Wild Cooking by Richard Mabey

Author:Richard Mabey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448137770
Publisher: Random House

Fruiting forests

THE HUMID MOUNTAIN forests that stretch between western China and the Middle East are the home of large numbers of the temperate zone’s edible fruits and nuts. Apples, walnuts, apricot, pears, quinces, mulberry, plums all had their wild origins here. No wonder they are often called ‘fruit forests’, and that there are lively cultures entirely supported by their produce – and by the honey that is a by-product of the tree blossoms, and the browsing animals that feed on windfalls.

This three-dimensional farming – ‘forest farming’ as it’s usually known – is attracting interest worldwide because of the way it’s able to provide staple food without destroying landscapes and ecosystems in the way that arable agriculture does. In Europe it has long been practised, especially in chestnut forests. Chestnuts are the most viable European alternative to cereal crops, containing 70 per cent carbohydrate and often cropping at up to 3 metric tonnes per acre without chemical assistance and on very poor soils – a figure far in excess of wheat in comparable conditions.

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