The call of the wild

On  a recent walk around the fields on the edge of town, 

I stumbled upon some rich pickings..all for free

Foraging is massively popular in many European countries – they do a lot of it in Scandinavia for instance – but elsewhere we seem to have become a much more urban society and we’ve got a bit detached from our surroundings.

It wasn’t always this way. Marie Fish at the Natural History Centre in Aberdeen researched the eating habits of Scottish ancestry and discovered how much they depended on nature’s larder before Sainsbury´s and Tesco´s appeared on every corner.

Mrs Beeton had a favourite recipe for blackbird pie, shudder. Eels used to be eaten a lot before they became protected. Even heron was a delicacy, although I shouldn’t imagine there was much eating on a heron. It really was a case of eating whatever they could pick or catch.

People were much more aware of the land around them. We’ve lost touch with that a little bit. That’s one of the reasons why people make mistakes and have accidents eating things they shouldn’t.A little knowledge is a good thing.

There’s a lot of nice stuff out there but we’re really missing a trick.
As they say on the TV "Do not try this at home". In this case do not attempt foraging from the wild unless you have prior knowledge or are part of an organised workshop or foraging group.