Foraging Course, Northallerton

Half-Day foraging course for beginners and intermediates. Children under 12 come free (within reason, and please let me know in advance), and well-behaved dogs on a lead are more than welcome.

We’ll take a 2.5-hour guided foraging walk (covering 1 to 2 miles), stopping regularly to discuss (and where possible, eat!) the many edible goodies we find along the way, whether that be foliage, flowers, fruits, nuts or mushrooms! What we’ll find depends on the time of year. The route is mostly flat and we go at a slow and steady pace.

The main focus will be foraging for wild food, but we will also touch upon medicinal or “bushcraft” uses if relevant to what we find.

• A brief introduction to myself and foraging in general.
• Finding and discussing around 15 species common across the UK.
• How to identify the species we come across.
• Information about toxic species to avoid.
• Foraging laws and principles to ensure you forage legally, safely and responsibly.
• Trying a couple of pre-prepared wild food-based samples!
• A follow-up email to participants with a summary of the species we found and other useful information, such as my recommended books for further reading.

Foraging is fun and fascinating, with so many benefits! It’s as safe as anything when approached with the right level of caution, awareness, and knowledge. It’s important to realise, however, that foraging can be dangerous IF you approach it with a lack of caution (recklessness), and/or a lack of awareness of the risks and without the respect nature deserves. During the course, I will show you how to approach foraging so you don’t just minimise but eliminate all risks, so you are free to enjoy the many benefits that foraging brings to your life – and there are many!

Humans have been foraging as a way to survive for hundreds of thousands of years. Before farming, this was how we survived – finding what nature provided in harmony with the seasons and the land. This period before farming forms over 95 per cent of our existence as a species, so to our brains and bodies, wild food foraging feels incredibly natural – which is one of the reasons it feels so good!

Foraging is one of the best ways to disconnect from our busy modern lives of emails, social media and technology, and reconnect with nature and our ancestral roots. During our foraging walks, we will log off from the modern world and log in to nature!

For this course we will make use of a private farm location – Avenue Farm, Boroughbridge Road, DL7 9EP – though please note that following this postcode on Sat Navs or Google Maps won’t take you precisely to Avenue Farm, so please use below Google Maps “dropped pin” location instead if you can:

There is space to park at the farm itself, and I will advise on your arrival exactly where to park. I will be waiting at the farm from 9:45 AM.

• Comfortable, weather-appropriate clothing and footwear. Parts of the route may be muddy and most of it will involve walking on grass which could be wet (e.g. morning dew or if it has been/is raining), so please ensure you have appropriate footwear – I would highly recommend sturdy and waterproof walking/hiking shoes so as to avoid wet socks and be able to navigate the terrain comfortably.
• Your phone, but only for the camera function, should you wish to take any photos/videos/notes. I will, however, send an email at the end of the course with a list of the species we come across.
• Some water or another hydrating drink if you wish.

The Forager Within, founded by James Hill, runs public and private foraging courses across Yorkshire and Manchester. His love of foraging started on nature walks with his parents, where picking wild food was just a way of life. In adulthood, James hit a low point in 2015, which re-ignited a passion for foraging. By the Spring of 2016, foraging was a hobby, an obsession, and then in 2022, a business with a mission to connect people to nature and improve physical and mental health in the process.

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