Red chillies beat indigestion and ulcers

This interesting article from the Daily Record was passed on to us by a familiy member.  Another great reason to buy Foragers Chillies.  We've found that many people equate chillies with "painful" heat in the mouth.  THERE ARE MILDER VARIERIES AVAILABLE!  At Foragers our main chilli is Palivec which is mild - medium.  We like our chillies to enhance your culinary creations not overpower them.

From Daily Record article, “Strange health cures that will save you £££s”. 21st Aug 2018

Clearing Snow on Polytunnels

This winter we are getting more snow that usual.  Here's a method we use for clearing snow from the top of our larger polytunnels. 

A rare visitor to our polytunnel

A solitary Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) spotted on the chives. I counted another 30 on the same bed all Buff-tailed or possibly White-tailed I think.

Bombus lapidarius

The apple trees are growing.

It's now 16 months since our orchard was planted. Most of the trees are thriving with some slower growers too. This year we had to increase the height of the tree guards to combat our tall sheep. It was a time consuming task but an important investment for the future success of the orchard (we hope). 90% of the timber used was recycled from donated pallets. A big thank you to local businesses; A&M Timber, Reid and Robertson, Fraser C. Robb and Stirling's Low Carbon Future.

The birth of a cider orchard

FORAGERS’ ORCHARD TAKES SHAPE

231 apples trees (9 cider varieties augmented by some desserts, cookers and crabs) were planted in late March 2015 on an old, long-established wildflower and grass meadow.

The planning stage was a vital part of the process

Newly planted trees - March 2015

To stake or or not to stake - that was the question??

Our grass management team of 3 blackface ewes and 1 texel/mule wether were decanted (for obvious reasons) until the vital tree protection was installed - a task we hoped would be completed in two or three months...  In the end it's taken almost six!  It's a long story, but I (Gary) had to take an enforced two month break from more physical tasks due to an outbreak of Polymyalgia rhematica (no that's not the latin name of one of the tree varieties).

"Gonny hurry up!" Florrie one of our black face ewes
looks longingly towards the orchard.

Thankfully I'm on the mend and thanks to the meds and some extra hands provided by friends near and far (as well as our 3 magnificent sons) the tree guards are completed and the orchard is finally ready for the sheep again.

Our next task in the orchard will be the first pruning over the winter.  It'll be a few years before before we get a decent crop of cider apples but so far we're encouraged by the health and growth of the young trees.  We anticipate our first batch of blended craft cider will be available in 2017/18.

Stages of building tree guards.

1. Order materials
2. Use jig to mark out holes for posts (pinch bar and watering can are vital tools when forming the holes)
3. Place jig above holes
4. Position posts and drive in approx 50cm
5. Screw in bottom and top rails
6. Fit galvanised wire mesh ensuring good tension (helps strengthen the structure)
7. I made a simple timber platform to raise the roll of wire mesh and the pinch bar was useful for keeping it vertical
8. Completed tree guard

Now for the boring bit for all the anoraks out there (I'm now one too)...

Tree protection;
231 Rabbit guards
231 Sheep guards
693 posts
1386 rails
4620 screws
690m galvanised wire mesh
about 8000 staples

"Lambchop," our adopted wether is glad to get back into the orchard
with "the girls" after 7 months to inspect the job.

Foragers' first season is now in full swing

Fresh Cut Herbs Now Ready for Harvesting

We are now in full swing in this our first season.  We're still doing lots of building work in the polytunnels (raised beds and irrigation systems), erecting tree guards in our cider orchard (a bit of a Forth Rail Bridge job) and developing what will be our cider house & studio.

The crazy cold & wet spring/summer has meant that many plants are quite late (especially the tomatoes).  As a result, we have decided to hold off on salad leaves until next year (perhaps we were a bit overly optimistic). 

Hopefully next season we will be approaching full steam with a wider range of products.  Please feel free to suggest anything you think we could grow that you need.

Gary & Jo McAlpine, Foragers Foods

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Price List

Culinary herbs now ready for harvesting:

• Dill  (75p/20g)
• Dill pollen (90p/20g)
• Fennel leaves (75p/20g)
• Salsosa soda (land seaweed) (£2.22/100g).  A Mediterranean vegetable with thin succulent needle like leaves that grow on small bushy plants and is used mainly in Umbria and Lazio in pasta, seafood and fish dishes.  The recommendation is to cook it in boiling water until the leaves soften, and to serve while some bite remains (much like Samphire). It can also be eaten raw; it is said to "taste grassy and slightly salty with a pleasant crunchy texture.
• Spearmint (80p/25g) (£1.75/100g)
• Lemon balm (80p/25g) (£1.75/100g)
• Salad burnet  (80p/25g) (£1.75/100g)
• Rosemary (small quantities in 1st year)  (90p/20g)
• Thyme (£1.15/20g)
• Lavendar (£1.90/50g).  Also some potted plants @ £4.50
• Hyssop (£1.62/50g).  The leaves and flowers of Hyssop have a licorice-minty taste, and indeed this plant is related to the Mints. The leaves can be used to flavour green salads, poultry stuffing (with sage), chicken soup, apple stews, pies or flans although should be used sparingly, as the flavour is very strong.
• Sage (90p/20g)

Coming soon (download flyer):

• Tomatoes (6 varieties) available Aug/Sept (£2.20/270g, £8.15/kg)
• Small quantity of chillies Sept/Oct  (£1.50/100g)

Next year (download flyer):

• French Tarragon  (90p/20g)
• Borage & borage flowers (£TBC)
• Salad Leaves (£TBC)

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Ordering

Please email your requirements to info@foragers.scot.  We are happy to deliver larger orders (over £25) free of charge to local restaurants & cafés etc.  If you'd prefer to visit Foragers to collect your order of fresh cut herbs, please contact Gary or Jo to arrange a suitable time.  Mobile 07939 517685.

.scot domain - expensive but nice...

Since not all of the plants we're growing in the ‪polytunnels‬ are edible we thought we should purchase a new domain name, so we have opted for foragers.scot which we think will cover all bases. This year we have some Sweet Pea, Antirrhinum (Snapdragon), Lavender and Lemon Balm which will be available for sale at both Kippen Street Fayer and Balfron Primary School Fair on Saturday June 13th.