Yesterday was the first day of September and it proved to be a warm sunny day without a drop of rain, unlike the August bank holiday weekend and the preceding week when we wondered if the rain would ever stop! Many campers have packed-up and gone home earlier than planned and a distraught farmer declared on breakfast TV that this was the worst harvest in years. The crops have been flattened and soaked by the heavy rain and increased oil prices mean more costs to the poor farmers who are forced to use corn dryers as they struggle to salvage something from their fields.

I was thinking about these unfortunates as I walked the dogs in the early morning sunshine, but not for long. My thoughts were distracted by the glistening, dew-covered cobwebs that festooned the bracken, gorse and grasses all around, a lovely sight to behold and a sure sign that autumn is just around the corner. Autumn is that time of year when I think about gathering-in my own harvest. I refer of course to all the wild produce that is there for everyone to collect, should they so wish, and what a bumper crop we are going to have. The changeable weather that has caused so much grief to the holidaymakers and farmers has encouraged a wealth of wild goodies and, provided we don’t experience any untoward weather conditions there will be plenty for both man and beast.

The Fungi harvest is already underway with an abundance of Ceps along the forest rides and enumerable Chantrelle and Hedgehog mushrooms peeping through the leaf litter of the Forests floor. Oyster mushrooms swarm all over the fallen beech trees in Windy Wood and Field Mushrooms are winking brightly in the road-side verges and Forest lawns.

The oak tree beyond my study window is smothered with fresh green acorns and no doubt the pigs will soon be turned-out to gobble-up this bonanza before the ponies eat too many. The beech boughs already sagging with their prolific leaf growth are now straining under the added weight of an incredible crop of beech mast. The hairy husks are opening in the sunshine to reveal two three-cornered nuts which will drop to the ground and provide food for a huge variety of birds and animals. The beech mast together with the acorns will attract massive numbers of Wood Pigeons, the blue hordes will come from far and near to gorge themselves on these delicacies and no doubt some of them, in turn, will end up in my freezer.

The hawthorn beside the garage is also straining under its load of bright red haws; these tiny pithy fruits can be made into wine or jelly but I don’t bother, I enjoy watching the birds that flock in numbers to the tree to eat the insipid berries. The rowan trees are similarly ladened with bunches of red berries and are readily stripped of their fruit by many species of birds.

A few hazel trees grow beside Blackensford brook and they have, to my knowledge rarely produced more than the occasional nut. Go and have a look at them, this year they are covered in nuts and these will provide food for the wood mice and squirrels during the lean winter months, and I’ll probably have a few for myself. Come up the track from the brook and you will notice that the sweet chestnuts are not to be outdone by the hazels; their prickly green nut cases are prolific and swelling rapidly with the promise of a good harvest of the sweet glossy brown nuts, in the late autumn.

The hollies behind the deer sanctuary have more berries than I ever recall seeing, they’re green at the moment and not too obvious among the equally green foliage, but soon they will turn into that gorgeous, waxy red that typifies this most festive of trees, and when they do they will be a feast for the eyes. Likewise the crab apples on Backley plain are heavy with fruit and some crab apple jelly may be produced before Christmas. Like the hazel nuts these tiny apples provide food for birds and animals well into the winter months.

Some of our older villagers will tell you that this natural bounty is the harbinger of a cold and hard winter; I’m not so sure, but let’s wait and see.

It would be impossible to think of autumn fruits without giving consideration to two of my favourites, the blackberry and the sloe. Like everything else this year, both are in abundance and very early. A dear old friend picked pounds of juicy blackberries just beyond Ashurst at the beginning of august! As for the sloes, every bush is full of the small, bitter, plum like fruits, but there they will remain until the first frost has come and gone and then they will be carefully picked from the thorny branches and converted into that most welcome winter warmer…. Sloe gin.

Cheers!

Some people just know it all and really don’t want to be corrected. In next weeks article From the Enclosure one such person was able to justify his knowledge because of the big horns.