Wild food and foraging with the RSPB

The RSPB have teamed up with Sussex based foraging school, Hunter Gather Cook, for a fundraising event with a difference:

I was lucky enough to grow up in a small village in West Sussex which was surrounded by woods, fields and roaming horses.  I’d play outside with my friends all day long, experiencing wildlife first hand.  We’d make rope swings, build dens and generally create allot of extra washing for our mums.  I’d play and explore from breakfast until the call of my name across the fields would herald dinner time and I’d run home. 

Nature is one big playground when you're little.  Photo Liam Jefferies

As an adult, my love of wildlife and the natural world has only grown, you will still find me ‘playing’ outside of a weekend - swimming down the Ouse or climbing trees in the woods.   Which is why I’m so excited about putting on an event which will celebrate everything outdoors and raise money for the RSPB too.

The event, which takes place on Thursday 25 July, includes foraging for edible plants, which will be used in the evening’s campfire meal and building your own shelter to spend the night in – all under the guidance of experienced Hunter Gather Cook instructors.

The foraging school is based within a private nature reserve which is carefully managed to create a haven for a rich variety of wildlife. Hidden in the woodland is the schools’ rustic outdoor kitchen, complete with an oven made from the clay beds of the nearby stream.  The kitchen is covered by an elegant A-frame structure, crafted from birch, with pots and pans hanging from the roof struts. 

Hunter Gather Cook HQ

The event will begin with a guided walk around the reserve, led by RSPB conservation officer, Dr. Richard Black. July at the reserve boasts the chance to see the rare Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral butterflies flitting along the woodland edges.

Next, guests will be shown where to find the plethora of edible plants on the reserve and how to identify them. The foraging school instructors are experts in living off the land; they are also experienced chefs, who visibly relish the chance to craft sumptuous and original dishes from foraged ingredients.

Nick Weston, who established the school in 2011 said: “I opened the school to teach people about living comfortably in the great outdoors and to create great dishes using wild produce.

“I’m really pleased to be teaming up with the RSPB and helping them raise funds for their work; both our organisations encourage people to connect with nature and it will be great to work together on this.”

Get back to nature this July. RSPB images

Back at base camp the instructors will demonstrate how to build a fire using traditional techniques and cook a leg of lamb in an underground oven for the evening’s foraged feast.

As the sun goes down and the resident Nightingales begin to sing, guests can learn how to mix up the perfect wild cocktail, using foraged infusions and syrups prepared by the Hunter Gather Cook instructors.

Nightingale. RSPB images

To end the evening, guests will build a shelter and nestle down to spend the night around the crackling fire. Breakfast will be provided the following morning before home time at 10am.

Foraging is great way to get out and enjoy green spaces and can result in some very tasty dishes!  I’m really excited that the event is taking place on the private nature reserve which provides a valuable home to a variety of wildlife.

Not everyone had the chance to play and run wild in the great outdoors as a child, but it’s never too late...

There are 15 places available on the event at £80 each. Proceeds from the event will be going towards the wonderful work of the RSPB. For further details and to secure a place contact alice.jefferies@rspb.org.uk

How to Incorporate Stinging Nettles Into Your Diet

Nettles are high in protein.

Though stinging nettles may look like just some weed growing in your yard or the woods near your home and not a very pleasant one at that, with the stingers on their stems but they are actually a very tasty and nutritious green. Stinging nettles, or just nettles, are higher in protein than most other greens (they are about 40 percent protein), and they are high in a number of other nutrients, including iron, manganese, calcium and Vitamins A and C.

Not only are stinging nettles great for your health since they are full of nutrients, but many people also eat them for their curative properties. You can make a tea from nettles that can help to prevent or treat illness and allergies.

Finding stinging nettles is relatively easy, but they do require some care in harvesting them. As their name suggests, they are covered with tiny stingers that will hurt a lot if you just grab them by the hand. The stingers have the acid found in the bites of fire ants. So, yeah, imagine putting your hand in a hive of fire ants and the experience is somewhat comparable.

It is important to wear gloves, as well as long sleeves and long pants when you are harvesting nettles, although braver individuals than me claim that carefully picking with thumb and forefinger shouldn’t sting. They can grow long, and you don't want the leaves and the stems to brush your hand or your feet as you are walking through a patch or are reaching in to harvest them.

