WILD food expert Rob Caton has a self-satisfied air about him as he discusses the misfortune that has just overtaken one member of his extended family.
Thankfully, it’s not great-aunt Ethel who has gone to meet her maker in the sky.
The victim is a pig that was being cared for by a farming friend. It has fattened up nicely over the past few months and is now headed for the freezer at Rob’s home in Byrness near Otterburn from where he runs his outdoor adventure business, Wildharmony.
He’s thinking miles of succulent sausages, acres of crispy crackling and platefuls of moreish meat.
But first Rob needs to make room for the pork. Which means the Catons will be eating a lot of venison over the coming days. And there is only one accompaniment that cuts the mustard with Rob – crab apple and rowan jelly.
Hence the focus of today’s foraging expedition around the National Trust’s Cragside estate near Rothbury in the heart of Northumberland.
Rob is in a race against time to make enough of the delicious but tart-tasting jelly before the venison feasting gets under way.
That’s the reason Ian Fletcher, Cragside’s head forester, is fumbling through the undergrowth just a stone’s throw from the estate’s formal garden, having sighted a mountain ash with branches dripping with clusters of juicy orange-red rowan berries.
“Just a bit more to your left,” shouts Rob as he directs operations from the sideline. “We need at least a pound of them.”
He already has a bag bursting with crab apples and rowan berries he picked himself from further along the path.
As far as foraging expeditions go, this is turning into one of the easiest he has conducted for a while.
But then crab apples and rowan berries are two of the more plentiful foraged foods – for those who can muster the energy to bypass the supermarket and gather their own from nature’s free autumnal bounty.
Rowans can be found growing everywhere from suburban streets to mountain sides, while crab apples proliferate in old woodlands and hedgerows. They are also a common feature in gardens across the land that not only look good but are a welcome magnet for wildlife (in spring they are beloved of blue tits hunting for insects for their young while in autumn they attract blackbirds and thrushes looking to feast).
Yet while birds appreciate the edible qualities of the humble crab apple, mankind has fallen out of love with the fruit’s culinary uses.
As such, Rob says no end of crab apples go to waste every year because no one can be bothered to pick and cook them. “One reason may be that when raw the fruit is so bitter it makes your mouth pucker,” he explains.
“But once cooked they are completely transformed and at one time they were regarded as a seasonal delicacy.”
The rowan berry is equally maligned. It is widely believed to be poisonous when eaten raw. But Rob says: “It’s the seed that is poisonous when eaten uncooked, not the actual fruit, so you are safe to eat the fleshy part as long as you spit the pip out.
“The seed contains parasorbic acid, which can lead to an upset stomach. But cooking the berries destroys the acid and they make a wonderful jelly, juice or wine.
“Rowan berries and crab apple go particularly well together and in turn the jelly is delicious with venison or cheese. My tasty treat is to have crab apple and cinnamon jelly on toast in the morning with a cup of tea.
“It’s great for these autumn mornings and early frosts.”