I always knew this was gonna be tough to pull off as myself and the kid were coming back from holiday the night before. Actually, it turned out to be one hour before!

This was supposed to be held at The Refill Shop, LB, but due to staff sickness, I ended up running it from our communal moorings garden…it all worked out nicely though. The sun was shining.

We first went down to the river Ousel and picked Ground Elder, Cleavers, Jack by the Hedge, Horseradish, Cow Parsley (not to be confused with Hemlock), White Deadnettle, Nettle and more.

Local GP Elinor and Craig were impressed by the creamy mushroom taste of the White Deadnettle. I forgot to take a pic of them and their kimchi, as I had had about 1 and a half hours sleep!! Argh!

We then returned to base camp surrounded by feral kids, veg patches and a looted cable reel table to make kimchi from our finds. We used a range of traditional Korean condiments and spices.

Last but not least, we sampled a Wild Kimchi I’d made at least 3 weeks previously. It was awesome! It does take a leap of faith for course participants to trust that eating 3 week old ‘gone off’ wild plants is a good idea! But people did admirably well.

You don’t need much fancy stuff to make a lacto-ferment like Kimchi, you just need to know a couple of things about how to make the environment a happy place for lactobacteria.

This technique not only preserves food without needing a fridge, but it breaks down the plant tissue and makes nutrients more accessible to your body. The lactobacteria are similar to what’s in yoghurt and other probiotics, so they help with gut health too.

I’l be running another one of these if I can fit it in May/June. Email hedgewitchkat@gmail.com if you’re interested.