Beginner’s Guide to Hedgerow Foraging
August 12, 2024Hedgerows are some of the most abundant places to look for wild food. Part of this wealth of wild edibles stems from the unique ecological niche that hedgerows occupy in our environment. They have stood the test of time, with some dating back centuries. These stable habitats are vital corridors for wildlife, supporting many different species of both flora and fauna. In many ways, a hedgerow can be seen as a long, linear woodland edge, supporting all kinds of life that would struggle in the dark interior of a dense, native woodland.
When significant parts of the UK and Ireland were deforested, much of the plant, tree, and fungi species that would have otherwise disappeared retreated into the hedgerow as a last refuge. Some of the most abundant hedgerows stand adjacent to woodlands, and visiting birds and mammals, along with fungi and flora, see no difference between the woodland edges and these green oases surrounding farmland.
Hedgerows abroad
It is all too easy to view hedgerows as something uniquely British, but similar long rows of trees, plants, and shrubs line farmers’ fields in France and in parts of North and Central America too. Outside of Britain, they are rarely planted and instead result from self-seeded species cropping up along lines of wired fencing.
The first hedgerows
The sharp thorns of sloe, hawthorn, and wild roses, along with prickly gorse, holly, and brambles, would have made up some of the first hedgerows. Some 5,000-6,000 years ago, Neolithic farmers would have used sloe and hawthorn to keep cattle in and any would-be cattle thieves out. In Cornwall, they banked up earth and lined it with stone, allowing prickly plants, such as sloe and hawthorn, to grow on the exposed soil on top of these constructions. Some of these hedgerows still line fields today, dating back to an era well before Stonehenge and the pyramids were built.
Types of hedging
Hedgerows are essentially a line of trees or shrubs intermingled with self-seeded plants. Thanks to yearly cutting or ‘flailing’, tree species such as beech, ash, and birch, or shrubs such as sloe and hawthorn, are perpetually kept short, forcing them to bulk out rather than grow tall. Alternatively, a hedge is ‘laid’ to control growth. In this method, trees are allowed to grow tall for a season or two, then, while still young, the base is cut just enough to allow the upright trunks to be laid horizontally. These trunks again thicken up and produce a dense, animal-proof hedgerow, removing the need for barbed wire or electric fencing.
A year in the hedgerow
Hedgerows are as diverse as any rainforest. The older the hedgerow, the greater the number of species thriving there. In a well-established hedgerow, you’ll find edible fruits, fungi, nuts, and leaves. Throughout the year, there are peaks and troughs of different wild foods. Some perennials last all year, while other plants come and go with the seasons.
During winter, you’ll find edible leaves such as the first nettles, the shoots of goosegrass, chickweed, wintercress, and mushrooms such as jelly ear, velvet shank, and wood blewits.
Come spring, the first riot of life produces even more edible leaves. The tender young leaves of hawthorn, lime, birch, and beech can all be eaten as salad greens during this abundant time before they build up tannins and become unpleasant to eat.
At the base of the hedge, you might find sow thistles, wild lettuce, dandelions, garlic mustard, wild garlic, sorrel, nettles, and ground elder.
Many of these last throughout the spring and sometimes into early summer, adding variety to salads or being mixed into a tasty and nutritious pesto. Edible spring flowers also bloom, such as violets, primroses, and the cuckoo flower, which add pretty and colourful extras to spring salads.
Although autumn is synonymous with mushrooms, morels might start to appear around Easter. Then, towards the end of spring, larger brackets, such as the dryad’s saddle – a mushroom best eaten while still young – begin to appear, as do more oyster mushrooms. Also look for creamy white elderflowers.
As the weather warms, it’s the turn of the soft, summer fruits, such as wild strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, plums, damsons, and cherry plums, and towards the end of summer, elderberries. On these warm, sunny days, we also find the first summer boletes and chanterelles popping up, especially in older hedgerows close to woodland. Additionally, look for Chicken of the Woods, a large orange mushroom that can be used as a vegan substitute for chicken. These grow on hardwoods such as oak and beech.
As summer drifts into autumn, the days begin to cool, and you’ll find the last of the year’s fruits, such as hawthorn berries or haws, rosehips, crab apples, and rowans. The bright red, tongue-like beefsteak mushroom can emerge at this time, as can the easy-to-identify puffball. Late summer and early autumn are also the best times to find nuts; look for hazel and walnut in places where squirrels are scarce, such as close to busy roads or by the sides of quarries.
Top Five Hedgerow Edibles
1. Blackberry
- Season: Summer into autumn
- ID Features: Clustered fruit on a thorny, vine-like shrub. Grows prolifically
- Uses: Edible berries and spring shoots
Most of us have been familiar with the blackberry since childhood. They can quench our thirst on a sunny day or give us that well-needed extra boost of energy on a long walk. What’s strange about this ubiquitous shrub is how much the berries can differ from one patch to the next. The fruits can be large, sweet, and juicy, or small, bullet-like tart berries. Some of this variation is due to age; the first fruit to ripen at the very tip of the plant is always the sweetest, and then as later ones ripen, they become less sweet. It is thought that this is an evolutionary mechanism to ensure that a wide mix of different animals and birds take the berries, spreading the seed far and wide. Another reason for the difference is that seed-grown blackberries are very quick to mutate. A patch just a few metres away from another may not be related at all and will therefore produce very different berries.
