MONKEY-NUTS PONDERS THE MEANING OF LIFE..

SO SIMPLE YET APPROPRIATELY FITTING..

FUNNY LITTLE MONKEY

NICK SHARRAT

Here's an interesting video featuring Nick Sharrat.  I love his simple, clean and bright illustration. The style and his picture book ideas are ingenious.

RESEARCH - CONTENT:AUTUMN FOOD LIKE MUSHROOMS, BERRIES AND NUTS

The content of my book will be AUTUMN WILD FOOD.

I have done research on edible mushrooms and some berries that grow in AUTUMN in the forest. I would like to convey information about these that will fit with young audience - early readers 5-7 years old. Perhaps story followed by factual information. I also would like to interpret season within the story that will make children aware and teach them what they are and when you can find food during those times. There is a lot of edible mushrooms I can choose from but the most appealing as well as bright in colour are:

CHANTARELLE

 

PENNY BUN BOLETE

I can even link names of the mushroom to the story....

BERRIES

rose hip

Picking season: September to November
How to recognise: The bright red ‘hips’ (pictured opposite) or berries of the wild rose are in fact the seed pods, whose covering is only a millimetre thick. The stems have sharp thorns, and the hips have a dried blossom end.
Where to find: Wild roses are very common and can be found growing throughout the UK, particularly in hedgerows around the fringes of woodland, among bushes in ungrazed meadows and along the edges of footpaths. Picking tips: Carefully snip the hips, close to the base of each pod. If you try to pull them off, you’ll get tangled in a mass of prickly thorns.
How to use: It’s the fleshy covering that you eat – it’s crammed with vitamin C. Inside are tightly packed, hair-covered seeds (traditionally used by schoolboys to make itching powder). Never eat rosehips whole – the seeds can be a dangerous irritant. Use rosehips to make wine, jellies, jams and a delicately flavoured syrup that makes a great cordial, or an alternative to maple syrup for ice cream and pancakes.

Bluberries

 Red Huckleberry

Edible. Berries small and red, tart. Late June-Sept. Plant typically grows on stumps or other decaying wood, green angular stems. Common. Found throughout Sharingwood.

Blackberries

Picking season: August to October
How to recognise: The blackberry is the shiny black fruit of the wild bramble bush. It needs little description, as most of us have, at one time or another, plucked some from a bush and eaten them while out walking.
Where to find: The bramble bush grows in abundance throughout the UK. Those found in hedgerows and along footpaths and country lanes will usually provide the best pickings. The further away you can pick them from pollution-causing traffic, the better.
Picking tips: Pick berries that are deep black in colour, plump and shiny, as these fruits are the freshest and therefore don’t need washing. Dull, squishy fruits are past their best. A stick with a crook, or even an old walking stick, is an ideal tool for reaching the branches that are just out of reach – these always seem to have the plumpest, shiniest fruits.
How to use: In desserts such as crumbles and steamed puddings, cakes, jams, jellies, and even vinegars.

Black cap raspberry

Edible. Berries small, black when ripe. July-August. Plant a long vine like growth, low but often climbing over stumps or other bushes. Found all over Sharingwood, best berries in sunny locations. Loggers call these plants ankle saws because their vine-like form makes them easy to trip over and when you do the prickles tear your skin.

 HOW TO IDENTIFY EDIBLE FROM POISONOUS?

Some Edible wild mushrooms in the UK:

Autumn Chanterelle

Bay Bolete

Beefsteak Fungus

Blusher  

Common Funnel

Deceiver

Dryads Saddle

Fairy Ring Champignon

Giant Puffball

Glistening Inkcap

Great Wood Mushroom

Honey Fungus

Larch Bolete

Lurid Bolete

Matt Bolete

Mosaic Puffball

Oak Bolete

Ochre Brittlegill

Orange birch roughstalk

Oyster Mushroom

Parasol Mushroom

Penny Bun Bolete

Pestle Puffball

Red Cracking Bolete

Scarletina Bolete

Shaggy Parasol

Slippery Jack

St Georges Mushroom

Terracota Wood Urchin

Wood Mushroom

POISONOUS MUSHROOMS IN UK

Beechwood Sickener

Brown Roll Rim

Common Inkcap

Deathcap

Fly Agaric

Panthercap

Poisonpie

Sulphur Tuft

 

 

NUTS

 

Hazel or Filbert (corylus)

 

There are more than 10 different varieties of trees and large shrubs in the corylus family. Well known for their edible nuts, the plant produces both male and female flowers on the same plant. The male flower is a slender catkin that appears before the leaves grow large - the female flowers are inconspicuous and later develop into nuts that ripen in summer. Hazel trees and bushes grow best in fertile, well-drained, chalky soil in full sun or part shade. For best "fruiting" they require about 1000 hours below 45 degrees. Cool damp summers also assist nut production.

 

The origin of the hazelnut dates back to ancient times. They extended to Europe, where they constituted one of the oldest agricultural cultivations. Hazelnut culture was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The nuts were thought to have medicinal qualities in addition to their food value.

The principal hazelnut producing countries are Turkey, Italy, Spain, and the United States of America. The hazelnut is marketed in in-shell and shelled form, roasted or salted. Hazelnuts are used in the confectionary industry and for the preparation of many food products like spreads, nougat and chocolates.

 

A handful of Hazelnuts is a rich source of B group vitamins and minerals such as folic acid, vitamin E, copper and magnesium.

OTHER LINKS:http://www.nuthealth.org/
http://www.inc.org/
http://www.hazelnutcouncil.org/