweet pancakey fritters, a really fun activity, or you can make a honey substitute by steeping them in syrup. I will link to a fritter recipe and a syrup recipe in the show notes.
And finally nettles, the bane of many a woodland walk or garden play activity with shorts and stingy legs. Nettles are actually super nutritious and tasty. Picking them with kids can help them to be less scared of them and realise what a role they play in nature. They are incredibly helpful for pollinators and they are a brilliant source of nitrogen for gardeners and other plants. Picking the top few leaves off young nettle plants and making them into soup or pesto is a brilliant way for children to discover that the sting goes away as soon as it's processed or cooked and that the plant has more than one side to it.
For all of these foraging adventures it's worth bringing gloves, bags to collect it in and wearing long sleeves, but for cleavers and nettles this is obviously essential. Nettles is another plant for the spring because it's the bright green tops that you want, not the darker, more fibrous, older leaves later in the year. I will link to an article and a video about doing this and a recipe for nettle soup.
So that's my 5 most obvious things to forage for with kids. Always read up lots of advice when picking something that you haven't grown for yourself and make sure that children know the rules. Go where there won't have been dogs cocking their leg or anyone spraying chemicals and make it into a fun activity.
If you really love the idea of this but you're still just not comfortable with eating something wild then instead why not go and find some of these items but bring them back and press them into pressed flower pictures or your children can draw them and find out all about them and what they are and put them in a nature journal. Or could use some of the blackberries to paint with, like we do in our October Little Foodies Club box. Or you could make leaf collages, like we do in our November boxes. You can have all the same fun of collecting and finding out about the plants and how they contribute to nature and just skip the eating part if that's too much for you.
Joanne Roach (12:47)
And I do need to say that with an activity like foraging it's common sense that like most activities out in nature, foraging does carry a degree of personal risk and although this episode has listed some easier items to explore with your children, I have to give the disclaimer that I'm not qualified to give you advice and I'm not telling you to go out and eat those specific foods. It's very much down to you as a parent or educator to find out more information from reliable sources and decide how you want to balance risks for your own family. As I said, you can still explore wild foods without eating them, so pick a risk level that you're comfortable with and if in doubt get some expert advice or go on one of those brilliant foraging courses that are around now.
Joanne Roach (13:24)
There's going to be a lot of links in the show notes today because I must refer you to websites that are specialised in teaching people how to forage safely and videos that show you how to do that with children as well as a bunch of recipes not only for our Fruit of the Month Blackberry but all the other wild foods I've mentioned too.
I hope you found this interesting. You may decide not to do the foraging part of these suggestions, but please do think about how you can get your children out into nature this autumn and research and explore some wild plants.
It helps them to have more depth of understanding of how things grow together in a system where everything supports each other, including us as humans throughout our history. And this in turn can help their understanding of food in a more general way and why we try to eat a wide variety of plants. I'll be back on Monday with the last episode of September, so I hope to see you then. And in the meantime, happy eating.
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