The berries are great in an apple and blackberry pie or crumble, and they can be used to make jams, cordials, or even wine. Fruits such as blackberries and raspberries also make very good fruit leathers. These are essentially a dehydrated fruit snack made by either removing the moisture from the concentrated pulp in a dehydrator or placing the pulp on a baking tray and cooking it in a low oven until it turns into a leather-like sheet. These leathers keep for a long time and can be useful as a winter source of fruit.
2. Hawthorn
- Season: Leaves in spring, fruits in late summer and autumn
- ID Features: Thorns, Christmas tree-like leaves, white blossoms around May, red fruits in late summer and autumn
- Uses: Fruit leathers, ketchup, tea
The red berry of hawthorn can at first seem like a warning sign, and it may come as some surprise that these small, round red fruits are edible. Looking like tiny tomatoes, the fruits have few lookalikes, but some may mistake them for rowan or cotoneaster berries. Always look for the distinctive, Christmas tree-like leaves of the hawthorn, which are very different from the oval leaves of its lookalikes.
Hawthorn berries can be dried and used as a tea or deseeded (see below) and made into a fruit leather. Or add them to a strong spirit, such as vodka, to create a kind of schnapps; you can use them on their own or mix them with other hedgerow fruits like sloes or blackberries. However, one of the most popular uses for hawthorn berries is to make them into ketchup. Simply cook the berries in a water and vinegar mix, then push them through a sieve to remove the stones and skin. Add spices such as coriander, cumin, and chilli to this pulp, along with some sugar. Reduce the pulp and use it as you would tomato ketchup.
3. Dryad’s Saddle or Pheasant’s Back
- Season: Late spring into summer
- ID Features: A polypore bracket fungus with a pattern resembling a pheasant’s plumage
- Uses: Cut thinly and fried or dried and ground as a stock
Dryad’s saddle or pheasant’s back mushroom is a reasonably widespread bracket fungus that grows on hardwood trees. It has a mottled back, resembling the plumage of a pheasant, and a sweet scent, said to resemble watermelon. The underside of the mushroom is not gilled but has a sponge-like appearance. Referred to as a polypore mushroom, these tube-like structures can make a perfect home for maggots, so it is worth putting your finds on some newspaper for an hour or two to let these little invaders crawl out.
Best eaten young, look for it from May when these shelf-like fungi are smallest, as older examples can be as tough as old boots. Cut into very thin slices, they can be fried in butter and garlic. Alternatively, dry the mushrooms and powder them in a food processor. This powder makes a useful mushroom stock as a base for risotto or soup.
4. Hogweed
- Season: Spring to autumn
- ID Features: Spiky or rounded leaves, white umbel flower, flat seed heads
- Uses: Shoots as a vegetable, immature flower heads like broccoli, seeds as a spice
Hogweed is a common hedgerow plant that grows a little above waist height. Although sometimes mistaken for its much larger relative, giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), which can reach heights of 5 metres, true hogweed has little in the way of poisonous lookalikes. Giant hogweed can have a blotchy stem with a thick circle of sap-filled hairs at the base of each leaf stalk; hogweed, although hairy, will lack this circle of hairs. Although a member of the carrot family, its leaves are not feathery like hemlock, and they don’t resemble parsley or celery leaves like hemlock water dropwort. Instead, the leaves are pinnate, with leaflets opposite on the main stem and a terminal leaflet at the end. Each complete leaf measures around 60 cm. Hogweed sap can burn, especially when picked on a sunny day, but picking using gloves is an easy way around this problem.
The claw-like shoots can be blanched and eaten like asparagus with a little butter and lemon. The immature flower heads, as they emerge, can be treated like broccoli and blanched before being eaten as a delicious side vegetable. Finally, the seeds make a great alternative to cardamom and have a spicy, citrus-like flavour.
5. Elder (Sambucus nigra)
- Season for picking: Start and end of summer
- ID Features: Clusters of purple-red fruit or white blossoms, scented bark when scratched
- Uses: Desserts, drinks, sauces
With pinnate or opposite toothed leaves, upright sprays of delicate white blossoms, and downward-facing deep purple berries, elderberries are a distinctive hedgerow shrub. Flowering at the start of summer and fruiting at the end, they mark the season better than any other wild edible. Look on dead branches of the elder, and you might find a fungal hitchhiker called the jelly or wood ear fungus. This gelatinous ear-shaped fungus grows almost exclusively on elders and may be present year-round.
The flowers can be used to make a delicious cordial or dipped in a gram or wheat flour batter to make savoury bhajis or sweet fritters. Added to muffins, shortbread, or pancakes, they give an extra piquancy to sweet dishes. The berries need to be cooked as they contain small amounts of a cyanide-producing compound. A gentle simmer will get rid of this noxious chemical, leaving you with a rich, berry sauce that can be mixed with apples to make delicious pies or crumbles or made into a delicious jam. The berries also make a great full-bodied wine or can be used as an anti-oxidant remedy for winter colds and flu.