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I’ve been checking the birches every few days the last few weeks. It’s that time of year again, when the sap starts to flow and the trees start waking up! This can happen any time from late Feb to late March, even early April. It started quite late this year in this neck of the…

I’ve been snacking on this lot at the moment. Spring is here. Green stuff is shooting up, ready to be made into salads, smoothies, fermented pickles and…erm… deep fried in tempura batter. Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) – I made this into a lacto-ferment and bunged it in my carrot soup. Deliciously tangy! It’s fairly close…

I was lucky enough to attend one of Professor Gordon Hillman’s foraging courses before he became too ill from Parkinson’s to teach. My favourite part was griddling hawthorn berry and nut cakes over the fire! Prof Hillman was a world-renowned archeobotanist, working at the London Institiute of Archaeology. He became famous in ‘normal people circles’…

For those who couldn’t make the last two dates and were frustrated, here’s my May foraging course date and ticket link. You get 3 Tapas style Tasters too! Check out “Spring Wildfood Foraging With Tapas Tasters” on Eventbrite! Date: Sat, 20 May, 10:00 Location: Tiddenfoot Waterside Park, off Mentmore Rd, Leighton Buzzard

Today, keeping well away from fellow mortals as I still have Covid, I headed to the nearby woods with my son. To my delight (and my son’s older than his 8 years sigh), I discovered a small patch of Winter Purslane, Claytonia perfoliata. Also known as Miners Lettuce or Spring Beauty, this succulent little salad…

It’s almost Spring and the sap is beginning to rise. There are buds on the Blackthorn twigs already. If you are interested I learning about wild and useful edible plants, I have 2 half day courses coming up. Or there’s this one with Tapas Tasters in April.

Today I harvested Spruce roots to make baskets. Spruce trees are a Christmas classic. These friendly evergreens crop up in many places. Not only can you eat the fresh green needles, you can use their shallow surface roots for cordage in basketry and bushcraft. Cordage means lashings, rope, string, twine and whatever else you can…

Because why not… Hazel catkins, moss, soil, birch bark shavings. it’s really relaxing and makes you aware of the textures and colours of the season. Try nature art now! I’m aiming at doing some nature response art each month. Who else wants to join in and post their responses to Spring?

Fried up these Oyster mushrooms I found growing on a felled poplar at Tiddenfoot Lake. At the end of January! It just goes to show that you can find tasty edible mushrooms year-round. I got our mycologist, Phil, to check over my ‘catch of the day’. Oyster Mushrooms are a tender bracket fungus that comes…

Here’s some pics of my Birch Bark Basketry workshop. Some beautiful baskets were made! Thanks to all who came and to Heni at the Good Life Refill for hosting. We used traditional Adirondack Native American designs to etch into the surface of our baskets. It was great to find out what everyone else was doing,…