Foraging Food From The Hedgerows, Ireland 1984

Dick Warner wanders along Irish hedgerows in search of food and shows how to cook the fruits of his forage.

A keen forager, environmentalist and broadcaster Dick Warner can be found walking around the Irish countryside in the autumn, buckets in hand, inspecting hedgerows and fields for edible wild fruit and vegetables. Elderberries, sloes and blackberries are ripe at this time of year, as are nuts, leaves and edible fungi.

Field mushrooms are there if you know what to look for, as are puffballs, of the small and large variety,

There’s one mushroom that’s the real mushroom hunter’s treasure, and that’s the giant puffball.

Foraging is fun, but there’s also a certain amount of work involved once you get home, as the fruits of the harvest in the main require some kind of preservation, if not preparation, before they can be enjoyed as part of a meal.

Dick Warner shows fellow broadcaster Mary Fitzgerald how to make blackberry and apple jelly. He also fries slices of giant puffball mushroom in an egg and breadcrumb coating. Puffballs can be cooked in many ways, but are a good accompaniment for a breakfast of rashers and eggs. As for the taste Mary Fitzgerals is pleasantly surprised,

Much nicer than I expected.

This report for ‘Anything Goes’ was broadcast on this day in 1984.  The presenters are Dick Warner and Mary Fitzgerald.