Foraging from spectacular coastlines to country bounds, we hope you enjoy our eight best places to discover Britain’s wild larder.
1. Fat Hen, Cornwall
Fat Hen – Image credit Tom Young
Voted one of the top 50 cookery schools in the UK by The National Cookery School Guide, professional forager, ecologist and cook, Caroline Davey runs cookery courses that celebrate seasonal produce and the staggeringly beautiful expanses of West Cornwall. There’s a fantastic range to choose from including gourmet wild food weekends, vegan foraging, seaweed discovery days, and hook, cook and catch fishing feasts. Or combine a love for cycling with sustainable harvesting on a Wild Food Cycling Day.
2. Foraging in Frome
Explore hidden Somerset idylls with Robin Harford, a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher, and wild food educator. Guests will harvest a bounty of edible flora around beautiful Frome before returning to the kitchen to enjoy delicious dishes created by world-class chefs. London, Devon, Sussex and Dorset courses also available. From £50 per person.
3. The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny
The Angel Hotel
Enjoy an overnight foraging break at The Angel Hotel nestled near the Brecon Beacons. Guests will enjoy a three-hour guided foraging tour, in collaboration with the Brecon Beacons Foraging Company, and learn the fundamentals of wild plant identification. Then devise delicious dishes and drinks from the array of products found moments from the hotel’s front door.
From £243 based on two people sharing, includes accommodation, breakfast, foraging experience and a 3-course meal.
4. Llys Meddyg, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokshire – Ian Cylkowski
This cosy hostelry in Newport, a stone’s throw from the Nevern estuary and located within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, runs day seashore and country foraging courses where guests can visit breathtaking local beaches, rivers, woods and mountain passes. Discover seasonal gems, go picking in the hedgerows, gather your finds and then prepare a feast of foraged goodies.
Day course £75. £25 for children aged 12-16.
5. Foraging Fortnight, Scotland
Zeki Basan
The inaugural Foraging Fortnight celebrates Scotland’s bounty of wild food, flavours and traditions. From wild food feasts and shore walks to foraging treks, fireside evenings and festivals, events will take place across Fife, Moray, Lanarkshire, Orkney and the Forth Valley and Lomond from 31 August to 15 September. In Orkney, a series of Foraging Fortnight events are taking place as part of Orkney International Science Festival from 5 – 11 September, with foraging stars Zeki Basan and Anna Canning leading foraging walks and talks about areas our ancestors foraged 5,000 years ago.
6. Forest Side, Lake District
Forest Side – Image credit Jenny Heyworth Photography
Head out to the wilds and wonders of the Lake District with Forest Side’s head chef Kevin Tickle. Ex head forager at Simon Rogan’s acclaimed L’Enclume restaurant, Kevin has an encyclopedic knowledge and life-long passion for sourcing edible produce direct from the fields, fell tops, coast and woodland of the Cumbrian landscape. Set in the countryside of Wordsworth’s beloved Grasmere, Forest Side has 20 beautiful contemporary bedrooms and provides the ideal foodie escape in the Lakes. Foraging breaks booked by request.
7. St Michael’s Mount
Foraging on St Michael’s Mount
Take a walk along this iconic Cornish causeway to St Michael’s Mount with wild food expert Emma Gunn and forage for a multitude of seaweeds including sea lettuce, Japanese wireweed, dabberlocks, sugar kelp, dulse, and bladderwrack. On the Mount, guests will search for native wild berries, sorrel, nettles, silverweed, daisies, dandelions, cleavers, dock, plantain, three cornered leek, and honeysuckle, to name a few, and finish the day with a delicious picnic, created by the St Michael’s Mount Head Chef Greg Milne. Suitable for ages eight and up. £30. 15 September and 29 September. Dates for 2020 to be confirmed.
8. Hambleton Hall
Hambleton Hall
Luxury hotel Hambleton Hall in Rutland hosts its mushroom hunt every autumn in the private woodland of Burley Wood. Mycologist Paul Nichol is on hand to identify the myriad fungi and the day is topped off with a three-course lunch at the hotel. A stunning 17-bedroom sanctuary, Hambleton Hall boasts a Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking Rutland Water, one of the most important wildfowl sanctuaries in the UK. £90pp. 5 October. 2020 dates to be confirmed.
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