Foraging is the food-shopping for our times. It doesn't cost anything, it makes do with what is already there, and it places a value on what the land produces naturally.
By foraging, I don't mean standing in front of your fridge at midnight looking for something to eat – that's scavenging. I mean gathering the wild food out there in hedgerows and woods, along the banks of streams and under beech trees.
Restaurants and pubs are currently turning to responsible, professional foragers such as Miles Irving of Kent's Forager to supply their menus with seasonality, interest, and romance, not to mention a little more foodie-cred.
The Foragers in Hove (pictured) is a great example (see my recent review); others include The Railway Hotel in Faversham, Due South in Brighton, Foxhunter in Nant y Derry, The Goods Shed in Canterbury and The Gurnard's Head in Zennor, Cornwall. Now its up to us to get out there like the hunter-gatherers we used to be, and find a few more.
In the meantime, here's a quick glossary of some of the strange wild things that could turn up on your plate over late spring and early summer:
NETTLES - Earthy, grassy flavour. Use the tops to wilt into soups or purees.
HOGWEED - A hedgerow green, best lightly steamed.
HOP SHOOTS - Pruned hop shoots, prized in Belgium, are cooked like asparagus.
DANDELIONS - The bitter leaves work well in salads, mixed with milder leaves.
CHICKWEED - Soft, sweet, tender leaves that taste a bit like mache, great for the salad bowl.
HAWTHORN LEAVES - The young leaves have a nutty taste, good in salads and wild green sauces.
ELDERFLOWERS - Can be eaten straight from the branch or used for cordials, jellies and jams. Abundant in summer.
WILD FENNEL - Wonderful aniseed taste. Plentiful along coastal paths, and, not coincidentally, great with fish.
SEA LETTUCE - A broad, crumpled-looking seaweed, often served Japanese style with lemon soy.
LIME FLOWERS - When picked in full bloom and left to dry for two weeks, they make a lovely lime blossom tea.
MARSH SAMPHIRE - Succulent
summer annual found on salt marshes, it tastes like accidentally
over-salted asparagus and looks like something between cactus and
seaweed. Pickle it to serve with cured salmon as they do at The
Foragers, or drop it into a pot of boiling water, bring the water back
to the boil, then drain and toss in olive oil or butter and lemon juice
to serve with fish.
SEA PURSLANE - Same family as samphire. Best used as a salad vegetable or pickle, also good with lamb.
SEA BEET - Can be cooked just like spinach, although the thick leathery leaves are more succulent.
Dear Terry,
Is there not a danger here that people may go despoiling the hedgerows, wiping out some of the species you mention and perhaps infringing the Wildlife and Countryside Act or something?
Best wishes,
Mark
Posted by: Mark_IV | Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 01:10 PM
I agree Mark I think we have gone past the possibility of foraging in this country due to lack of space and limited countryside. It sounds very nice and romantic to forage through the headgerows but the reality is that if everyone took up this past time we would be putting squirrels and other such animals at risk who really need to forage. Please let us stay clsoe to super markets but with healthier produce.
Posted by: mario | Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 02:56 PM
Agree myself, about indiscriminate foraging. But the foragers used by the places I mention are all responsible professionals - okay, some of them are complete nutcases,too, but they know what they are doing out there. My call to arms was about foraging ourselves some more good eating houses dealing with local, seasonal and wild food sustainably harvested - it was not an invitation to go out into the fields ourselves, sorry I didn't make myself clear. But I do think that the more we are insulated from the reality of nature, the less we know or care about it; and the more we can connect back to the land and what grows from it naturally, the more we know and care about it. So I’m on the side of encouraging responsible foraging because it allows a new generation to discover food that is local, seasonal and wild - and because that knowledge and empathy could lead to more biodiversity and less monoculture.
Posted by: Terry | Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 03:52 PM
Ho-hum, we've been picking wild mushrooms and berries in Russia since time immemorial, and you've only just thought of the idea?
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Saturday, 17 May 2008 at 10:15 PM
Shut up pathetic bwitish weirdos - nice article!
Posted by: Jim | Sunday, 18 May 2008 at 12:52 PM
Got that clear then fools?! Stop being papanoid, stop being hyper aware of blightyperv legal statute and get into it!
Posted by: Jim | Sunday, 18 May 2008 at 12:54 PM