"A Wilderness Foraging Experience with the Little Foragers Kitchen" by Lindsay McGowan
12 September 2024
In July this year, Vicky Manning from the Little Foragers Kitchen came to our village hall to host a day of foraging for wild food, medicine and wild crafting materials. Nine other Kilchrenan locals joined me as Vicky took us through a wonderful day of wild plants, ending with a delicious lunch cooked over an open fire.
Foraging Rules
Shortly after meeting everyone outside the village hall at 10am, Vicky kept us right with what is and isn’t allowed in the UK. We are allowed to take, for our own consumption, flowers, fruits, foliage, and fungi but we are not allowed to dig up any roots without the landowner’s permission. This is to guard against destruction of sites of special scientific interest and the negative impact on particular ecosystems.
She also reminded us that if there is just a small community of a particular plant that you want to take, it is best to leave it to establish itself and try to find a more abundant source. Taking a little from here and there is better than stripping a plant or tree bare!
Lastly, we discussed how, in Scotland, we are very fortunate that we have the right to roam across most areas of land but that we should also use our common sense! The three places where we are not allowed to roam are private gardens, school property and agricultural land.
https://www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot/act-and-access-code
What we saw and foraged
So much! We started our foraging walk right outside the Village Hall in the gardens at the back and I think we were all surprised by the abundance of edible plants right in front of us.
Nettles
Vicky explained how both the leaves and seeds are edible, with the leaves supporting the kidneys and flushing out toxins from the body. They can be used as a spinach substitute and blanching or crushing them takes away the sting! The seeds are an ‘adaptogen’, which is something that normalises or stablises a body system. Vicky advised simply taking a teaspoon or up to a tablespoon of fresh seeds at bedtime.
Common Hogweed
We also found hogweed, a contentious topic of conversation. Interestingly, common hogweed has edible young leaf shoots, unopened flower buds and seeds that taste like cardamon. Vicky taught us how not to confuse Common Hogweed with Giant Hogweed, since even lightly brushing against Giant Hogweed can cause terrible blistering.
Common Sorrel
We also found Sorrel behind the hall and discovered it has edible leaves and stems, with a sharp and lemony taste. Vicky explained where this taste comes from and also why you shouldn’t eat vast quantities of this plant due to large amounts of oxalic acid causing kidney stones.
Self Heal
Such a useful plant! Vicky taught us how to recognise this member of the Mint family with a flavour similar to romaine lettuce and explained how to make tea with it. With its antibacterial and antioxidant properties and its use in many all-purpose ointments and lotions to soothe and speed the healing of wounds and burns or minor irritations, it seems there is nothing Self-Heal can’t… well… heal!
After leaving the hall we headed towards the woods around the coffin route and found many more interesting plants including:
Rosebay Willowherb, with young leaf shoots taste a little like Asparagus and stems that can be used as for vegetables such as aubergines and large mushrooms, infusing the food with a smoked tea flavour.
Roses, which Vicky explained were all edible! We gathered some highly fragranced blossoms for our cake later, but we could also have made them into syrups, jams, harissa paste, cordials and lemonades and infused in sugar to use for bakes. Vicky showed us how to leave a few petals on the head so that pollinators are still attracted to the flower so that rose hips can be collect later in the year.
Angelica, which looked similar to Hogweed but Vicky showed us how to distinguish between the two and also told us how to use the seeds to add a bitter orange flavour to baking.
Fungi, from Russulas to Milk Caps to Boletes we discussed all things mushrooms, including how to gain confidence regarding safe identification!
On our walk back to the hall for lunch we saw and discussed many more edible plants including Thistles, Meadow Vetchling, Sneezewort, Beech, Dandelion, Brambles, Woodavens, Cow Parsley, Br Dock, Rowan, Herb Robert, Meadowsweet, Valerian and much, much more!
Vicky saved the best for last with a delicious venison stew prepared over a fire including lots of the plants we had foraged during the day. Food, company and weather was fantastic!
If you want to learn more about foraging in our local area, I would definitely recommend a Wilderness Day foraging with Vicky at The Little Foragers Kitchen! You can get in touch with her through her website The Little Foragers Kitchen
