Latest features Foraging fun

Date Published:

19/02/2008

Foraging for food is a good way to teach your children about nature's goodness as well as finding something tasty for dinner. Foraging enthusiast Fergus Drennan shares his top tips for re-engaging with Mother Earth

Half-term is one of those wonderful pregnant pauses that, from a child’s perspective, intoxicates with its coming promise of unknown possibilities and spontaneous adventures. In other words, it’s the time when real and natural learning can begin. This is wild, full-bodied learning, engaging and connecting with the natural world.

In a world where we throw away a third of all the food we buy - 6.7 million tonnes at the last count here in the UK, where our beautiful places are disappearing to make room for the landfills, the miserable excuse that we didn't know won’t wash with future generations.

And yet, will they know better? To save something it must first be valued; in order to be valued it must first be known; in order to be fully known it must be experienced.

This time last year I picked wild garlic with a four year old. He played hide-and-seek among the garlic leaves, eating them until he was red in the face. He had a wonderful day and fully connected with the wild.

Where to look

Good places to look include overgrown gardens and alleyways, coastal habitats and on the edges of public footpaths and bridleways. If you're foraging on private land you'll need to get the landowner's permission beforehand.

Salad leaves

Chickweed, hairy bittercress, wintercress, alexanders, sea purslane, garlic mustard, dandelion, charlock

Roots

Burdock, evening primrose, alexanders, reed mace

Seaweeds

Kelp species and wrack species

Flowers

Gorse, quince and dwarf quince

Gathering wild food is inherently dangerous. If you don't know what you're picking it is sensible to go out with someone who knows what they're doing and can confidently identify wild plants and fungi. But don't forget, learning is part of the fun, honing your skills to the extent that most risk is eliminated. Wild garlic, for instance, is delicious but you have to be careful not to pick the leaves of dog's mercury or lords and ladies - both toxic, that can be found growing among it.

Good guides

Other than going out with an expert, beginners should either consult a book and try to familiarise themselves with wild plants (Wild Food for Free by Jonathan Hilton is a good beginners' guide) or, roaming more freely, simply gather samples of plants and place them in a small sealable bag. These can then be labelled with a description of where it was found. Then, either at the location or after returning home, these can be properly identified with a good guide to wild plants.

Roger Phillips' Wild Flowers of Britain will help you to make positive identifications with both leaf or flower samples. Once identified, you should consult a wild food book for cooking tips and safety information. The web is also a good resource. Try visiting Plants for a Future and explore the information on their database.

Tips for using wild garlic