This Column is written by Geoff


My New-Year's resolution for 2010 will be to replace as much shop-bought produce with foraged produce as possible.  That means something relatively new to me: foraging for plants.  I have just consumed the first full meal I have ever eaten which consisted entirely (or almost entirely) of foraged material: roadkill venison and wild mushroom stew, fried giant funnel with thistle roots, and common mallow and ribwort plantain for greens. Real food. What my ancestors ate.
 
From mid-summer 2010, which is the beginning of the main mushroom season, I will be available full-time to take people out on foraging trips (further details and prices to be anounced later.)   Between now and then I have a lot of learning and experimentation ahead of me, and the anticipation of finally finding out how to tell the difference between Wild Chervil and Hemlock (I passed on the probable Wild Chervil today) and discovering what turns up when you go seriously foraging in the Winter and Spring. Perhaps I'll even lay my hands on some of those elusive, ephemeral, brain-like morels.   That's probably the most enjoyable part of the whole foraging experience: you never know what is around the next corner. 

Geoff


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