Foraging: Staying connected to the Seasons

The ultimate way to reconnect with nature is to rely on it for food. While this isn't entirely practical for most of us, it is completely possible to rewild your diet with some interesting additions from nature's larder.

Foraging has made a come back in recent years after a slump in interest with the advent of supermarkets. The disconnection that supermarkets brought meant that we no longer trusted ourselves to choose wisely when it came to wild food ingredients.

A friend once asked me, "How do you know they are elder berries?"

I replied, "The same way you know broccoli is broccoli."

I learned to recognise them so well, I don't even need to check. The shape of the tree, the clusters of berries, the smell of the slightly gamey, savoury juice. I saw the flowers in the Spring and marked it in my memory. Its as familiar to me as a blueberry might be to you.

With supermarket packaging we no longer have to rely on our senses to tell us whether something is edible. It is wrapped in plastic so we can't smell it or touch it, boxed up with only a picture for reference so we can't have a nibble it and provided with a use by date so we don't have to worry about whether it might be off.

Foraging allows us not only an opportunity to add something a little different to our plates, it enables us to get out into our ecosystem and explore the season with every sense. And it is really, really easy.

Smell the wild garlic's potency in Spring. The prickle of nettles on an unwary wrist.

Beech Noyau with the first of the translucent green leaves.

Indulge in the heady fruit of blackberries in late Summer. A crumble from apples found along the wayside, abandoned and waiting to be gathered.

Try and beat the squirrels to some hazel nuts in Autumn.

Make a bottle of fragrant gin in Winter once the first frosts have fallen. Sloe down, as it were, with the winter.

There are some amazing courses out there that can help boost your confidence with I.D. as some can be tricky, but there is absolutely nothing stopping you from recognising a few simple, safe and scrummy wild foods with nothing more than your senses to guide you. Take note of the plants you see, how they change as the seasons do. Have a look through this brilliant guide and see if you can spot anything edible on your next weekend ramble to the pub. Reconnect with the wild, and fall in love with your food.