London Wild Foods (monthly, April-December)

Drawing on a 30-year wealth of experiential knowledge, wild food expert Fergus Drennan will take you on a foraging journey that reveals the secret potential in even the most familiar of wild plants, the very plants you walk by every day. The humble bramble or blackberry will be revealed to be, on the contrary, a majestic beast of endless possibilities, native trees will be enticed to deliver up the sweetly nuanced complexity of molasses without a sugar cane plant in sight, and in one unexpected bite of crunchy and savoury abundance, you will experience the genuinely unique opportunity to eat 150 different wild greens all at once.

Fergus is offering a series of 3.5-hour in-depth wild food walks, each in a different London park, on the first Sunday of each month, and running through the year. (Note: A few are the 2nd or even 3rd Sunday. Details below)

On these wild food walks of London parks and green spaces, participants will be provided with clear information on the foraging basics, while simultaneously looking deeply into the skills required to get the maximum benefit from wild plants. This includes precise tips and guidance for working with the 20-30 specific plants and fungi encountered on location, as well as detailed instruction regarding processes and techniques, for example, salt pickling, vinegar pickling, lacto-fermenting, cordial making, wine and spirit making, dehydrating, fruit leather creation, seasonings, and other preserving and food preparation techniques. In many instances those techniques will be brought to life by tasting the fruits of such labour.

On each fun, informative, and engaging course, expect to taste 10-15 different wild food creations, including my soon to be world famous 150-different-plants-all-at-once biscuits! Most tasters suitable for vegan, gluten free, and nut free diets.

Please note that in order to respectfully comply with park bylaws we will not be gathering or picking any plants or fungi. Many can simply be touched, smelt, and important visual characteristics observed where they are, in situ. Where tasting of the raw plant provides interesting information, I will provide fresh samples from elsewhere to make sure you don't miss out!

Host or Publisher Fergus Drennan aka Fergus The Forager