Name: Spring Forest & Hedgerow Foraging Walk & Wild Food Picnic C, Galloway, SW Scotland
Availability: OutOfStock

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.

This event is timed to allow a double-header wild weekend in Galloway with low spring tide coastal foraging course on Saturday 19th March. The coastal foraging needs to be booked separately – see here to book 19th March event.

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 25 years.

Read/watch/listen to reviews/films/radio programmes featuring Mark

Time/Date: Sunday, 20th March 2022, 1pm – 5.00pm

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 mile in 3 hours on well made paths, occasionally off-piste (which can be wet and muddy). The weather can be challenging at this time of year!

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.

Covid 19 Policy: Please see here for the latest GWF policy around events, social distancing and what happens in the event of cancellation due to C19 .

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 and tasters to share throughout the walk. These are not only tasty treats, but serve to illustrate how to uses the wild foods we are exploring. This has become more difficult to do since covid, but I still bring some carefully considered foraged tipples & tasters that can be safely shared, and a wild food tasting picnic to enjoy in the forest afterwards. All dietary requirements can be catered for, and these can be noted when booking.

Foraged spring woodland sushi

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

If you already have a gift voucher it can be used to pay for this event (in whole or in part) at the checkout.

Salted, pickled ramson buds

Please read the following information before booking a Galloway Wild Foods event.

The general event location is provided in the event description. For general information on visiting Galloway for events, see here.

Detailed event information, including exact meeting place, will be sent to the email address you provide on booking. 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.

The 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.

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 (or reinstate vouchers) less 10% to cover admin & PayPal fees.

If you cancel or amend a booking giving 14 days or more notice, you will receive a full refund (or reinstatement of voucher) less 5% to cover Paypal fees.

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.

The only weather that causes events to be cancelled is dangerous wind. In these instances you will be notified as early as possible.

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.

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.

Some events are not suitable for dogs. Please check with me by email if you wish to bring a dog on an event.

Please contact mark on mark@gallowaywildfoods.com if you have specific questions that are not answered here, or if you are running late on the day.