Forage abundant edibles from diverse UK locations - forests, hedgerows, coast; learn identification, cooking and history from expert foragers.
WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?
Free food at your fingertips. Forget the supermarket and learn the skills of foraging. You can forage all over the place, don’t think you are just limited to woodland. City parks. urban green spaces, hedgerows, and the coast all provide an abundant source of edibles, and in these walks you can literally take your pick.
COASTAL FORAGING
The UK shoreline can compete with any green grocer when it comes to delicious and abundant edibles. The specific focus of a walk along the coast will be checking the salt-marsh, and seashore foraging, gathering plants that can only be accessed during low tide. There are also plenty of foreshore plants, which you will be able to sample (without cooking). We have 700 species of seaweed growing around the UK and a huge number of them are edible. You can find Nori, Kombu, and Wakame… plus Pepper dulse, Sea lettuce and Sea spaghetti (we have slightly less romantic names for them than the Japanese!). Sea beet and sea radish will also be on the menu as you forgo sandcastles and start to look for seaweeds on this seaside forage.
FIRST AID AND FORAGING
This is a wild foraging walk, but leaning towards which plants can specifically be used for first aid. There will be a few tasters as you walk along, made from wild ingredients picked and prepared earlier. John Rensten , the founder of Forage London, has spent 25 years studying the history and the modern use of wild plants. John will equip you with the practical and safe knowledge, gleaned through first hand experience. Expect to cover numerous topics including nutrition, medicine, herbalism and cookery….. And you thought it was all about weeds…..
HEDGEROW FORAGING
Maybe hedgerows are more your thing. Hedgerow foraging is excellent, most of the year round, and particularly good in Spring, Summer and autumn. These are actually some of our oldest and most diverse ecosystems. Sloes, wild plums, berries and crab apples. Think jellies and jams, as you learn about the wild plants that come in season before the start of winter. You will also learn about the historical uses of plants as well as cooking and preservation techniques.
MUSHROOM FORAGING
And then of course there are mushrooms….and you really do need to be with an expert for this one. The primary focus of these forages is to learn to safely identify edible mushroom species and their poisonous lookalikes.. You won’t be going home with baskets of wild mushrooms, rather a small selection of what you have collected. You will also learn about mushroom mycelium, the incredible organisms that create Mushrooms, regulate and care for the forest ecosystem.
Whichever foraging experience you decide to go for this is a very special day engaging with nature. Once you’re out there with a basket, there’s no turning back.
Nettle soup anyone?
THE ALL IMPORTANT DETAILS
- Dorset, Hampshire, New Forest, London
- Events run on selected Saturdays once a month
- Max group Size - 16
HOW DOES IT WORK?
All you have to do is pay for the gift experience you wish to purchase. We’ll send a voucher including booking information to you or directly to the recipient. You or your recipient needs to check the information on the voucher and book your experience date.
