Today’s menu was Jack By The Hedge Pesto, Nettle Falafels & Gorse Jelly as we traversed woodland, water meadow, towpath and riverside. As usual, lovely people, fantastic time! Two people came all the way from Oxford, which was great for my ego…we had 7 adults and one kid. I collected all the greens fresh and…

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…

Found some more Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum) down at my Mums in Surrey. There’s loads of it there! Under the trees in the park, around the lake, up Dog Poo Walk… I picked some from the nice clean park, as far away from the path as possible to avoid dog poo! Got it home and…

On me and Mart’s walk at Collidge Lake Nature Reserve, Tring, we found that holy grail of spring foraging, Wild Garlic! (Allium ursinum)… This is a great and really garlicky-tasting spring edible. Look for it under deciduous woodlands before the tree leaves come out. Pick the leaves and roll around a small piece of soft…

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.