(From Amazon.co.uk)
My Dad used to call the man who lived across the road, "Swoop" because he used to feed the birds with Swoop bird-seed.Of course, us kids didn't realise this was only a nickname and I am sure we must have called him "Mr Swoop" several times resulting in a very puzzled look. I wonder if he still lives there. My Dad doesn't live there any more but my sister lives in the next door house to Mr Swoop and I haven't seen him at all when I have been visiting. Our road was very like the road inhabited by the Goods and the Leadbetters in The Good Life though the houses were newer and not quite so big (All newer houses are not so big any more - there seems to be a conspiracy to reduce the size of houses or is it just that I am bigger?) When we moved out of the town to a house which wasn't even in a village, my Dad grew lots of his own vegetables - potatoes, carrots, beans etc. My worst time of year was when we had loads of bitter, little new potatoes with the skin left on. I wouldn't be bothered now but then I hated them.
We also used to get Mushrooms and Puffballs off the common on the edge of which, we lived. We had a book called Food for Free which I am glad to say is still available. My step-mother wouldn't cook anything but the obvious Mushrooms so occasionally Dad would fry up Puffballs. They have no taste whatsoever but a brilliant texture (mouthfeel I think it's called these days). They would be good for marinating or using like Tofu. (Before I was born, my Aunt went to Australia as a nurse and as a leaving gift my mother served her a giant puffball into the skin of which, she carved a map of Australia). My Brother and I would eat almost anything including some very unappetising shaggy-caps and even the odd bracket Fungus which was listed in the book. We really wanted to find a Truffle but although my Brother was not unhappy to scrump a few apples, he didn't really want to 'borrow' a pig and I don't think they grew near us anyway.
You would think it is a real wonder that we didn't poison ourselves with Fly Agaric but I think if you look at a picture of one I think you will agree that we might have been put off by their appearance if we had ever come across one. A friend of my Dad's, I think, worked for the Ministry of Agriculture durring WWII and he was involved with a project to define which fungi were (was ?!?) edible and he said that they were surprised to find that most were actually quite safe to eat though a high proportion of these were either tasteless or of little nutritional value or both.
The Herb Garden at the Center for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth in Wales is full of various plants which they are happy to let you pick and taste just to see how easy it is to get some great Organic stuff of your own even in a small garden. We already have Rosemary in our Garden and I think my wife is contemplating planting some herbs.
Nettle soup anyone?
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