As the nation weathers a third lockdown, the Family Foraging Kitchen team are starting to very much miss normality. The beginning of the year is such a wonderful time for delicious wild food and, as the first season of the year, it is an ideal period to begin learning about the foraging calendar. Since we are unable to share this with you as our regular foraging walks and traditional skills courses remain postponed, we have, instead, taken to leap to take our teaching online!
On February 6th, we hosted our inaugural Online Foraging Class, which was streamed via Zoom to viewers across the UK. This broadcast followed our own expert forager, Vix Hill-Ryder, as she navigated Millbrook’s lake to find common nutritional winter greens that can be identified and picked as ingredients for your own dishes.
Newly budding alexander hearts were plucked from the soil, flavourful charlock and sea beet leaves gathered, and colourful blooms like sweet violets and gorse were all discussed, with information about their taste, health benefits, and recipe ideas too.
It was, admittedly, a little strange to manage a foraging class through a camera instead of having our group gathered around to pick their own wild foods but it seemed to work well and we received some wonderful feedback. This is why we are now planning to get the camera out and broadcast a second Online Foraging Class on February 27th!
This time, we will be clambering the rocky shore of Kingsand during an accommodating low tide to harvest some of the UK’s most versatile and flavourful seaweed. There are so many types of seaweed that fill our coast and, while only a portion are edible, those that are make for such a wonderful wild food ingredient that we feel they should be a part of everybody’s diet.
Tickets for this event are now available on our website and we will once again be broadcasting through Zoom. So, if you would like to join us as Vix shares her passion and knowledge of seaweed foraging, then head over to our Courses and Events page to reserve your place!
We have also been using this period of lockdown to create our own video series too, one that releases in tandem with our Wild Food Boxes. Currently, we have shared three episodes, with number four being released very soon. Each episode is set in a familiar Rame Peninsula location, describing seasonal ingredients that are common across much of the UK, meaning that, no matter where you are located, there will be something for you to learn about. Head over to our YouTube channel to begin and remember to watch until the end to see how Vix incorporates each ingredient into an easy-to-make meal.
Currently, we are waiting for news on lockdown restrictions to be lifted. Once we have details, we will be able to confirm dates for our previously postponed courses. These will be shared with directly everyone who has booked, as well as via our newsletter and social media channels. Hopefully it isn’t too long until we can be back out in the field with you all!
Thanks for reading,
The Family Foraging Team