HEDGEROW HARVEST ?

Today we took a gentle amble down the bottom of one of my favourite valleys. In the past few years, Cwm Byrgym has been a pleasure to explore at this time of year for several reasons. It is out of the chilling autumnal winds and ... promises a bountiful free harvest.

A valley still deeply scarred by the effects of coal mining, the slag heaps stand out looking like blackcurrant dark, jelly moulds, disfiguring the landscape even after years of "rest". But at the end of this long disused mining site there is a gate and stile, leading to pasture.

Looking back up the steep sided valley one can almost forget the disfigurement of the landscape. To the left the beech trees are starting to turn autumnal gold and high in the crags the buzzards are circling and calling, and down on the ground there are normally plenty of opportunities for a free harvest, but as I was to discover, not this year.

At first, I was hopeful when I saw this heavily berried hawthorn. Now that may not seem an unusual sight at this time of year, but ... over the last few weeks I have seen so many hawthorn hedges without berries. I mentioned earlier in the year that the hard hitting rain came at a time when these tender blossoms were de-petalled and the chance of insects pollinating them were few and far between. This applied to many other species too and as I walked further, the proof of that untimely weather has shown a great lack of fruit.

Meanwhile, this is also "horse country" and we were subject to inquisitive equine looks.

But I was mostly more interested in the hedgerows and what fruit they had to offer. Sadly this year, the answer was very little. I know this area well and in past years I have gathered all sorts of free, preservable. harvest. This autumn there were no crab apples, and on the old damson trees barely a fruit to be seen. Not a sign of whinberries and very few elderberries, no oyster mushrooms and an old apple tree with no leaves and only 21 immature apples. Even the rose hips were scarce. Of hazelnuts, not a sign of anything! Old crab apple trees that are normally heavily laden with golden, rosy fruit were bare. The only thing in abundance were blackberries, large ones but ... but too large to be packed with any real flavour. It was all very disappointing and it made me wonder ... had I been someone from the past with such a poor hedgerow harvest to rely on ... how would I survive? This sentiment was highlighted as I explored the site of an old stone built house.
In the trees the birds were busy, but I wonder about their survival in the months ahead.

I wandered around what is left of it, the dilapidated walls, the sad remnants of a once home to someone. What would it have been like living here and with what amazing views!

 To the west, towards Blaenavon and to the east, a view over the Severn to England. But those views would have meant little in an autumnal scarcity of hedgerow harvest.

A close examination of the stone remains, show how small this house actually was.

It was obviously a two storey building but the holes for the second floor were barely above head height (six foot ceiling on the ground floor?) and then a tiny narrow stone stairway that now goes nowhere, except into the thin air. Where the chimney once let wood and coal smoke into the air, there is now (rather aptly)  a Mountain Ash sapling, also known as a RowanTree. That too had no berries. One can only imagine what it was like to live here and for me today ... I wondered how they would have coped without the freely available additions to the larder that could be gleaned locally. As for me ... I can easily survive thanks to our local supermarket but my freezer will be less stocked with free and normally easy pickings, so few home made jams for next year and few hedgerow based puddings. Oh well ... there's always the hope that next year will be better ... maybe.