Memorable Forays

“Tis a well known fact that most men are born two drinks below par.” – Compton MacKenzie, Whisky Galore
In recognition of this universal (if unfairly gendered) truth, humans have enjoyed alcoholic stimulation from wild plants for very nearly as long as they have been eating them. Ever since our distant ancestors recognised the uplifting effects of over-ripe fruit (and decided they outweighed the depressing effects), much of humankind has been caught in a love affair with alcohol that has reached a startling level of complexity.

Here is a quick romp through my wild food and wild places year in pictures.

Finding wild food can be a tricky business. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, how adept your identification skills are or how in touch you are with your ‘inner forager’: if you get too confident or take them for granted, they will scorn you. I ‘relearned’ this valuable lesson for about the 1000th time a few weekends ago

The 2011 fungi season kicked off for me with four very different forays. Here is a flavour of what we got up to, and what you might expect if you come on one of my organised forays.

Throughout, you can click on pictures to enlarge them.

(Blogged in 2011)
I had all but given up on finding sea buckthorn in Galloway. Though it is fairly common around the UK, I had never seen a hint of it along our coast or around Arran where I grew up. Wild foods never fail to reward perseverance though and I finally stumbled on a small patch of it this weekend.