Food inflation is the highest it’s been in 45 years, at 19.1 per cent. Of course, you don’t need to be told this if you’ve been to the supermarket recently as the prices seem to be going up before our eyes!
So there couldn’t be a better time to learn how to forage for the free food you can harvest from hedgerows, woods, beach and even city streets if you know where to look and what to look for.
Apart from blackberries and nettles, I’ve never really known what is edible or where to find it. So I went on two day-long courses in foraging and cooking foraged food.
One was with Hannah Nicholls, who runs Natural Pathways in Kent (natural-path ways.co.uk) and the other with Lucia Stuart of The Wild Kitchen (thewildkitchen.net), also in Kent.
There couldn’t be a better time to learn how to forage for the free food you can harvest from hedgerows, woods, beach and even city streets if you know where to look and what to look for
Apart from blackberries and nettles, I’ve never really known what is edible or where to find it
Hannah’s course was in wonderful ancient woodlands. We learnt to spot different trees such as walnut and hazel, which of course produce delicious nuts.
We also found roots that you can eat, such as burdock and silverweed, and seeds you can gather to eat, either raw or fried, such as nettle and dock seeds which can also be used as flour-extenders when ground up.
We even foraged for acorns which can be eaten by humans, as well as pigs, but only after they have been soaked to get out the tannin and ground into meal or flour. The day also included a delicious dinner cooked over an open fire and we ate together, sitting on logs.
On the menu was a hearty stew and chapatis made with a mixture of brown flour and acorn flour plus dock seeds. Pudding was blackberry and apple crumble, of course!
Last week, I spent a fascinating day at the seaside foraging with Lucia of The Wild Kitchen. We cycled from Sandwich station along the coast towards Deal, picking up wild asparagus —which looked and tasted as good as the spears you buy in the shops — and sea kale (like tasty cabbage when cooked).
We also foraged pineappleweed (matricaria discoidea) which is delicious either raw or cooked; seaweed (which Lucia added to her bread mix); wild garlic; wild horseradish; elderflowers; wild rocket; fennel; wild mint; and much more.
‘Foraging actually benefits the land,’ says Lucia, who’s been wild-eating for decades. ‘For example, the horseradish is plentiful here but we ignore it, and in the meantime we’re importing wasabi to eat. It’s crazy because we have all this horseradish around and we’re not even bothering with it.’
Lucia also cooked up a sumptuous foraged feast including turmeric and dandelion choux buns, asparagus with rose butter, home-made tagliatelle with wild garlic horseradish and nettle pesto sauce, and a walnut, hogweed, calendula and chocolate gateau with lilac almond sauce. Yum!
Hannah’s course was in wonderful ancient woodlands. Pictured: Chestnuts
However, one thing both Lucia and Hannah warned against was picking mushrooms.
For people like me who are pretty clueless, it’s potentially lethal, even with one of those apps that purport to tell you what various plants are, because it’s so hard to tell which ones are poisonous.
If you want to forage for mushrooms, learn from an expert first such as Fergus the Forager (fergustheforager.co.uk).
Also, before you start picking random shrubs, check with an expert whether something can be eaten raw. Hogweed, for example, must always be cooked.
Some plants should be approached with caution, too, such as burdock, which some novices have been known to confuse with toxic foxgloves or deadly nightshade.
To find experts in your area who run courses, go to the website of the Association of Foragers (foragers-association.org). Or just put ‘foraging course’ plus your county into your internet search bar.
Prices vary. The courses I did were around £100 for the day (including meals), but those without food tend to be cheaper.
Lucia says she has people joining the course for free as volunteers, so if you’re on a low budget ask if you can carry baskets and clean.
There are also books and websites that show you what foods you can pick in the hedgerows, and, often, how to cook them. Richard Mabey’s book Food For Free (£5.55 on Amazon) is a classic, full of pictures and descriptions of where to find edible berries, nuts, seeds and plants.
Though there’s a wealth of free food all around us, it’s very difficult to survive on purely foraged food. But it’s a great addition to your supermarket shop; not only as a financial help, but also a healthy boost to your nutrition.
BILLIONS HELD BY GIANT POWER COMPANIES
Gas and electricity companies are holding on to £7 billion worth of our money right now.
That’s according to research by comparison site Uswitch, which looked into the amount customers on monthly contracts had overpaid recently. It also found that half of those in credit have more than £200 languishing in their energy account.
So, if you could do with a bit of extra cash this month, speak to your provider to get at least some of that cash transferred back into your bank account.
It’s a good idea to keep some money in the account — enough to pay next month’s bill at least —but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have the rest back to help with other bills. It’s your money and you have a right to it.
In fact, while you’re at it, ask your supplier to check that your direct debit is set at a reasonable amount for your future energy use. Now wholesale gas prices have come back down, it’s likely that you should be paying less per month than you have been.
Gas and electricity companies are holding on to £7 billion worth of our money right now
The Ofgem rules are that energy companies should give the money back promptly, and Natalie Mathie, from Uswitch, says more than nine in ten people received their refund within four weeks, which is good news.
However, not everyone has had such good service. Some have reported being given the runaround over money owed.
If you think you have been badly treated by your energy supplier, Ofgem recommends speaking to the customer service department in the first instance.
If that doesn’t work, the energy ombudsman can step in on your behalf. Go to ombudsman-services.org/complain-now or call 0330 440 1624.
The best job for lovers of chocolate bar none
Now here’s a tough job: a high‑profile chocolate company is advertising for a ‘chocolate taster’ to assess its products and give honest feedback afterwards.
Do you think you could cope with that? If so, you’d better move to Wokingham, Berks, because that’s where the job is based. You will find the job ad on Linkedin (tinyurl.com/3aexsmu5) where you can apply. The ad says: ‘Full training will be given to help you develop your taste buds and the specific vocabulary required to communicate your opinions.’
The role is for eight hours a week on a 12-month contract, with a view to extend.
Buy and trade unwanted or secondhand clothes on new website Prenext.co.uk. It has clothing from all sorts of high street brands for babies, children and adults. Many items are under a tenner each, but you can get an extra exclusive 20 per cent off when you use this code: JASMINE20. There’s no minimum or maximum spend with this code and it expires on July 31.
If you’re at Boots next week, check the ‘£10 Tuesdays’ offers. Every Tuesday the store offers a huge range of products at that price. Some items are up to £30 off, so it’s worth a look to see if there’s anything you were going to buy anyway but with a decent discount. Find more at boots.com/tuesday-offer
Are your morning mealtimes leisurely ‘breaks’, or fly-out-the-door ‘fast’? Market research experts Give Opinions is looking to pay people £85 to find out more about their routines and the appliances that make breakfast brighter. Register by visiting https://www.giveopinions.co.uk/moneymagpie.
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