Description
A guided foray exploring the delicious, healthy and surprising array of edible plants and fungi available in Spring.
April is an exciting time for foragers, with the sap rising in trees and springs shoots at their vibrant best. Highlights of the day will include birch tapping, wild spring greens, an introduction to fermenting wild greens, and perhaps some spring fungi,. 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, listen, watch more about foraging with Mark
Time/Date: Saturday 3rd April 2021, 1pm – 5.00pm
Meeting Place: Near Keswick, Cumbria. Full details of our meeting place will be emailed to ticket holders in the week before the event.
Expect: Gentle walking on well made paths 3 hours followed by a wild picnic of foraged delights
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
- 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, and usually come with a hefty bag of lovingly prepared treats and tasters to share. This has become more difficult to do under social distancing, but I still bring some carefully considered foraged tipples, tasters for during the walk, and delicious individually portioned wild picnic. All dietary requirements can be catered for, provided you let me know when you book.
Tart of spring greens and seaweed with feta
Bring: Stout footwear, waterproofs, water. Your learning and enjoyment may also benefit from bringing camera, notebook, field guide (plants), small basket/cloth bag. If you make any foraged delights you wish to share with the group, please bring them along!
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.
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 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.