Grasping nettles with the thumb and fore finger should mean no sting.

Look for nettles that have tender young leaves, and only cut off the upper leaves. The young leaves should be no bigger than 3 inches wide. Any bigger than that and you're likely to get a very bitter, stringy plant. You can cut the leaves off, or you can just cut off the top 5 inches or so of the plant, further more you should not eat nettles once they have flowered. Clip your nettles with some pruning shears or sturdy scissors and put them in a basket or bag of your choice. When you get them home, they are ready for blanching.

Boil up a pot of water, either with a little salt thrown in or without. Dump your nettle leaves in the pot and let them boil for about 10 minutes. You can then scoop them out with a spoon and dunk them in cold water. Set them aside to drain and to dry.

Blanching nettles will not only take care of the stingers, but it will also clean them and make them safe for eating. Don't be alarmed if the water turns color as that is common.

Once your nettles have been blanched, you can cook them just as you would spinach or any other green. Nettles are great in a soup or stew, or you can add them with some other veggies to a pasta or a rice dish. You can even steep them for a flavorful tea.

Still stumped about how to cook your nettles? Check out these 8 recipes for stinging nettles.

Do you cook with nettles? Share your tips for finding and harvesting them, as well as some of your favorite recipes, in the comments!

About the Author:

Bridget Sandorford is a freelance food and culinary writer, where recently she’s been researching culinary schools in Pittsburgh. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

Jack Pyke Technical Dog Vest - A dog's review

Archie’s review:  We were a tad surprised when Archie took to the laptop after a long walk in the falling snow, but are very pleased to share his review of his new ‘Technical Dog Vest’ made by Jack Pyke. 

Dave-man got me a Fancy-Vest to keep me warm. I’m not too bothered when it’s sunny as my coat is nice and white and not too thick, I enjoy the breeziness in my fur.  But Dave says my new coat will be very useful for when the cold white stuff falls again.  He said it will even help me not sink when I fall off the boat like last time, I don’t really want to talk about that though.

My first thoughts were not too good; Fancy-Vest was brought to Dave’s house by the Bad-man who wears the small trousers, he comes almost every day and pokes things through the hole in the door, sneaky Bad-man is definitely up to no good. 

But when I tried it on, I discovered the Fancy-Vest is very comfy and fits nicely. Dave-man says he got me an extra small but I’m a pretty big dog so there must have been some mistake.  He helped me put it on and tells me it does up with a zipp and Velcro and is made of Neoprene, whatever they are. There’s foamy bits for floating too which you can take out if you want, but I like them because they’re extra warm. 

We crossed the road to go for a walk over the fields and woods.  This is the most dangerous bit of the whole walk because the cars sneak up on you if you’re not looking.  That’s why you have to BARK BARK BARK so that they’re scared of you and drive away. I’m the best at this, Dave-man has to hold me back with my lead or the cars would get too scared of me.  My lead attaches to my Fancy-Vest very cleverly, you can’t even see the silver bits.

Dave lets me off the lead in the field. I run with my mouth open to try to catch the white flakes but all I catch is a wetter colder tongue.  The Fancy-Vest is very easy to move in and feels much warmer, mostly on my tummy where my fur is rather thin. 

In the woods Dave takes ages and doesn’t keep up with me because he’s looking at leaves as usual, he doesn’t like it when I try to lift my leg on them but I thought maybe that would make them smell better.  I find a good stump tree instead and have a snuffle right in it.  I reckon the dumb mice living in the stump tree wont know I’m coming because it turns out I’m invisible in my Fancy-Vest.  The mice seem to have left the stump, probably scared off by impressive digging.  My Fancy-Vest looks just like trees and Dave can’t see me when I keep still. 

Me mice hunting.

As well as invisible, I can also zoom around even faster after those stupid rabbits without getting hurt on sticks and prickly plants, because my Fancy-Vest has armour plating at the front. I’m going to be the best dog hunter in Sussex.

I don't need to use these leaves to be invisible anymore.  Thanks Jack Pyke!

All I need now is Fancy-vest attachment to help me climb trees and get those sneaky squirrels.  

