FREE FEED: Wild Apples

WILD APPLES

Walbunja Country, Yuin Nation (Braidwood, NSW)

“Is that? Could it be? Yes! Apples!”

Ahhh damn, the two year old is asleep in the car as we drive back from Kosciuszko National Park and we can’t risk waking her. Besides, the harsh gravel road through the flat, treeless basalt plains of Dalgety doesn’t have an easy spot to turn around. We won’t be harvesting from this tree today, or this season as we’ll unlikely be back. The rosy red apples beaconing from the fence line of this lonely homestead will have to wait and nourish the next opportunistic traveller. And I’ll mark it with a Google Map pin for potential harvest next autumn.

Missing out this time was ok though. That’s what you get with wild foraging - you win some, you lose some. But if you’re able to slow down, take your cues from what is happening in the world around you and plan a little, you’ll get lucky - or make your own luck. And this is what we did. We knew we were heading up the mountain past Braidwood in the following days and had seen some trees a few months earlier ready to pop. And, low and behold, they were. Ash has a theory that these were likely planted along the road to nourish weary travellers back in the day - and that is exactly what they were doing for us today and probably have done for many others, season after season.

We had to navigate the thorns of some blackberry brambles with the treat of a couple of dozen late season berries which our eldest daughter nabbed into a basket whilst I climbed a few of the trees and tossed enough apples down to fill a few bags.

Some have warts, some have scratches, dings. Some are deformed, no two of them are shaped the same, they all have unique colours and markings. They’re certainly not the homogenous, lifeless specimens you’re used to seeing in your local supermarket. But this is what eating seasonally and locally looks like.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter how they look. More importantly, how do they taste? Delicious. Tastes like empowerment. The taste definitely met and exceeded expectations. They have a more fibrous skin than you’d find on a commercially grown apple but not to their detriment, in fact, I enjoy crunching a little bit more - savouring that fibre and having it wrangle me into eating more slowly and mindfully. Perfect crunch and juiciness. Sweetness balanced well with the underlying tartness you’d expect from your run-of-the-mill green , granny smith-ish type apple.

I don’t know what variety these are and it doesn’t actually matter with a find like this. Mongrel green apples blushing pink and red, perfect exactly as they are - and fit for purpose - that is eating.

They make a great eating apple or cooking apple so we got enough to do a bit of both. I can smell the first processed batch in the dehydrator as I type this blog up right now. Enough will be dehydrated (57c/135f for 4.5 - 5.5 hours depending on moisture content and texture/taste preference) for us to have a couple of full jars for the cooler months. We’ll make a few jars of apple sauce, keep a dozen or so for eating fresh and most certainly make some apple crumble in the coming weeks. The rest will be given to friends and family and any scraps and cores will be made into apple scrap vinegar. As the unspoken law of wild foraging pronounces, we only took what we needed and could use and there is plenty of trees still laden and ripe for the picking.

Wild apples. What an absolute treat. Get out there and try and find some in the next few weeks and you won’t be disappointed. Or you might, in which case, Autumn will roll around again next year and you’ll get another crack.

Andy @ the Nourished Sovereign

Instagram @thenourishedsovereign