Natural Pathways Summer Forage

I visited Hannah Nicholls and Carol Hunt several times during my 2016 work sabbatical taking in an Autumn Forage a Kentish 1-2-1 and a Nature Awareness Day and when my wife said that she'd come on a forage I couldn't re-book quickly enough.

Hannah was running a family course so we went a little further on with Carol and got ourselves set up. Like the previous time it was noted that Carol does bring a lot of resources with her and there was definite foraging evidence around us from the wildlife.

Once we'd got a tea or coffee Carol kicked off with some general points about foraging and some plant information with a Buzzard occasionally gracing us with it's majestic presence. The course was running on a day that was due to get in excess of thirty degrees so Carol suggested a forage walk which was mostly under the tree canopy.

And she was off with copious information, alternative and Latin  names and information on plants that were edible, non-edible or useful in a non-food way.

Of the many plants and trees growing on the first part oft he walk the Yellow Pimpernel (Lysimachia nemorum) and Common Figwort (Schropularia nodosa).

The first collectable edible soon hoved in view, Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), and in good quantities. Here Carol is making it abundantly clear which plant she is referring to.

 

Folk pitched in after a quick nibble and collected a good quantity of it. The sorrel wasn't due to be used but Carol decided to add an impromptu extra sauce to the menu.

I often use my camera case to collect stuff I find on walks so I offered it up as a Wood sorrel receptacle for folk to put their handfuls in.

I noted in the Autumn forage blog that we didn't move very far in the opening part of the forage walk and again it proved to be so with plenty of notables within viewing distance of our base. Some folk might have thought we should have wandered further in the time but what's the point of sauntering past plants that are worth talking about?

But back to the forage. Just over the other side of the glade was a decent stand of nettles (Urtica dioica). They had flowered so the leaves aren't in an edible condition but the seeds are there for the taking. As I undrstood it the seeds were packed with energy but interestingly it's more the case that they are adrenal stimulaters which gives you a sort of flight or fight rush.

Often a season can throw up oddities, indeed I've read reports of several Autumn fungi appearing now in the UK and within the woods there were some Redcurrants starting to ripen.

We went down a narrow track and found some Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) and Cleavers (Galium aparine). The former was useful lesson as initially Carol pulled the sample in the left picture from nowhere, but she got folk to look closely and it was everywhere once you got your eye in.

I've tried Cleavers before and personally think that it is one of the more palatable countryside greens (see this spring tonic blog) but the fact that they are related to coffee and the seeds can make a basic drink has left me thinking that I must get round to trying it.

A little further down the track Carol spotted some Corn Mint (Mentha arvensis). It was useful seeing it as it is quite a light green colour and is downy and I'm sure I've seen it before  however seeing, touching, and smelling is invaluable with ID.

 

The forage had been a bespoke affair to this point but for the final observation we were led to a  Cherry tree that had fallen but was still alive. It was explained that every year it offers up Chicken-of-the-Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) and whilst they were past their best it had at least three separate examples for us to see. Personally I can't abide mushrooms apart from mushroom confectionery prepped with booze and chocolate.

 

And at this point we turned back to our cooking circle, it was our turn to do some work. Carol had explained that we were doing four different dishes (plus her extra Sorrel sauce) and that there would be a Middle Eastern theme to them. We divided up into groups and once sorted we chose which dish to do by it's complexity. I was with my wife  in the 'more complex' chicken dish group.

I'd been asked if I could be the fire monitor as Carol knew that I was knowledgeable enough to be trusted which was nice. Always happy to be in charge of fire.

And so we got our recipe sheets, or rather directions with ingredients listed because Carol was keen for us to feel our way through the dishes, judging by eye rather than a preset amount or weight.

She sat overseeing us and occasionally popped up with some information on ingredients, the above shot shows a talk about Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) which like the Corn Mint earlier I think I've seen out and about but never been able to nail the ID.

I then set my camera up on time lapse mode to get ahem, a flavour of what the preparation was like. This is the team my wife and I were in having a confabulation about the forthcoming chicken dish whilst I sorted the fire out...

This is the heavy Dutch oven that they asked me to get on the fire as it being done was key to the dish progression. Even though we'd positioned cooking shelves over the fire I elected to chuck it in the embers for a while to give it a boost.

 

And that set the tone for the period of time we were cooking. I really can't be more specific time wise than that to be honest because as we were beavering away in a woodland setting cooking over fire you just became absorbed in the moment. It also helped that the attendees were a decent bunch too. Note how good the fire looks in the right hand side picture! 

 

The fire became and stayed as a predictably busy focus for the activities with pots coming and going and the fire continually being maintained by yours truly. Slowly but surely the dishes came together. Here I'm starting to cook the seasoned chicken which will go with the cooked rice and the  Molokhia. 

Vegetable components came together too.

The falafels with Nettle seeds (that we gathered) Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea), Thistle (Cirsium sp.) and mint are ready to be cooked.

 

The nettle mushroom and chorizo crostini starters were ready to devour, well pick over for me because of the mushrooms. Once the offending articles were flicked out I still managed to condense two crostinis into one satisfying morsel. Hannah timed a visit over to us just right and enjoyed one too.

