Adventures in Food

Rupert Burdock and his Wild Things A couple of weekends ago I was in lovely Stroud where I met Rupert Burdock. He sold me a bag of Milk thistle heads and invited me to join his afternoon wild food walk. Sadly I couldn't go that day but we had a very nice cup of tea instead with some poets and artists. Next time!

This: http://www.wildfoodmentor.co. uk/x/notify is a course on wild food, I am wanting to sign up but will i have time? can i justify the cost? will i actually follow it? maybe i could do it and report on the results here. your recommendation? xx

At Kew Gardens on Saturday there was a fab event showcasing various kinds of ethnobotanical research that goes on here and there. I went along and met various friends from life and internet, and discovered some really great new plants to eat from the weed-bed. I've also got all interested in collecting english plant lore for Ethnomedica so if you have some ancient plant remedy to tell me please do. I met some really great people with weeds to eat so I thought I would mention it and then I will go and find the weeds for myslef and report back. One particularly cool thing was eating thistles, speficially in this case, Sow Thistle. Anna showed me how to cut away the spines and gave me the stem to try. Its crunchy and juicy and fresh tasting, vaguely in the same food bracket as celery I suppose. A lot of the plants at the stand were things you know very well from the garden, little hairy things that grow in the grass or along the cracks in the paving. In fact hairs and spines are a g...

Ever wondered what you would eat if oil ran out tomorrow? Well now is your chance to find out! Join us* for a week of eating only local organic food, free from plastic packaging to highlight to government that they need to act now to reform our food system Between Saturday 6 and Sunday 21 September, during Organic Food Fortnight and when food is at its most abundant in the UK, we ask you, for one week, to only eat food from a selection of the following sources: a. Organically grown UK food without plastic packaging – if it is organically grown on British soil, it qualifies, but obviously the more local the better. Plastic packaging is out. b. Foraged food – food growing wild and abundantly all over the UK – free rich pickings! c. Self-grown food – any food you, your friends or family ha ve grown. Advice and support on sourcing food will be given throughout, and all participants will be encouraged to keep a diary of their experiences over the week on our website, not only to share expe...

I've been having fun with elderflowers last week. Making cordial, and making a film. It is of course elderflower season. The elder grows a lot by the Thames. Its a small tree or large shrub depending on how you think about things. The Blossoms are large white foamy circular things scattered all over the tree like white pancakes. I made elderflower cordial which it turns out is incredibly easy and is probably the most delicious thing I have made yet from foraging food. You simply boil some water, about 4 pints or more, Add sugar so it melts in and pour this mix over the elderflowers in a big bowl. The mix looks dark brown in the picture because I used dark brown sugar. I really thought this would overwhelm the elderflower flavour but it doesnt at all, quite the reverse in fact. Leave this in the fridge for four days or so, then strain off the juice. You can add lemon peel, lemon juice, and/or oranges and juice to add flavour and acidity, either at the beginning or after you make th...

There is a tree at the end of our road dropping handfuls of fluffy- looking balls onto the pavement and the very busy road next to it. These are not fluffy at all but very prickly. So one has to stamp on them to find the gorgeous, glossy, yummy, sweet chestnuts inside. I brought some to work. Not sure yet if they are popular but I hope they can at least make a good showing against the Piggy Gummy Treats from M&S that someone brought in the other day. I just got an email from a friend who is planning a tree-planting weekend. Apparently the sweet chestnut "was introduced to Britain by the Romans by 400AD and has naturalised here - it is also a very useful wood!" If you find one, don't mess about. Pick those nice things up!! (Leave some for the squirrels. Or don't. I dont know it so confusing, what species is OK and what isn;t and who gets what. Leave a comment if you feel the need to protest - at anything)