Eat Local - Foraging and Wild Food Taster Course Sun 10/08 Christleton, Chester

I am always encouraging people to look at what is growing around them, in your local towns and villages. This course is a foray around the picturesque village of Christleton in Chester where I live. The walk will take in all my local foraging spots and will demonstrate a wide range of grassland, arable and canalside species of edible and medicinal plant, and will demonstrate how much there is within just a small area. The aim of the course is to instill some basic plant ID skills and the means to help you identify further plants yourself, and encourage you to explore your own local bounty. I'd expect to identify 30-40 medicinal and edible species on this walk, and a few poisonous ones to watch out for.

Meeting outside the parish hall in the heart of the village, the Course will take approximately 2-3 hours, and there is an excellent pub (The Ring O' Bells) in Christleton if you wish to get a drink afterwards (they book up for lunches so if you are planning on eating after i'd recommend booking a table.)
Any questions or special requests please ask.

Booking is in advance by Eventbrite. Link below

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eat-local-foraging-and-wild-food-taster-course-tickets-12510686801

Foraging and Wild Food Taster Course - Chester Sunday August 3rd 12:00

Course Tickets £8 adult £6 child. Email the below address to be added to the guest list and you will be given further details by email before the day, payment can be made in cash on the day.

Edenwildfood@gmail.com

This is an introduction to how to identify some of the edible wild plants that grow all around us. We will mainly be walking through the Meadows in Chester and up along the river where I will show you how to identify edible and medicinal plants, and give you some basic tips on how to use them as food or medicine. I will also point out poisonous look alikes and discuss responsible foraging. The course will last approx 90mins to 2hours, dress for the weather but please wear sensible shoes, you're welcome to take photos and make notes, dogs are welcome but must be kept under control. Any questions please ask.

Bilberry - The Forgotten Fruit

With the popularity of what I find to be mushy, bland, tasteless blueberries in the supermarket, its surprising so few people know about the Bilberry. The Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) also know as Blaeberry, Whortleberry, Wimberry, and European Blueberry is in every way superior to its cultivated namesake except in size.

The smaller, more intensely flavoured berries only grow on acid soils, on moors, heaths and some hilly woodland. This may explain why so few people are aware of them, as they aren't as abundant in the UK as they are in Sweden, where they cover up to 20% of the country.

Below is a link to the BRC Distribution map, showing the occurrence of Bilberry in the UK, this can give you an idea whether you're likely to have any near you.

BRC Distribution Map - Bilberry

These small berries can be tricky to pick in number depending on the year and how mature the plants are, and other environmental factors, I find its worth investing £10 or so in a berry picker such as in the photo below, which allows you to harvest with more efficiency. They can also be used on other types of berry and sloes etc. I collected 6 or 7lbs from my spot in North Wales over an hour of bimbling about the other day in the sunshine.

I prefer to eat my bilberries fresh, with yogurt, or topping other deserts or cereal, porridge etc, but they are also excellent cooked, whereas blueberries often just go a bit mushy.
They make one of the best home made wines and also jams, and can be used in place of blueberries in cakes and pies.

Below is a link to a Bilberry pie recipe I like and is fairly quick and easy to make. I tend to freeze any bilberries I cant eat right away, which is perfect if you plan to cook them.

Bilberry Pie Recipe

Bilberries, are super healthy. They help regulate your blood sugar and can help individuals with diabetes. They improve blood flow, aid in digestion and help prevent urinary tract infections and cystitis. They are also extremely high in vitamins and other nutrients we need to process our other foods.

So if you live near an area where bilberries grow, now is the season, get picking!

The Foraging Mindset

I'd like to kick off with a brief discussion of something I've come to understand better over my years gathering wild food; the foraging mindset.

When I first became interested in foraging, I did what most people do, buy a book or two, look at all the interesting and tasty species listed and then wander around my local dog walk trying find them all.

This approach is largely fruitless (literally and metaphorically). Looking too hard for specific things, you'll miss what's actually there, and the opportunity to be curious, study and learn for yourself. For me, the thing that's most important is developing what I call the foraging mindset. The key points of this are:

• Look around you - Discover what's growing in your garden, local hedgerow, riverbank etc.

• Be curious - Take photos, take samples, look them up in books, online etc. Many people just ask me if something's edible, but miss out on the opportunity to find out more. By looking things up and asking more questions, every find helps you to develop your knowledge and skills. 

• Learn what grows in certain environments - once you're familiar with your local hedgerows, meadows, etc, when you travel elsewhere you'll have a good idea what species you'll find and how and when to gather them.

• Harvest responsibly - when you forage locally you'll find a balance with the environment, and you'll learn if you take too much, you'll have none for later, or will decrease the 'crop' for the following years.

• Be cautious - never eat anything you aren't 100% sure about, whether this be in terms of species or environmental contamination etc, this isn't some hardcore Bear Grylls style survival challenge, it's foraging. Don't take a risk as there are some species of fungi and plants that are deadly poisonous as is demonstrated in the below image - Edible Cow Parsley with the white flowers growing alongside the deadly poisonous Hemlock on the left.

That being said, once you develop this mindset it's easy to add additional information about foraging to this mental book of knowledge and to learn the tools to differentiate friend from foe. You'll forever be developing your knowledge of the environment and I'm here to help you along the way.

P.S. If you have any particular plants you are stuck at identifying feel free to send me a photo with your best guess to @lazy_anarchist, or send to my Facebook page 'Eden Wild Food'.