Wild Bento Boxes
Spring wild bento box with carrageen pudding
Galloway Wild Foods bento boxes are pre-packed picnics made from upwards of 30 wild ingredients designed to showcase the very best wild flavours of any given season and habitat. Boxes are personalised to individual dietary requirements, and all the wild ingredients are considerately harvested within 20 miles of my home in Galloway, SW Scotland then cooked, preserved and presented by me, Mark Williams. They are usually served at the end of a guided walk (which also includes lots of other nibbles and tipples) and is designed to showcase the key wild harvests you will have just learned about, serving as both a delicious meal, and inspiration for how to use your own wild harvests.
“Wow! The that was best meal I have ever eaten!” – Peter Meredith, 2025 Walk attendee
Here is me assembling an autumnal bento box…
The picnic comprises 80-90% wild ingredients that I have foraged and prepared myself, with some hyper-local produce, such as cheese from the local farm, or locally cured smoked wild game, and occasionally interesting wild produce from further afield, such as sea buckthorn chocolate made by my friend Charlotte Flower in Perthshire, or wild venison salami from Great Glen Charcuterie. Any staples such as flour are organic and sourced as locally as possible.
“Worth coming for the picnic alone!” – Joanne McKie, Walk attendee 2025
The picnic is preceded by snacks and tipples on the walk, and accompanied by foraged drinks – perhaps wild flower champagne/cordial, a foraged cocktail, hot elderberry juice, or chaga tea, depending on the the season, locale and theme of the walk.
Walks also include foraged treats and tasters – here on an early spring walk we enjoyed pesto-stuffed elf cups, hedgerow sushi and cholcolate-dipped elf cups stuffed with boozy damson
We eat the picnic in a beautiful outdoor spot, or if its raining most of my events have delightful shelter options, such a tree houses, forest refuges or beach huts.
It is served with sourdough bread and/or rustic oatcakes (GF if required). It isn’t a massive meal, but folk invariably feel well-filled, deeply nourished and very happy afterwards.
Personalised wild bento boxes are included in the ticket price of all guided walk events that mention a wild picnic. I can also supply them for private bookings or as a stand-alone picnic – email me to enquire. For small groups I can also provide more traditional style meals made with wild ingredients, perhaps cooked on the beach over a fire, or prepared and served in a holiday let. Please enquire by email to mark@gallowaywildfoods.com.
(Please note: you don’t get to keep the actual box!)
Enjoying wild bento boxes after a spring guided foraging walk on Loch Fyne
Below are some examples of bento boxes from different locales and seasons. You can find many of the recipes and preserving techniques in the recipies section of this website or in my book.
Spring coastal bento box, made with about 45 wild ingredients, comprising: Top left compartment: Wild coastal sushi, made with laver seaweed, sea radish, fermented alexanders, sea plantain, marsh samphire, cuckoo flower, gorse blossom, elderberry “ume” sticky rice, served on sea lettuce with magnolia petals and hearts pickled in flowering currant vinegar and pickled rock samphire. Top right: Sea kale florets, coriander grass, sea aster, sea beet, wild garlic, sea campion flowers, smoked eggs and smoked mussels – Over this we pour hot Atlantic dashi broth (made with kelp, dulse, dried cep and acorn miso), so it lightly poaches the contents; on this walk we caught razor clams, and those that wished added them to lightly poach in the broth too. Bottom right: Wild garlic, hazelnut and 2 year old Galloway goat cheese pesto, lacto-fermented garlic mustard, ramson blossom. Bottom left: Sea beet, dulse and smoked haddock quiche, nettle laverbread, sea spaghetti pickled with wild spices, ramson buds preserved with ground ivy, served on fresh lime leaves. Centre: Japanese knotweed and sweet cicely fruit leather.
Wild bento boxes are made to individual dietary requirements – the one on the left is for an omnivore, the one on the right is gluten free, nut free and vegetarian. You can add dietary requirements as you book.