Me working on my plie

iPhone Apps for the Great Outdoors

I’ve been asked by quite a few friends recently what are some of the best apps when it comes to finding your way around in the wild. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would consider this heresy but when if comes to nature there’s room for everyone. Here are a few of the apps that I personally use and think can accentuate the outdoor experience.

Chirp+ £1.99 - This is a great app for identifying and learning bird songs. Most of the European breeds are included often with multiple calls for each bird. When you’re not outdoors you can listen through specific birds song or watch a slideshow swat up and then take the test when you think you are ready. With a little time you’ll be amazed how much it changes your perspective of a walk in the country.

Spyglass A.R.  £2.49 – Spyglass is a massively useful app for any outdoor enthusiast with far too many uses to go into in any depth without boring the majority of people.  Spyglass utilizes every sensor the phone has available to provide a vast amount data, on the screen via an Augmented Reality type head up display (HUD). I personally use it to remember locations of wild plants or patches where I’ve found mushrooms, the beauty of it is that unlike nearly all other apps out there you won’t require a signal to use it (once your location has been defined). As well as this Spyglass can also be used as a speedometer, sextant, compass, range finder, waypoints tool and inclinometer.

iTorch  Free – Not much to say here really, it’s a torch, it’s free!..... OK well I guess I could go into a bit more detail here. It has a strobe setting for that disco effect should you need it and also flashes a Morse code SOS which hope no one reading this ever needs to use.

Star Walk  £1.99 – Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered what’s out there? Of course you have! Star walk can tell you a huge amount about the night sky, simply fire it up and point your iphone to the stars. The app again uses augmented reality to tell you the names of the stars, planets and galaxies as you point your phone at them.  It will also give you the rising and setting times of the sun and any planet that will be visible in the sky that night. On top this there is a search function, simply type in name of the star, satellite, galaxy or planet you are looking for and it will point you in the right direction.  Other functions include a calendar to inform of events in the near future, a time function so you can look at what the sky looked like all the back to 1600 and my favourite which points out the places in the sky to watch for meteor showers.

Find Friends Free – My friends and I often set off from different locations to meet up in rather ramdom parts of the countryside, the find friends app makes it very easy for us to located each other by showing everyone location on the same map. To get it set up you have to email you friend to request permission and hey presto they appear on the app. You and your friends have the option to turn off sharing your location at any time to maintain your privacy. Over all just very useful to have even in town! 

Rogers Mushrooms £1.49 – This is a digitally enhanced version of the book “Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain and Europe” by Roger Phillips. I guess RM Mushrooms is a little punchier! It uses a key system to help you identify wild mushrooms you find which is the preferred method of professional mycologists. RM Mushrooms has over 2400 colour photos and 1550 species listed to help identify what you are looking at also whether it is poisonous, hallucinogenic, or edible. As a word of warning I’d say never EVER identify a mushroom you plan to eat by photo alone, there are often similar looking species which will do you no good at all.

The Foragers Apprentice £1.99 – This app is a great start for anyone wanting to learn about wild food and foraging created by the highly acclaimed Ashburton Cookery School. You can search by the habitat you find yourself in be it Beach, Hedgerow or Woodland. Also included are some useful if basic recipes to give you some inspiration on what your wild haul can be used for.

tideApp Free – Personally I don’t live that close to the coast  so when I do make the journey down there I like to know what the tides doing. This is mainly because I’ll be out looking for food in the intertidal areas and getting the tide right makes the difference between a muddy walk and a scuba diving mission. tideApp includes tidal information for 4,364 ports worldwide with tidal forecasting up to 2029 so you have plenty of time to plan your beach trip in advance.

That’s my list for now, please let me know what you think and if you have any other recommendations I’d love to hear them.

Allotment Dinners ON TOUR

I believe the usual adage is something akin to ‘WHAT GOES ON TOUR STAYS ON TOUR’. Not in our case. That would be highly frustrating and this post would end here.  So for the purposes of public interest, I will cast that age old instruction aside and divulge every gory detail of our latest adventure in the world of outside dining. 

