Foraging notes from the workshop held on the 11th & 12th of April 2022 – on a 4.4km walk in mixed terrain we found a minimum of 34 edible items these are listed below with a short description.
| Bedstraw (Hedge) | The young shoots and leaves of cleavers bedstraw are perfectly edible. Bedstraw is like a hairless version of cleavers. |
| Birch Sap | Birch sap may be consumed both fresh and naturally fermented. When fresh, it is a clear and uncoloured liquid, often slightly sweet with a slightly silky texture. After two to three days, the sap starts fermenting and the taste becomes more acidic. |
| Bitter Dock | Young leaves are edible fresh or cooked. These leaves do have a bitter taste, especially the older they become. Some people will cook leaves in at least one change of water in order to reduce the bitterness. They can also be dried for later use. |
| Bitter Lettuce | Related to a cultivated lettuce, far to bitter to enjoy, but edible. |
| Blackberry | Steep Leaves for tea, Eat the berries there are 365 different varieties of blackberry all edible. |
| Pine Needles | Pine Needles – Added to boiling water makes a great vitamin C packed hot drink. |
| Cherry Blossom | Eat in small amounts, flowers, leaves, twigs and bark contain cyanogenic compounds which breakdown when chewed or crushed to release cyanide. This reduces when cooked or fully dried. |
| Chives | Use as you would shop bought. |
| Cleavers | AKA ‘Sticky Willy & Goose Grass’ eat the young tips. It has a pea flavour. |
| Cowslip | Member of the primrose family. Has a sedative effect, make tea from the dried flowers, roots can be used to help ease a cough if made into tea. Flowers make an excellent country wine. |
| Dandelion | Dandelion is probably one of the most common and recognisable varieties of edible weeds and it’s also very versatile. The yellow petals from the dandelion flower and the leaves can be eaten in salad, and the leaves can also be cooked and eaten like spinach. Also coffee from the dried roots, salad from the leaves and wine from the flowers. |
| Dead Nettle / Archangel | Purple dead nettle is not only a wild edible green, but a highly nutritious superfood. The leaves are edible, with the purple tops being even a little sweet. Since the leaves are relatively fuzzy, they are better used as an herb garnish or mixed with other greens in recipes, rather than being the star of the show. |
| Garlic Mustard / Jack by the hedge | Garlic mustard is edible and should be harvested when young. The roots taste much like horseradish and the leaves are bitter when mature. The first year plant is a rosette, and its leaves can be harvested year-round. |
| Ladies Smock / Cuckoo Flower | Often known as ‘lady’s smock,’ the pretty lilac flowers open around the time the cuckoo starts to call. The flowers are usually veined with darker violet but in some areas pure white forms can be found. It is an important food plant for the caterpillars of the orange-tip and the green-veined white butterfly. |
| Herb Robert | Herb-robert was traditionally used as an antiseptic, as well as to treat stomach upset and nosebleeds. Its leaves are edible and used by some to make tea. They have also been used crushed and rubbed on the skin as an insect repellent. |
| Juniper | Juniper berries have a strong, bitter, slightly peppery flavour and gritty texture. Used as a botanical to flavour Gin. Fantastic flavouring for curing all types of meat. |
| Lime Tree | The leaves are edible when young and slightly translucent and can be used in salads or tea. |
| Lords and Ladies AKA Cuckoo-pint (poisonous/harmful) | Poisonous, but included here for the easy mistake of confusing the young leaves with Sorrel |
| Cow Parsley | All airborne parts of the cow parsley plant are edible, with a flavour sharper than garden chervil and described as grassy parsley with a hint of licorice or aniseed. The plant is invasive and spreads easily along roads, and the edges of woods and fields, so it is not cultivated but instead foraged in the wild from February to November. However extreme caution is advised when foraging cow parsley because it is easily confused with other species of the Apiaceae family, such as the deadly poisonous hemlock, hemlock water-dropwort and fool’s parsley. Because the plant’s flavour is considered unremarkable and the risk is great, foraging cow parsley in the wild is usually strongly discouraged. |
| Ribwort Plantain | The unopened flower heads can be eaten raw and have a taste reminiscent of raw button mushrooms. The leaves are edible, but are bitter and it is best to remove the thick veins. They can be dehydrated to create a stock. The seeds can be ground into a flour or cooked. |
| Rosehip | The seeds/berries of the rose family. Can be used to make a syrup high in vitamin C. Caution, hairs inside the berry can cause irritation, they are historically used by children as itching powder! |
| Sorrel (Wood) | Like a large clover, wood sorrel is plain green three lobed leaf with a red/white or pink flower. Tastes of Green Apple Skin. |
| Snails | Make sure to harvest them from vegetation that has not been treated with herbicides or pesticides. They need to be purged prior to eating. |
| Sorrel | You can eat the stalks, flowers, and leaves, raw or cooked. They have a fresh, lemony flavour that makes them perfect for mixed salads. In South Australia, wood sorrel is known as ‘soursob’ and is a common snack for children on their way to school. |
| Southern Daisy | AKA ‘Bruise wort’ fresh leaves will soothe wounds and help healing. Daisy. The ordinary daisy (Bellis perennis) that you see in lawns is an edible flower. Flower buds and young leaves can be added to salads or eaten in sandwiches. They can be used as an ingredient of soups, pickled as a susbstitute for capers and used to make wine. |
| Speedwell | Traditionally used as a substitute for tea, speedwell nearly went extinct in Victorian England as it was used to alleviate the symptoms of gout. |
| Spring Vetch | Vetch is a pretty good potherb, if you go for the younger leaves. It has a mild, grassy flavor that’s a lot like spinach, collards, or turnips. The unique seed pods are edible when they’re young – get them in early summer when they first come out, before they get too tough and stringy. |
| Stinging Nettle | The leaves are edible at any stage of the plants’ growth. Cooking or drying them denatures the sting. They are nice and tender earlier in the season when they’re young. If they have already grown flowers and seeds, they’re still perfectly edible – just pick the smaller leaves near the top |
| Holly Hock | Hollyhock is completely edible – leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, common in many cottage gardens. It’s a valuable medicinal plant too and can be use in natural homemade skin care. |
| Violet | Both the leaves and flowers, contain high amounts of vitamin C and vitamin A. The edible violet plant can be used to make syrups, brew teas, and in baked desserts. |
| Walnut | Crack open, eat if white, discard if brown/black. |
| Eldar Tree | Florets Used for tempura or for “champagne” Berries used for wine. |
| Lilac Tree | Use flowers to make a country wine. |
| Yarrow | A good insect repellant. Yarrow has a strong licorice-like scent and a mildly sweet flavor that’s similar to tarragon. This entire plant is edible, but its leaves and flowers are especially popular to use in recipes. They can be dried and used as a spice. But, fresh flowers and leaves are also great for salads, soups, and stews. |
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We had a fabulous morning with Tom on his foraging workshop. He is very knowledgeable, humorous and can relate to all ages and our ‘young adult’ children really enjoyed the workshop and banter. We all learnt something new and can’t wait for our next walk to see what we can find. The juniper tipple was an added bonus.
A lovely afternoon enjoying the beautiful countryside around Bonnes. Tom was very knowledgeable and friendly. Would recommend to anyone.