Happy New Year!

Wild Food Diary: 1st January 2013

Happy New Year and welcome to the first entry in Woodland Ways Wild Food Diaries, over the course of the year we will be posting almost daily blogs to introduce you to the wealth of wild food to be found in our countryside. Over the coming months we will give you preparation ideas, recipes, identification tips and a whole host of other information to tap into our wild larder.

January may seem an odd time to launch this, as you may think that there will be little foraging to be had at this time of year. Although this is true to a certain extent, the fact that there is less around means that it is easier for the novice forager to learn to identify what is available without masses of other plants confusing the issue. As we will see over the coming weeks, it is surprising how much is still out there and on a lovely sunny day like today what better way is there to blow away the cobwebs and shake off the hangover than spending an hour or two walking the hedgerows.

This time of year is also a good time of year to look for the old dead growth of last year’s harvest. The seeds of many plants will fall to ground around the parent plant and so you can use the easily visable dead stems to predict where you will be likely to find stuff when it is in season, so now is a great time to plan out your foraging calendar for the year. So as well as posting information on what is growing now we will also show how to identify the plants at this stage of their life cycle as well.

As well as the vegetable component we will also be looking at the abundance of wild game, fish, shellfish etc. that we have available. We will let you know what’s available when and give you tips on how to prepare and cook it. From simple rustic recipes that you can cook over a campfire to top Michelin Star tips.

Kev Palmer

Senior Instructor