I was out looking at venues for our Seashore forage today and I think I’ve found a good spot! I even found a little treat for tea! Cooked in 5 minutes in a covered pan with butter, shallots, lemon, garlic and home made dandelion wine. Topped with parsley from the garden.
I received confirmation this week that my membership to the Association of Foragers has been approved. They have professional Principles of Practice which all members follow.
Oyster mushrooms!
We were out shopping today and spotted these on a country road. They added a great side dish to our dinner tonight.
Christine introduced me to foraging in 2013 when she first took me out on a date to look for mushrooms. She had foraged for mushrooms with her father for many years so I felt safe that she knew which ones we could eat. I was amazed that such good food could just be sitting there – unrecognised and untasted by the vast majority of people that walked by them each day.
I have been in Scouting since I was 8 years old so I can make fire, build shelters, navigate, administer first aid and generally survive in the wild – but I didn’t know how to identify wild foods beyond blackberries and raspberries! Mushrooms are only in season for a few months so we decided that we needed to extend our knowledge so that we could be foraging all year round.
Our first mushroom forage together ignited our shared interest – IN A BIG WAY! Nearly five years on and we are engaged to be married and have given up our full time jobs in teaching and banking.
We have attended many foraging courses across the UK so that we learn more about the plants, seaweeds and mushrooms. We have spent many, many fantastic days out in the countryside, from the south coast of England to the Highlands of Scotland, developing our knowledge and experience.
We quickly realised that identifying and finding plants is only the first stage of foraging. It became essential to learn how to use what we had found. As a result we have been trying out methods for preparing, seasoning, cooking and storing the foods we have foraged. A tough job but someone has to do it!
As we develop our website we’ll add articles showing recipes, plant identification and techniques for harvesting foraged plants which we hope you’ll find helpful.