Then the falafels were ready and presented by the group that made them  for us all to get stuck into next.

With the chicken and the rice now cooked we added Tree mallow ((Malva arborea) seed pods ('cheeses') and cut Burdock stems to the rice.

 

This flavoured rice was for the stuffed Tree Mallow leaves with Ground Ivy, Wild Majoram and dried Hogweed seeds (Heracleum sphondylium).

 

The Mallow leaf Molokhia was cooked and served up in a bowl with the chicken and rice alongside it. Personally I think this was the best presented dish but of course I'm biased...But correct.

And finally onto the delicious Rose petal Panacotta with fresh red fruit coulis which included  Rose petals, Raspberries, Strawberries and Rose petal Honey. Interestingly due to a dietary need the diary element was replaced with Coconut milk and didn't suffer for the change, in fact it may make it a bit more achievable on a bushcraft camp as coconut milk doesn't need chilling.

Just before we hit the starters my wife gave me a nudge and reminded me that I had a camera bag full of Wood Sorrel. I handed it to Carol who beavered away to blend leaf and sugar in a mortar and pestle. The bespoke extra was rather pesto like in appearance but the contrasting flavours made it a real sweet and sour treat. 

Carol finished up taking some folk through some of her books. My wife and I had to make a move so we did a bit of a final wash up and I bid Carol and Hannah farewell. Carol had a slightly bigger crowd than last time but marshalled us all with a quiet confidence, another course for beginner and not so newbie to take something away from.

Forage London 1-2-1 session

I've had attending a foraging day with Forage London  on my radar for a while, a couple of years or so to be precise. So why the wait? Well I have been planning stuff for this one-off sabbatical  for some time, and there was the option of weekday forage walks so I put this idea on the back burner. It has panned out that I had arranged a 1-2-1 forage with John Rentsen (aka Forage London).

Part of the reason for sorting a 1-2-1 was that I'd asked him if during a forage we could look at testing my umbellifer knowledge, and John suggested a London site but not within the city but a forest within the M25 ring. Funnily enough I am currently working through Paul Kirtley's tree and plant ID online masterclass and during one module umbellifers came up, and Paul released a  podcast that he made John at the same time. 

We had a chat on the phone, arranged the finer detail and met in a secluded and slightly off the beaten track car park ready to start, but not before getting a brew in first!  It was only just over a week ago that I attended a cracking foraging day in Wiltshire so I was raring to go.

John had said that there would be some umbellifer action without even leaving the car park-he was right.

We looked at species that I wasn't overly familiar with near were I live, and some that I was seeing daily...

We looked at all aspects of a plant's structure from the roots...

To the leaf patterns and stem structure...

And the textures, hairiness, scent, height and, well everything that can distinguish between a plant that is edible and a plant that is edible only the once if you get my drift.

It wasn't all apiaceae talk though...We covered a lot of other stuff that John/ I/ we found along the way. apart from my one requested area we just hunted high and low for plants and trees of interest.

Onto another site with different habitat and oh look, what do you know, we are back to talking about umbellifers! We are examining a small specimen in the above picture but the one to John's left was in a small ditch and around five feet tall and not far off the same spread. A little while later we found a 'forest' of this particular plant which was impressive to say the least.

Every now and then John would break out an ID book to look up and show me similar species, extra detail and more botanical descriptions of plants he'd just told me about. He said that he sees familiar plants as friends and doesn't need to know every intimate detail about them...As an example you know Bill, he's 6' 2", wears too much aftershave, works in IT and likes cider...you just know it's Bill, but if someone said "Does he like Status Quo?" you'd have to go and find out. 

I also stumbled upon a really impressive area of Common Sorrel and John said that he'd never heard anyone so excited at finding some. I'd only tried some the week before so it was still a novelty. It did dawn on me later that getting to feel, touch, rub, see and taste the leaf meant that it jumped out at me, a salient lesson that an individual has to get out and about. The area also had some decent ponds which created it's own little discussion sub- section. The picture above right shows two fairly similar plants with differing edible qualities.

And to our final exploration  was in and out of  a forest margin and yet another new plant for me plus more information about some of the plants I was familiar with too. Looking, using our senses, referencing and then rinse and repeat. John was clearly enjoying himself, visiting friends that live a little far away you might say.

We'd run over time but it had been a walk where John was the lead coming at it from a foraging and cooking angle, and I was lapping it all up coming at it from a hobbyist bushcrafter with foraging ambitions and I occasionally chipped in some bushcrafty uses for stuff. I thought we dovetailed rather nicely. I was given an impromptu umbellifer test at the end and this is me sorting through a small pile of leafy stalky plant matter and trying to analyse it with the few to explaining what it all was.

And this is me having got them all correct with key identifying features offered verbally, including a plant that I don't often get locally. Cracking the ID features of some of the main players in such a potentially deadly family really topped off a superb forage...You'd think I might of looked a bit happier in the picture though...

And he's got a book out in the not too distant future!