As promised, Here are some dates I’m running courses in April and June. We’ll be concentrating on Spring/Summer edibles and recipes, so lots of vitamin and mineral rich fresh shoots, leaves and flowers and what to do with them! If we find any Spring mushrooms we will deal with them too! This course is suitable…

Scored big on a walk across the heathland and woods today. Under the craggy branches of an Oak stood a proud Cep, or Penny Bun (Boletus edulis). Ceps are fairly easy to recognise. They are in the Bolete family. Most of the Boletes (but not all) are known by their pores under the cap. This…

This Mon in November I hopped out in the brilliant autumn sunshine…then submerged myself in the gloom of the dampest part of the wood. My mission – to scout out fantastic fungi. These inedible but pretty mushrooms above were found on Rammamere Heath, which is acid heathland and grass. The Earthballs (Scleroderma) on far right…

Hi all, I’ll be running a special fundraising Autumn Forage on Sun 19th Nov. All funds raised go to help UNICEF UK give aid to children in Gaza that are caught in the conflict. Learn about what you can eat from the wilderness, and support aid to victims of the Gaza bombardment. There will be…

After my wild swim with the Blue tits last week, I noticed several plant members of the Witch’s garden growing around the car park. Methinks somebody has done some secret sowing… (Probably someone whose Mum won’t let them keep it in the house.) Here’s what I found: TOBACCO (Nicotiana) The Tobacco plant is the most…

It’s not just food you can get out of our native plants. Stuck for soap or laundry detergent? Here’s two plants you can find in most places that will sort you out with soap. Horse chestnut and Ivy both contain saponins. These are technically mild poisons. The plant makes them to prevent you eating it.…

Some highlights from last Sat 21st’s Autumn Forage with Tapas Tasters. The new autumn Menu was: Rowan Jelly Soy & Sesame Burdock Root Battered Spiced Crabapples Horseradish Sauce Real Horseradish sauce is far hotter than anything you will find on the supermarket shelves! If you want your sinuses cleared, make wild foraged sauce. For the…

Me and Marty discovered Shaggy Parasols and Puffballs at Ashridge NT. Below are some Puffballs They can be white or tan, but should always have no stem, be firm, and be solid white (WITH NO GILLS) when you cut them open. The Common Puffballs we picked (Lycoperdum perlatum) had a sweet little white ‘crumble topping’.…

How to get that hawthorn goodness down you and the kids, without the bland factor? I’ve been experimenting with Chinese recipes for Haw Balls. Chinese hawthorn is more tangy and strongly flavoured than our native Crataegus monogyna. so I’ve added elderberry oxymel and some spices to jazz things up a little. Will my son and…

Sloes…what can you do with them, besides steeping them in gin? As someone who does not enjoy the icky flavour of gin and tonic, nor the astringency of sloes, here was a challenge I could not back away from. Ray Mears and Prof Gordon Hillman experimented with curing sloes by mashing them up with a…