Foraging -

Making time to escape somewhere new is good for us, particularly if it’s somewhere beautiful and wild. We’re able to feel part of a different world and reconnect with nature, even if it’s just for a moment. There tends to be time to reflect and time to notice things we might otherwise miss, time to find pleasure in the simplest of things.

Noticing the world around us can have its ‘edible upsides’. There is so much ‘food for free’ growing all around us, we just need to open our eyes to this delicious new world. Foraging gives us a reason to be outside, below sky and above earth. It gives us a reason to move and breathe a little. It helps focus our attention on a world we don’t get to see as often as we should and because of this it’s incredibly good for our own health and wellbeing. It offers a kind of respite from modern life, taking us away from the screens we’ve come to rely on so much. I’d go as far as to say foraging’s a form of recovery.

For me foraging is about so much more than the food we hope to gather. It’s about the whole journey, from the beginning to the end. It’s about where I’m going, how I got there and getting lost on the way. It’s about the relief found in the unfurling light of a spring morning and the accompanying chorus that emanates from the hedgerow. It’s about the soft, muffled sounds of a tawny autumn wood at dusk. It’s about the black mud on my hands, the blood from the brambles, rain-soaked boots and the owl feathers I collect below the shade of the pine. It’s about friends but also the reflection found in being completely alone. Foraging is about looking and actually seeing. It’s about listening and actually hearing. It’s about the uncorrupted silence of the crying winds. It’s about the shape of a leaf and the sound of water. Beyond all this, foraging is about the reward or the hunt, if you like, because sometimes, though not always, there’s a prize at the end. A gift from Mother Nature. A fragment of wildness, a comforting whisper from our ancestral past, something to take home and share with your family or eat alone. A memory earned, hard won. Happiness found in work, the fruition of your craft.