You may remember a chap called Dave who visited our allotment dinners patch a couple of months ago and generously wrote us a guest post of his experience with us – well this is where the favour is gladly re-payed.  Dave lives in a lovely spot in Ardingly in a house built by his great grandfather’s very own hands using the scraps left over from constructing the beautiful Nymans in Handcross.  I love this story.  I oft romanticise over the notion of building ones own house.  I love that he also built lots of the other houses in the lane and his son, Dave’s Grandfather, built another house just next to his using the skills passed down to him but in a completely different style.  I love I was told this story in a construction Dave had created, to suit his own needs of being outside.  It’s a lovely wooden structure comprised of sturdy stone posts and a roof of  mainly hazel.  Generations of building skill on one parcel of land, each so different but each so wonderful. 

 

We sat happily on benches beneath the snow melting drips of the roof in front of a roaring fire – all welcome comforts after James had told me on route there was nowhere for us to sit and did I have a carrier bag he could borrow so his bum didn’t get wet when sitting on the floor. 

Dave had stoked up the clay oven a fair few hours before our arrival to get the heat up to optimum cooking temperature and had prepared the starter some days earlier I believe.  He’s so Blue Peter, we were already miles apart from mine and James’ usual last minute cobbling together of dinners. 

So, first up: Potted shrimp with lightly toasted ciabatta.  A previously unknown delicacy to my taste buds but what a happy new entrant it was.  This dish is served in small pots, the type you’d serve dry roasted peanuts in for nibbles in the 90’s.  The paprika flavoured shrimp is packed into the bottom of the dish and topped with clarified butter which has set to quite a mean consistency.  Sealing dishes in this way was one of the few methods our pre freezer ancestors had of enabling the preservation of meats and fish for many weeks.  Clarifying – the heating and filtering of butter – removes the proteins which could potentially go rancid and creates a thicker set seal.  Well, there was nothing rancid about this.  It was devoured in moments, much to the disappointment of the two canine guests.   

 

A pause between courses and time then to introduce all of the guests present that evening. Me and James you know, Dave and his lovely girlfriend Alice and two dogs Archie - alice’s mums, and Hattie – my mum’s puppy.  Whenever dogs are present conversation tends to centre round them, how old they are, japes they may get up to, how muddy they are, how they’re not usually this mental.  Not unlike parents with kids I should imagine, just with leads.  James did manage to steer conversation away with a long tale of a known fraudster getting into a right pickle with his company and how he was managing the situation without giving on that he'd read the Daily Mail and knew exactly who she was and no she was not going to get the better of him, so there.  Interesting yarn but after a short silence – ‘so where do you walk him?’   

Next course:  Wildfood Pizza’s.  These home made pizza’s were topped with pigeon, pheasant (some roadkill defrosted from james’ freezer) and bacon alongside the usual suspects, mozzarella and tomato.  Bacon often features alongside these two meats to provide some much needed fat.  They were all lightly fried off together on James’ skillet over the fire and added to the pizzas for a last minute firing.  Absolutely glorious.  To accompany was Hairy Bittercress pesto and a wild rocket salad.  Alice, not a meat eater, joined us with her many cheese pizza and helpfully held my dog whilst I ate.   

Now this is where things got hairy – and I’m not talking about the pesto.  The perils of bringing two dogs together in the night, surrounding them with nice smells and expecting them to behave came very suddenly to light.  One moment we were appreciating a gobful of game, the next a ferocious roar (well, I say ferocious - he’s a jack Russell) and the yelps of the cheeky pup who ordained to go near his eagerly awaited food scraps.  It was horrendous.  A full blown dog attack/mild scuffle (depending on your experience of these events, mine is none so i’m opting for the former) happening right under our feet.  I have never had that happen before and for the entire time I was looking after my mums dog, was the thing I had dreaded happening most.  For Archie, it was completely out of character, it is normally him getting mauled by his long term dog wife Matilda.  I’m still not entirely sure how it ended, I'd leaped up shouting Oh my God, and couldn’t bare to look – not massively helpful.  What I do know is that I got Hattie’s lead back in my hands and after a horrible moment of thinking the mud she was covered in was blood, managed to sit back down and get my shaking hands back on another slice of pizza.  Archie had been unceremoniously removed from the scene, disgraced and no doubt still a bit peckish.  Now this is what I’d call awkward.  When neither of you actually owns either dog, and then one has a go at the other, well there's not much you can say other than profusely apologise and hope no-one sues.  But then that’s dogs isn’t it.  Not really much like kids at all actually. 

