NOTEBOOK

PURSUITS

Delicious Abundance

Hedgerows and trees are festooned with ripe fruits and nuts in September, ready to be picked. Sloes, blackberries, elderberries, rowan berries, rosehips, hawthorn berries, beech nuts and wild varieties of strawberries and raspberries are just some of the wild treats in store.

The Woodland Trust is an expert source of advice for safe and responsible foraging ( woodlandtrust.org.uk ) and suggests using reference books to correctly identify any woodland finds in case they are poisonous or rare and protected. The Trust also advises picking only what will be consumed and leaving plenty behind for the wildlife that relies on nature’s bounty to survive.

(Collins, £4.99) is a helpful pocket-sized guide with a useful A-to-Z format, a calendar of what is in season, and colour photographs and illustrations