Foraging Safely for Blackberries and Hazelnuts

A Hedgerow Harvest on the Doorstep

There are few nicer ways to end a day on the fells than a slow wander along a sunlit lane, the rucksack already smelling faintly of crushed leaves, with a tub of blackberries and a pocket of hazelnuts collected on the way home. Late August and September are the golden weeks for it. The bramble hedges are heavy, the hazel husks are turning from green to straw, and a good Lake District cottage will put you within a mile of lanes, footpaths and old coppice that most visitors walk straight past. Best of all, you can do it in fell boots and a jumper, then be back at the kettle before the light goes.

But foraging rewards care as much as enthusiasm. A few simple habits will keep you safe, keep the wildlife fed, and mean the difference between a cracking crumble and a poorly evening.

The Rules That Keep You and the Wildlife Safe

Treat these as non-negotiable, whether you are picking a handful for breakfast or filling a bag for jam.

• Pick only where fruit is genuinely abundant. If you have to search hard for a dozen berries, the bush is feeding something else. Move on.
• Stay away from roads. Keep well back from roadside verges — fifty metres from a country lane, far more from an A-road. Exhaust fumes and any road-edge spraying end up on the fruit, and you cannot wash all of it away.
• Never pick low down. Anything below knee height can be splashed by dogs, livestock and drainage run-off. That is also where you are most likely to pick something the dog has already claimed.
• Leave plenty behind. Take no more than a third from any one bush or tree. Dormice, blackbirds, jays and squirrels depend on this crop through autumn and winter.
• Never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty. Not "probably", not "my grandmother used to". Certainty, or nothing.
• Wash your hands before eating anything, and wash your haul when you get back.

Blackberries: Where and How to Pick

Brambles fruit from about mid-August into October, and the best crops are usually on sunny, south-facing hedge banks and along drystone walls. Wind-sheltered lanes below the fell tops often hold fruit later than exposed ground, so if the first spot looks thin, drop fifty metres down the hill.

A ripe blackberry is uniformly black, from the tip to where it meets the stalk, with no red or purple patches. It should come away with the gentlest of tugs, leaving the pale core behind on the plant. If you have to pull, it is not ready. Pick into a shallow tub or a breathable container rather than a plastic bag; bruised berries in a sealed bag turn to mould within hours. Damp fruit after rain stores badly, so pick on a dry afternoon where you can.

Watch your hands and your arms. Brambles bite, and long sleeves and thin gloves make an hour in the hedge far more pleasant. It is also worth knowing the difference between a blackberry and a dewberry, which trails along the ground, carries fewer, larger segments, and is perfectly edible but far less generous.

Hazelnuts: A Trickier Prize

Hazel grows in hedgerows, old coppice and woodland edges across the Lakes, often on lower slopes and in damper valley ground. The nuts ripen from late August through October, and the trick is timing. Pick when the husk has turned pale yellow-brown and the nut comes away easily; picked green, the kernel will be shrivelled and bitter.

• Test for ripeness by weight. Drop nuts into a bowl of water — the full, sound ones sink and the hollow ones float.
• Discard any nut with a neat round hole. That is nut weevil, and the kernel inside is long gone.
• Look before you pick. Squirrels and jays usually get there first. Chewed husks and split shells on the ground are a good sign the crop is ripe, and a reminder to leave most of it.

Take a few from each tree rather than clearing one, and never break branches down to reach the crown.

Know Your Plant, Every Single Time

Autumn hedges carry plenty that will make you ill. The glossy red berries of black bryony and the black berries of deadly nightshade both sit in the same lanes, and neither belongs in a child's bucket. Teach younger walkers a firm rule: nothing goes in the mouth, ever, until an adult has named it twice.

Carry a proper field guide to British wild plants, or two if you are new to it, and cross-check anything unfamiliar. Fungi are best left alone entirely unless you are with someone genuinely experienced. Note also that while picking wild fruit, foliage, flowers and fungi for your own use is fine in England and Wales, digging up plants is not, and some nature reserves and protected sites have their own byelaws. If in doubt, ask the cottage owner — they usually know exactly which unsprayed lanes are worth the walk.

Back at the Cottage

Rinse blackberries in cold water, discard anything bruised or mouldy, and spread the rest on a tray in the freezer before bagging them up — that way they stay loose rather than freezing into a solid lump. They will keep for months and go straight into a crumble with a cooking apple or two.

Hazelnuts need drying before storing. Spread them in a single layer in shallow trays and leave them somewhere warm and airy — an airing cupboard is ideal — for a fortnight, turning them now and then. Then shell, and keep in a jar. A few will still disappear before they make it to a cake, which is entirely the point.