A Day Of Foraging And Bartering

This morning started with me borrowing a friends trailer so that I could pick up some hay and straw bales. I normally do this in the boot of my car but then it takes me several months to get around to vacuuming all the stray bits of straw out and I am always worried that a family of stowaway mice will take up residence in my car living off all the crumbs from the food that the kids drop in the backseat.

Mice love setting up home in bales of straw. Why not, it is warm, dry and food is plentiful and very close. Whenever I take delivery of bales of straw our cat always spends the rest of the day sitting on top of said bales peering into it in expectation.

Quince tree with fallen fruit

On the way back, with my trailer full to the gunnel's with this agricultural by product, I spied a Quince tree groaning under the weight of ripening fruit. Officially it was not on the side of the road, more in a farmyard, next to a barn, over a locked gate, near the road. Following a recent storm we had experienced there were many quinces laying strewn around the drip zone of the tree. Not wanting this fruit to go to waste I quickly leapt over the gate and collected a bag full of the fallen fruit. I was half expecting to get some shot gun pellets fired at my bent over bottom by some angry farmer who was fed up with too many trespassers on his land. Happily I got away without being noticed.

Quince fruit are inedible unless they have been cooked. Once cooked they take on a rich pink colour. The quince has now been transformed into Quince paste. One of my favourite flavours. Quince paste is wonderful on cheese, with meat, added to apple sauce or dolloped on pizzas for a sweet taste.

Quince trees are a good choice for a small garden as they are ornamental in their own right. They can also be a good choice if you are considering doing some guerrilla gardening as the fruit requires some processing before it can be eaten. Hopefully that means only the discerning will harvest the tree.

All in a days work, bartered coffee and foraged Quince.

I also did some bartering today. The coffee situation in our house is pretty grim with nothing to offer any visitors so I went down to my friendly local cafe Hawthornes and bartered a large jar of my ‘bees best’. Natural raw honey for a packet of espresso beans and a flat white. Caffeine addiction sorted, for today.