Go foraging

“It took me years to feel ready to forage alone. Honestly, I was petrified. Picking and eating something that hadn’t come from a supermarket felt insane. Thrilling—but terrifying. I kept reading foraging books, slowly learning to recognise plants. But eating one? That felt like a big leap. Eventually, I decided it was time. I chose two foolproof plants: Cleavers (Sticky Willy), easy to identify because it’s sticky Garlic Mustard, which smells like garlic I sautéed them with shop-bought mushrooms (I still don’t forage mushrooms!) and served it all on toast. I was so nervous I spent the rest of the day with a headache, convinced I was going to die. I didn’t. So I kept going.”

“I remember seeing a Facebook post on my cottage lake’s Facebook group talking about how one woman just went out into the woods and harvested an entire meal just from edible plants. This was probably about 12 years ago now, and my 25 year old brain was blown away by the fact that you could just go and -eat the forest- (sort of) So I looked up foraging classes, and the next week I was out in the woods 4 hours from home with a group of elderly women walking through the forest learning about native species, how to forage sustainably, what the best times of year are for foraging, etc. afterwards we all went back to the main woman’s house and she made us the most incredible pesto from wild leeks with some sautéed fiddleheads with a big glass of birch sap to wash it all down. It was only a one day class, but damn if that wasn’t one of the coolest days I’d had so far in my life”