British Woodland by Ray Mears

Author:Ray Mears [Mears, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473594661
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2022-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

UK Toxic Berries

Baneberry

Black bryony

Buckthorn

Butchers broom

Deadly nightshade

Dogwood

Elder

Elder, Dwarf

Elder, Red

Herb Paris

Holly

Honeysuckle

Iris

Ivy

Laurel

Lily of the valley

Lords and ladies

Mistletoe

Privet

Purging buckthorn

Snowberry

Spindle

Tutsan

Woody nightshade

EDIBLE NUTS

When it comes to edible nuts, we have fewer choices and less risk associated with toxins. The principal toxic nut to avoid is the introduced species the horse chestnut or conker. Horse chestnut contains a saponin called aesculin, which is neurotoxic at low doses and hemolytic at high doses. It can cause a range of symptoms: spasms and loss of coordination, hypersensitivity, muscle pains, disorientation, diarrhoea, shortness of breath, convulsions and death. Fortunately, it has little flavour to encourage its consumption so deaths from horse chestnut intoxication are extremely rare. The oft-stated advice that it is not dangerous and will only cause an upset tummy, however, is clearly questionable.

Although they are the smallest of our nuts, beechnuts – or beechmast as they are traditionally known – are both delicious and nutritious. Pliny the Elder attests to this in his Natural History, when he quotes Cornelius Alexander’s account of the use of beechmast by the citizens of Chios to sustain themselves when besieged.

The seed husks are tough with small spines. The easiest way to open them is by placing them in close proximity to a campfire, which causes the tough outer case to open. The nuts are triangular in cross-section. They need to be divested of their shell, which can be peeled off. They can then be eaten raw, toasted or added when baking. They are a wonderful addition to a wild-fruit bannock cooked beside the campfire.

As we have already seen, hazelnuts were a seasonal staple food for our Mesolithic ancestors. Today, unless you live in a part of the country where our native red squirrel still occurs, you are unlikely to enjoy many wild-growing hazelnuts. The non-native grey squirrel nearly always beats humans to the crop, largely because they begin to dine on them prior to their full ripening. This not only interferes with our enjoyment of these delights but also reduces the availability for another species that depends upon them, the dormouse.

Our native hazelnut was smaller than the larger variety that we mostly encounter today. They can be eaten raw, toasted, added to salads, incorporated into sweet baking or, if you are feeling adventurous, cooked Mesolithic-style, in a shallow-scrape ground oven beneath a quick, small stick fire. This is a revelation: an otherwise mouth-drying astringent nut is transformed into a potato-like food.

As I write these words, it is mid-October and I am in the middle of one of those micro-seasons that ruled the social calendar of our Mesolithic ancestors. It is raining acorns in the oak forest. This year’s heavy nut yield was totally predictable, the result of drought that stressed the trees through the summer months. Stressed in this way, trees and fungi respond by producing more fruit to increase their genetic survival.

Acorns, however, cannot be eaten raw because they contain too much tannin. To be made edible, the tannin must be removed. The harvesting of acorns would have been rewarding but significantly labour-intensive work for our ancestors.

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