Foraging

The weather was so beautiful that I abandoned my report and went out to survey a couple of Lincolnshire tetrads. I began on a public right-of-way west of Aslackby, where there were sufficient puzzling elms, hawthorns and roses to keep me occupied. And then I came across this bush, laden with fruit. I was puzzled - initially I thought it was just a blackthorn, but the fruit were larger than normal sloes and the tree had hardly any spines. But it didn't look right for a damson tree. In the end I plucked up the courage to taste one - it had the texture of a sloe but more of a damson flavour. All the characters suggest that this is a natural hybrid between blackthorn and wild plum - the first time this hybrid has been recorded in my vice-county. 

Whatever the parentage, the fruit were too good to waste, so I took some time out of recording to fill a bag with fruit, which will be used to flavour either bourbon or gin (or perhaps both!)