Description
A guided foray exploring the delicious, healthy and surprising array of edible plants and fungi available in early Spring, with a wild food tasting picnic in the forest afterwards.
Early spring preserves
March is a thrilling time for foragers, with the sap rising in trees and springs shoots at their vibrant best. Highlights of the day will include birch tapping, spring fungi, early shoots, an introduction to fermenting wild greens. This is a great time of year to tune in to wild food resources for the year ahead. Both novices and experienced foragers looking to increase their repertoire will enjoy this event.
Family friendly – 1.5 miles easy walking for all ages. As with all Galloway Wild Foods events, this walk is guided by Mark Williams who has been teaching about foraging for over 30 years.
“You’ve really changed my life with the exceptional knowledge you passed on to me on the foraging day. So ecstatic that the rest of my life is now an everlasting treasure hunt. Life changing! The skills you passed on and the enthusiasm for observance was a true gift and I now see the world through an extra dimension!” – Kit Cubitt, E. Lothian
The slower way to drink birch sap
Meeting Place: Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway, SW Scotland. Full directions will be emailed to ticket holders in the week before the event.
Expect: Gentle walking covering less than 1.5 miles in 3.5 hours on well made paths, occasionally off-piste (which can be wet and muddy). The weather can be challenging at this time of year! At the end of the walk we enjoy our picnics and lay out and label our finds in a warm woodland classroom.
Learn:
- Early Spring hedgerow plants and fungi (usually at least 30 species) – identification, poisonous lookalikes, sustainable harvesting, tips on how to cook and preserve them
- How to sustainably tap birch and sycamore trees, and what to do with your sap
- Follklore/traditional uses
- Modern gourmet, medicinal, craft and nutritional uses of wild plants and fungi
- Discussion of the wider politics around foraging and food
- When time and weather allow, we lay out and label our finds to serve as a souvenir and aide-memoire of the afternoon’s discoveries.
Young larch needles (April) and male cones – often referred to as “larch roses”
Eat/drink: I think it is important to bring the wild foods we encounter to life by not just talking about them, but by eating and drinking them as we learn about them, so I come with a hefty bag of lovingly prepared treats, tasters and tipples to share throughout the walk. These are not only tasty, but serve to illustrate how to use the wild foods we are exploring. After the walk we will move indoors where you will be served a wild food tasting picnic, comprising dozens of lovingly foraged and prepared treats served in your own bento box. All dietary requirements can be catered for, and these can be noted when booking.
Wild bento box, served on Galloway Wild Foods events. Typically these include 30 to 40 different locally foraged ingredients that illuminate what we have explored on the guided walk. Expect savoury tart, sushi, pickles, ferments, edible flowers, seaweed snacks, salads, wild seed cake and lots more!
Bring: Stout footwear, waterproofs, water. Your learning and enjoyment may also benefit from bringing camera, notebook, field guide (plants), small basket/cloth bag.
Places are limited and events usually sell out fast – booking is essential.
Gift vouchers are available here. (Gift vouchers are for cash amounts, so they can be used to book any event)
If you already have a gift voucher it can be used to pay for this event (in whole or in part) at the checkout.
Foraging Gift Vouchers
Salted, pickled ramson buds
Please read the following information before booking a Galloway Wild Foods event.
EVENT LOCATION
The general event location is provided in the event description, and in your booking confirmation. This location is usually an approximate location (eg. “Within 30 minutes drive of XXX”), so that you can consider and plan the area you need to get to prior to booking.
For general information on visiting Galloway for events, including recommended accommodation, see here.
Detailed event information, including exact meeting place, will be sent to the email address you provide on booking in the week prior to the event. This allows me to account for the often fickle nature of wild plants and fungi and select the optimum location for our walk – which can be especially important for fungi forays.
It is important that you add mark@gallowaywildfoods.com and markleewilliams@googlemail.com to your email contacts/whitelist or the information email may get caught in your spam filters. This is extremely important if you have a .hotmail email account as they are notorious for having very sensitive spam filters.
The detailed event information email will be sent in the week before the event – sometimes as little as 3 days prior to the event. There is no need to badger me for it – I will send it! If you haven’t received it by within 3 days of the event, check your spam folders. If it isn’t there drop me an email – mark@gallowaywildfoods.com.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Any cancellation must be sent by email to mark@gallowaywildfoods.com, quoting the event title, date and order number (viewable on your booking confirmation.
Galloway Wild Foods is under no obligation to refund, rebook or reinstate vouchers for no-shows or cancellations within 14 days of the event. If I can refill the place at short notice, I will pay a full refund less 10% to cover admin & PayPal fees, or send a voucher to the full value of the tickets. Please state your preference in your cancellation email.
If you cancel or amend a booking giving 14 days or more notice, you will receive a full refund less 5% to cover Paypal fees, or a Gift Voucher to the full value of your booking.Please state your preference in your cancellation email. Information on using gift vouchers is here.
In the unlikely event that an event is cancelled by GWF you will receive full refund, exchange or voucher.
Galloway Wild Foods is not liable for any travel, accommodation or other costs you might incur if an event has to be cancelled. We recommend that you take out travel insurance if your financial commitment to travel/accommodation is substantial.
The only weather that causes events to be cancelled is dangerous wind. In these instances you will be notified as early as possible.
INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE ON BOOKING
Please provide the following information for all members of your party in the “Additional Information” box on the payment page :
- Relevant medical conditions
- Mobility issues
- Eating restrictions – differentiating between preferences (e.g. vegetarian), intolerances (e.g. gluten intolerance) and serious allergies (e.g. peanut allergy), and clearly stating if an allergy is potentially life-threatening. All requirements can usually be catered for, but these differentiations are required for risk assessments.
It is your responsibility to provide accurate information about all members of your party. If you write “None” in the additional information box, I will assume all attendees are omnivorous and have no relevant medical conditions or mobility issues.
All information is kept private, securely, and in line with GDPR – more information on this here.
WHAT TO BRING ON A WALK
Please ensure that all members of your party come suitably dressed for the weather, season and event.
On all walks, for your comfort and safety, walking boots/wellies, waterproofs and spare clothes are necessary. I always recommend wellies for coastal foraging events – you are likely to get wet feet if you don’t have them!
Please bring your own drinking water.
Your learning and enjoyment may also benefit from bringing a camera, notebook, field guide, small basket/cloth bag. Feel free to bring along any of your own wild food preparations to share and talk about.
DOGS
Most GWF events are suitable for one dog on a lead.
Even on walks that are suitable for dogs on leads, because we tend to move very slowly as we learn and forage, dogs often get bored/agitated/cold by the slow pace. One thing we absolutely can’t have is an unhappy noisy dog on an event.
Where events are suitable for dogs, I restrict it to one per event as there is no way of knowing whether dogs will get on with one another. Dog places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.
With all this in mind, if you would like to bring a dog, please note this on the booking form in the “Additional Information” box (along with human dietary, mobility, medical info) and I will get contact you to let you know suitability and availability.
If being able to bring your dog is a deal-breaker for you, please email me before you book.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further information on Galloway Wild Foods Terms and Conditions can be found here.
If you have specific questions that are not answered here, please contact mark on mark@gallowaywildfoods.com, or if you are running late on the day.
