Cow parsley, or Anthriscus sylvestris, is so entrenched at the sides of our ditches, waysides and collective consciousness that we are almost blind to its creamy flurry of umbrellalike blossoms, its ferny carrot top fronds of vibrant green. it is often one of the first plants to show its head come Spring. As you may…

Myself and the lad are fresh back from the deep woods of Cranham Scout campsite in Gloucester. Here we camped in about a foot of thick, curd-like February mud and learned of the further arts of camp fire cookery from Wayne and Beth (and other Chefs!) of Forest Knights Bushcraft School. Whilst my son threw…

We can all feel the quickening, so now’s the time to talk about Birch, that fast growing speeding deciduous, first into the fray in the epic poem ‘Battle of the Trees’ from the Celtic ‘Book of Taliesin’. Birch is a useful tree in many ways. It really is first to colonise new spaces, being a…

When I say ‘caution’ I mean the same caution that lovers of Japanese pufferfish fugu must exhibit while enjoying their meal. Do you trust your chef?!! The only part of yew that you want to be eating is the aril, the fleshy red fruit that surrounds the black seed. DO NOT EAT THE SEED WITHIN.…

I go for a walk with my son in the clear cold air. Rushmere Country Park is evergreen Plantation at one end, but at the Stockgrove end is mostly much older Broadleaf woodland. It’s all beautiful no matter which end… Now is the time to have fun learning to tell which evergreen tree is which.…

January, traditionally known as the ‘hungry gap’, where the feast of Christmas was over and all that was left was dried broad beans, pickled veg and whatever porridge oats the rats hadn’t got at. It’s not quite the same today, with food flown in from the tropics and out of us with fridge freezers powered…

This being hunting season, when greens are scarce and meat would have sustained us, I will share some of my wild game stories with you. Traditionally the meat that would have been available to the Commoners (that’s us) would have been Rabbit and Wood Pigeon, with Pheasants poached from the rich people… RABBIT The first…

Even through snow and ice, if you know where the burdock patches are you can still get to the all important roots, stuffed with carbs and starch to keep energy up in the cold. Arctium lappa/minus (Greater and Lesser Burdock respectively) can be used in just the same ways as each other. Those giant cabbagy…

Now’s the time of year to celebrate our evergreens. So here we have the Monterey Pine, or Pinus radiata. This beautiful, lush 3 needle pine has spreading branches that can hang low down. When I say ‘3 needle’ I mean that the needles are arranged in bunches of 3, and they are around 15cm long.…