Now Forage

Crabapple: Small apples ripen from green to red, yellow, or orange by variety. Very tart raw but excellent for jelly and cider. Ripe when the colour is fully developed and the fruit lifts off with a gentle twist.

Linden: Harvest fragrant yellow flowers in clusters when freshly open. Dry immediately for tea. Young leaves in April–May are edible raw. Flowers make a mild, honey-scented tea reputed as a relaxant.

Staghorn sumac: Deep red, fuzzy, cone-shaped seed clusters. Ripe in August–September. Soak clusters in cold water for 20–30 minutes, strain, and sweeten for pink 'sumac lemonade'. Very high in vitamin C. Do not confuse with white-berried poison sumac (wetlands, white berries = avoid).