I did just that recently with a day out in the wild...
Well I say into the wild, but it started out as more of a stroll around a large field, who knew there would be so many edible plants right under our feet,

Mike our guide, gave a brief introduction and the group had to introduce ourselves and reveal the last thing we’d foraged.
For some that was blackberries in childhood, for others elderberries, while for me it’s always bay leaves or rosemary picked on the way home when needed for a particular dish.

But today’s foraging wasn’t for the normal!

1st Rule of Foraging, don’t eat anything unless you are 100% sure of what it is!

Mike our guide said “we should be as familiar with what we want to pick and eat as we would be with a pint of milk in the supermarket.”

Bearing that in mind let’s go, also I couldn’t record everything, so this is just a snapshot.

Dandelions

One I’m sure we are all super familiar with. They are a diuretic and make you wee! You can eat the flowers and the leaves, although they may be a bit bitter.

One of our group had battered the heads and deep fried them. I saw the picture, they looked great. Although he did warn that the bud under the flower head wasn’t that nice. But Mike told us you could pickle them in vinegar and they were a bit like capers.

Dandelion leaves are packed with vitamin K2, for your blood, bones and cells and a phytochemical called lutein and zeaxanthin really good for your sight.Check them out here if you want to know more.

You can eat daisies! But there weren’t many around so we left them alone.

Yarrow

They’re good for treating small wounds like cuts and grazes. It’s also used to treat fevers and muscular complaints. But it’s bad for pregnant women, as we later learnt a lot of the wilds plants are.

We rubbed it in our hands and had a smell, then tasted it. It was surprisingly good. They are quite hardy plants and have a white flower and beautiful green leaves in a normal English summer!

Wild carrot

These were growing on the side of the road and looked very familiar.

If you go down to the root you’ll find a little carrot! But unless you have permission from the landowner, you’re not allowed to dig up roots, only forage for leaves and flowers. Again pregnant ladies should avoid them.

The flower had a name very similar to umbrella, umbrelafur flower maybe?
Anyway NEVER pick and eat wild carrot plants unless you know what you’re doing, as some are very poisonous.

They’re sometimes called Queen Ann’s Lace. Mike said there was a story about her cutting her finger and blood dripping, so I looked it up:

Queen Anne’s lace is said to have been named after Queen Anne of England, who was an expert lace maker. Legend has it that when pricked with a needle, a single drop of blood fell from her finger onto the lace, leaving the dark purple floret found in the flower’s centre. From www.gardeningknowhow.com

Stinging Nettles

Another very familiar pant. Good for numerous complaints, arthritis, it’s anti – inflammatory, tennis elbow, although there was a lot of debate about it not working at all for tennis elbow!

Mike seemed to have asbestos fingers when picking them, until we asked if they stung, at which point they did! Picking them from underneath the leaves seems to avoid stinging. Pick the top sprout to eat as it’s the nicest and there’s always lots of them, so why not? Small plants are also the tastiest.

They tasted really good, I must say I was a bit apprehensive about putting them in my mouth straight from the ground, but they had been rubbed and were fine. More about how good they were to eat later.

Nettles are also great for Vitamin K and, Lutein and Zeaxanthin plus they’re also great for flavonoids (you know it’s what make green tea good for you). Check them out here

Mugwort

Wort means worthy, so worthy of going in a mug. It used to be used to make beer. Now people mostly make tea with it.
It helps menstruation and can be highly abortive so once again a no no for pregnant women.
If you drink the tea before bed it will give you lucid trippy dreams. It’s closely related to the absinthe plant.
It had quite a strong taste. Mike recommended it as an ingredient in stuffing, which I could totally see.

And then we left the field for the ‘wilds’ of the park

Pineapple weed

This was picked from the side of the road. They like to grow on disturbed ground.
I couldn’t get over the fact that those little buds taste just like pineapples. Amazing!

Elderberries

They are good for your immune system. Lots of people make elderberry cordial with them.

Mikes tip was to make a balsamic like vinegar with them by infusing the berries in vinegar, drain, add sugar and heat.
Anyway, I found a great recipe from < that’s better than my vague description, which I’m definitely going to try.

Elder trees are protected by the Elder Mother Spirit, so don't cut them down without asking for permission, otherwise you don’t know what might happen.

Elderberries are great for quercetin which may block the growth of cancer cells, suppress the development of tumours and help protect against allergies, plus they’re also good for flavonoids.Check them out here if you want to see more.

Blackberries

Great for making blackberry whisky, that was a new one to me, and blackberry vodka! Oh, and just eating and pies and crumbles, you know.
Never think you shouldn’t eat blackberries because there won’t be any left for everyone else. Apparently, there’s always so many that even the birds can’t finish them. You’ve been told 😊
Blackberries have also got some flavonoids but not as much as the other foraged foods we found. See them here

St John’s Wort

Has been used for 100’s of years as an herbal remedy. We weren’t allowed to taste it only smell it!

And finally

This is part of the mint family and has a very mild mint flavour.
All of the species of mint in the United Kingdom are edible, there are no poisonous varieties!

 

And so, onto base camp

And so, onto basecamp where Nigel (on the left) had set up a table for us, ready to try our hand at making nettle pesto. But first we had a cup of ground ivy and dandelion tea, delicious.

Then Mike (on the right) prepared some tasty morsels for us, Kimchi on crackers, I can’t recall what else was on them, and another one of sauerkraut with beetroot matchsticks and camomile flowers. Anyway, both were absolutely fab, especially as I’m not a great fan of either usually.

While he did that we got busy chopping blanched nettles and garlic, squeezing lemons and grating cheese. Then we made our own bowl of pesto, adding olive oil and sunflower seeds, then choosing the prepared ingredients to our taste.

OMG, I can’t explain how good it was. It’s got me thinking I’m going to make some spinach pesto with the baby salad leaves I’ve got that have gone past their best for a salad.

Next up was nettle in tempura batter, with sweet chilli and kimchi mayo. Again, absolutely fabulous, we couldn’t get enough of them!

Then sadly it was time to leave. Everyone agreed it had been a great day and we were all looking forward to going out foraging ourselves.


I visited School of the Wild in Stanmer Park Brighton.