The Forager Within

I teach foraging to connect you to nature and improve physical and mental health in the process. Public and private courses available.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Here’s how to make my wild mushroom pâté - a simple recipe with no soy sauce or miso paste, just the mushrooms and butter beans, seasoned with some thyme, nutritional yeast and salt.

Not only delicious, but incredibly healthy too!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

I stumbled upon The Miller mushroom (Clitopilus prunulus) and suddenly was faced with a beautiful Penny Bun / Porcini (Boletus edulis).

And it reminded me of the link they have and how The Miller is often a good “tell” that there may be Penny Buns in the area too!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Found some plums in the wild, enjoyed some fresh but thought I’d make “prunes” from the rest!

Great way to preserve them and use as a healthy snack or in baking.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

I was running a corporate event down south this week and it was a delight to find a Hazel tree bursting with ripe hazelnuts! Here I share the best way to find and identify them, and how you can also harvest and eat them slightly underripe before the squirrels claim them!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

How to find, identify and use Walnuts!

Did you know we have walnuts growing jn the UK? Often in plain sight in towns, village greens, parks, grounds of stately homes and gardens.

Here I cover how to find, identify and use them!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

I made COFFEE from Cleavers and CHOCOLATE from Linden fruits!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Wild food heaven in the hedgerows!

It always amazes me how much free food is growing in our hedgerows. Sometimes you can find quite a few edible goodies just walking a very short distance! And all this even during a drought!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Turn Blackberries into THIS - easy Fruit Leather!

Here I show you how to turn the glut of Blackberries we are enjoying here in the UK into a delicious fruit leather - nature’s natural chewy sweets!

Fruit leathers keep for months (if not longer) if stored well.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

How to eat Nettle seeds straight from the plant - without getting stung in the mouth!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

It was a pleasure to host PenLife Associates on Friday for a forage and lunch event for their team building day.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Wild Gooseberries are around from July to September, they are quite common in hedgerows but can be hard to spot. There are no toxic lookalikes.

I harvest all mine in July and August - I like to eat some raw and they are good for jams and desserts such as gooseberry fool!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Spotted some Rock Samphire on holiday recently and it reminded me of a great story about Rock Samphire which I share here in this video. The story serves as a reminder of how knowing about plants can often come in handy in ways you can never know or predict!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Wild strawberries are tiny but delicious- an intense strawberry flavour so much stronger than cultivated ones.

What’s less known is that you can eat the leaves too, and they are remarkably healthy - the leaves even contain more polyphenol antioxidants than the fruits themselves.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

July is often cited as a lean month in the wild food foraging world, but in reality it would be more accurate to say “slightly less abundant” than spring and autumn.

The point is, July is still an incredibly abundant month with some of my favourite wild edibles!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

It’s Wild Cherry season! Cherries are very good for you, containing anthocyanins which are powerful antioxidants.

So when cherries are in season, it’s so nice be able to eat them fresh from the tree for a few weeks, given the cost of a punnet from a supermarket!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

The Linden Tree and how to make Linden Tea - a lovely herbal tea, great for calming the nervous system and promoting better sleep.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Nothing to do with foraging - just a love of nature. This video is for fellow nature geeks. Is it just me that finds this kind of stuff interesting!?

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

This is Hemlock (deadly toxic) right next to Cow Parsley (safe to eat) with their leaves side by side and blending into one, showing how care is needed to ensure you pick and harvest safely with any wild plants.

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

Hemlock Water Dropwort Part 2!

[The Forager Within @ForagerWithin]

One of the UK’s most toxic plants - here’s how to identify Hemlock Water Dropwort!