Unexpected edibles in south London

I did a fascinating walk through south London at the weekend, and saw food in the most surprising places. There was no intentional foodie theme, but the walk had barely started when I saw trees laden with cherries at Waterloo Millennium Green. I was surprised to see some of them ripe already (especially given the rainy June), though most were not. They were perfectly edible, only slightly on the tart side.

Urban cherries

Then it was along to Elephant and Castle and the Heygate estate, now mostly boarded up and near-empty after the council moved out most of the residents in preparation for a long-delayed demolition and regeneration plan. In the middle of the tower blocks are tomato plants growing in old car tyres, and carefully tended allotments behind the trees that have finally reached maturity, just as the estate they bring shade to has passed its use-by date. This started out as a "guerilla gardening" project by local residents but is now tolerated by the authorities.

Allotments on the Heygate estate. Picture: Elephant and Castle Urban Forest

From Burgess Park (another municipal project that has taken much longer than planned - the idea was born in 1943, and the final works are due to be completed this summer) a narrow green strip leads to Peckham. This strip is the Surrey Canal Park, no longer home to a canal but a pleasant green corridor. It didn't take long to spot more food - young trees had labels saying "Wild and Edible". I spotted rowan (aka mountain ash) trees and crab apple. I'm not sure if there were other types of tree, but I don't class those as particularly edible - the fruit of both are good for jelly at best.

In terms of other wild food, I saw mallow in abundance in the parks - the leaves are quite tasty, in a slighty glutinous way, and common in North African cuisine. These were mostly a bit insect-ridden though, so I didn't bother sampling them.

And it hardly counts as wild food, but the pub at the end of the walk in Crystal Palace (the Grape and Grain) was selling London Glider Cider, made from unwanted and windfall apples in Woodford Green. A perfect end to a walk of unexpected edibles.