[Fergus]

Blackberries are coming to an end, elderberries have gone. What's good to look for this month?

[Coelacanth]

Still plenty of elderberries on trees around these parts...
Now and for the next few weeks is a more traditional time for picking sloes, once they've been touched by the first frosts.
Must try to get out to see what the local crabapple trees are doing also.
This would once have been a good time to enjoy eel, whether fresh or smoked, but with the serious decline in stocks it's no longer a sustainable option.
Game will be back on our local market, and has featured well on the best cooking programme on the box at the mo., [url=http://www.whattoeatnow.com/]http://www.whattoeatnow.com/[/url], plenty of great recipes on there, unfortunately last programme in the current series is next week (when it's my favourite, seafood!).
There are some superb Mackerel and Herring about, if you're lucky enough to live near the coast they should still be catchable.

[Ben]

Agreed about eels - I'm not sure anyone should be catching the European species given the state its populations seem to be in, at least not until there is a recovery.

Only a generation ago tidal rivers and estuaries would have been literally boiling with eels in season...

[Fergus]

Game will be back on our local market, and has featured well on the best cooking programme on the box at the mo., http://www.whattoeatnow.com/,

What are your thoughts about signal crayfish?!!

[Ben]

It would be nice to eat them to extinction in the UK, but how can you tell them from our endangered natives?

[Coelacanth]

ORIGINAL: Ben
It would be nice to eat them to extinction in the UK, but how can you tell them from our endangered natives?

Easy enough if you know crayfish, but not enough people do. For most people, if you have crays near you then they are exotics, but I assume the EA have assessed it and decided that deregulating trapping might result in impacting currently-unknown populations of natives (they have turned up in some unexpected places), plus there are other high-concern species that could suffer from increased use of unsuitable traps.
I know a lot of people are doing it anyway for personal consumption, but a century+ of industry with all the associated nasties in the silt means that it'd be something I'd think twice about round here.

[Coelacanth]

Today's trip to the market resulted in some juicy, very fresh Flounder, and I have just the recipe for them!

[Fergus]

Today's trip to the market resulted in some juicy, very fresh Flounder, and I have just the recipe for them!

That's very unfair - you can't tantalise us like that. Share the joy!

As for foraging of wild animals, is this a subject we could cover in the magazine? This is a question for everyone.

[Ben]

Anyone got a recipe for coelacanth?

[Coelacanth]

That's very unfair - you can't tantalise us like that. Share the joy!

I'll let you know how it tastes first before I share the recipe...

As for foraging of wild animals, is this a subject we could cover in the magazine? This is a question for everyone.

I think it should certainly be acknowledged that wild animals represent a food resource, and where it can be shown to be sustainable there's no reason why people shouldn't enjoy it. I'd rather buy a couple of pigeons or a mallard off the market than pay silly sums in a supermarket to get the quality of chicken I'm prepared to eat.
I'm aware though that there might be reasons not to feature it.

Go on I dare you. Print a recipe for roast Teal.