Memorable Forays

A guest blog from award winning author Sarah Thomas on foraging in SW Scotland during the Corona Virus epidemic

A reminiscence exploring culture, food and foraging in rural Russia in the 1950’s, by Eslande Goode Ramos

“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