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As we descend into winter, there are gradually less and less wild plants you can find to eat. However, this doesn’t mean that nature’s larder is totally empty. Here are 5 things you can forage for in December:
Robin Harford's Eatweeds Cookbook just arrived in the post. It's a fab wild food recipe book for foraging enthusiasts.  Robin Harford is the best forager I know. I've learned more from him about wild plants in an hour than I have with anyone else I care to think of. He really knows his stuff.
In his brand new 150 page wild food cookbook, Robin covers 39 plants with over 80 simple and easy to prepare recipes you can create in your kitchen. [Click the Read More link to see more] It's autumn. We're about to embark on the Spirit of Nature, our latest workshop.  It's a Sunday morning in late autumn. The weather is clear and bright. We gather at a new indoors venue in the dip between Newtimber Hill and Devil's Dyke, for the Spirit of Nature session. There are 20 of us.
By popular demand, Robert is running this shamanic journey class, but he has reservations. "The techniques I'm about to show you come from the Lipan Apache tradition, handed down by Grandfather (Stalking Wolf). "I usually teach this class as part of a longer course that includes practical skills, to make it more grounded," he says. But due to popular demand, he's teaching it for us anyway. [Click the Read More link to see more] Last weekend I went on a Wild Medicine, Wild Food walk with ethnobotanist and leading UK forager, Robin Harford, and top medical herbalist Alex Laird. The theme from the day was clear: nature is designed to help us thrive and function. Here's what I learned about the wild plants we came across: what they're good for and how to eat them:  1. Dandelion is good for warts
Dandelion leaf is loaded with beneficial antioxidants that produce a range of positive effects for human health, including protection for the cardiovascular system. "Twenty times the antioxidants than any green leaf you get in a supermarket," says Alex. The latex in the leaves (the white juice that oozes out when you break one off) is antiviral, and good for getting rid of warts. [Click the Read More link to see more] Do you know what these wild UK berries are, and would you eat them? At Our Edible Landscape, the most recent School of the Wild event, facilitator Milly set us the Wild Berry Challenge, so we're putting the challenge to you. Identify the berries below, and decide if you'd eat them. There are no prizes but next time you're out for a walk, you might be able to identify a few more wild foods, and a few more not to eat! (All the berries below had been foraged from an area around the site that morning, scroll down/click read more for the answers... if you need them!) [Click the Read More link to see more]
 Fresh green stinging nettle seeds growing on the plant Nettles are a superfood, and nettle seeds can help with stress. Here's how to use them, or you could find out more at one our of outdoor team building programmes. It's September and we're at our workshop on Wild Food and Medicine, led by bushcraft and woodcraft teacher Jonathon Huet.
We're a large group, and as we wander along the forest paths, Jonathon points out plants that are good to eat or can be used as medicine, like chickweed, elderberries and the like. I'm at the back, chatting to herbalist Lucinda Warner who tells me that nettle seeds are good for adrenal stress. I'm keen to hear more, as I've been feeling pretty stressed out lately... [Click the Read More link to see more]  Cranesbill, sorrel, hawthorn, sloes, yarrow, wild marjoram Today we meet round the fire, feeling the wind, and the few drops of rain on our faces. It's our time to reflect, and to open the senses to what's around us.
We talk about autumn, the time of gathering, and how we feel about the season. The light is changing, the air feels different. Winter is coming. Some are looking forward to getting cosy indoors. Some need to stay busy to not be overwhelmed by the dark days. The exercise we're given is to go off into the wood and to awaken the senses: sight, touch, smell, taste... [Click the Read More link to see more] |
Author & CuratorNigel Berman is the founder of School of the Wild. |
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