By the third and final course my dog had been put in the van and Archie had returned, although still spurned, to witness us scoff down Honey Buns which I had made the night before.  They’re lovely little things and very easy to make. The recipe is Stephen Fry’s and found in the ‘Essential Scout campfire cook book’ tweaked only slightly by me with the addition of cinnamon.  I’d recommend seeking it out, there are many great recipes in there for the outdoor inclined cook. 

The evening, cut slightly shorter than it may have naturally ended due to fears of dog welfare, was overall, a grand evening.  It was such a treat to do ‘our thing’ somewhere else and be so wonderfully welcomed.  And what’s an evening without a spot of drama anyway. 

Thank you to Dave, Alice and Archie (hopefully now allowed back in the house), we’d love to come back please.  Without the dog. 

An Insight into Coastal Foraging with Falassa

Falassa is my name. I have the first licence - experimental as it is - in England to harvest commercially attached macroscopic algae (sea weed/veg) in England.

My concern is marine ecology and the ability of coastal communities to develop economic/social sustainability. 

Down here in the west of Cornwall it is said that if you have only three jobs you are unemployed. A bit of fishing maybe, some chippie work, missus off to clean holiday lets...if you are real unlucky missus gets to do care work...if you are real real unlucky you get to do the care work.

 

Enough! The mackerel are headed north-westwards into the welcoming and deathly embrace of Faro-ese nets. Rain comes down with incessant regularity to drown our vegetables in the summer. Half of Cornwall is seeded with spuds which, shrouded by phosphorescant blue poison tablets, are destined for Leicester and Walker’s Chrisp Factory – then return.

And then folk watch the sainted Hugh on TV and come down and overturn rocks for crabs, hack away at the marsh samphire and burrow for cockles. Prince Fuckwit owns the manorial rights to the shellfish, Lord ffffVyvian owns God knows what…

In the bay self-styled eco-fishermen hang the delightfully termed tangle-nets in the bay (catch everything) and there is vague talk about banning fish discards. A hungry man never discards, but we are not hungry – so we discard.

Hunting sea-veg for the kitchen is a bit of a conceptual long shot. Easy maybe to understand that it’s better to be vegetarian on the basis that a steak takes three times its volume of plants to make itself. But how do I get across the message that it’s better to eat the seaweed than the carrots that are so enthusiastically covered in storm-cast algae?

Anyhows…just let’s start with the idea that plants grow in the sea whatever the weather conditions, that they soak up a complex array of minerals, nutrients, trace elements…and that the chemical processes of these plants then create proteins and sugars and this and that.

And all year round…whilst in January we might just have nettles on-shore, below the shore line are plants full of goodness and culinary intrigue. Their bed-mates are molluscs and bi-valves, at their best in the winter when they are not spawning. Ever tried a stir fry of kelp, pepper dulse and mussels?

I am trying to persuade the nation that sea plants are good to eat with nutritional/health benefits that are said to be stratospheric (there is a bundle of peer reviewed research around). Whisper it but quietly, but we do have our own super foods within reach – easy reach.

Except: it’s never that simple. As a seaweed harvester I am classified as a primary food producer. This means that I have to write a Food Safety Management System, establish Critical Control Points, have my premises (mother’s greenhouse) inspected, obtain landowners’ permission, undertake ecological impact reviews and…oh, I can’t remember now. Insurance or something.

Actually, it’s all fine, I am happy to comply and think my way through hygiene issues. And, I can tell you something simple: hand harvesting sea veg is arduous, dangerous, frustrating and yet…uplifting. It’s not an easy buck, but who wouldn’t be up to their waste in water in an almost lunar rock landscape on a forgotten stretch of Cornish coastline?

I am getting on in years now, probably happiest building boats but I can now combine boat-building and sea veg harvesting. Lessons are being learnt the hard way, and I want to pass on my knowledge.

So this year I will be running some events on my bit of hidden coast, maybe even setting up a training course with a ticket at the end. Sea plants are curious, weird, complex creatures, little understood. I love them, an d always say a little ancient  Scottish prayer before cutting:

May the glory of the sea be thine
May the glory of the earth be thine
And may the glory of heaven be thine

When you get to pick some marine algae, remember to nibble them first, cut lightly (a third of the plant half way up) with scissors and avoid busy beaches. Dry the leaves in the sun, then pack away.

More information on courses and holidays at www.falassa.co.uk