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Wild food walks, cookery and cocktails; courses in East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Essex.

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wild.feast

Foraging & wild food courses, wild cocktail workshops.
Wild food & drink recipes.
Nature conservation, botany geek, writer.
@wild.cocktails 🍸

Oh Sparky! 🐾 He's totally unimpressed with some

Oh Sparky! 🐾 He's totally unimpressed with some of the first wild garlic of the year here in East Sussex a few weeks ago. I on the other hand, am overjoyed!! 😆🌱🌱🌱🍃🍃🍃

Any garlic or onion (Allium) plants can make dogs (and even more so cats) quite ill in significant quantities. It causes damage to their red blood cells ~ some breeds are more sensitive than others and signs can be delayed for several days.

Although in small amounts wild garlic reportedly has some similar doggy health benefits to those it has for us humans...💚

#wildfeast #wildfood #wildfoodlove #wildgarlic #foraging #foragingdogs #forager #foragedfood #foraged #sussexlife

👋🎥 OMG it's my TV debut on BBC2 tomorrow eve

👋🎥 OMG it's my TV debut on BBC2 tomorrow eve (and maybe any minute now tonight too) in 'Marcus Wareing's Tales from a Kitchen Garden'!! It's exciting...and scary as I've no idea how I'll come across!! Gulp... 😅😱

Here I am with chef @marcuswareing and series director/cameraman @olliescarth. I met Marcus last September in Kent to show him what's edible in the local hedgerows. I loved that he was genuinely interested in wildlife habitats like hedges and ponds, and I hope some of our chat about that made the final cut.🥰🌿🌸

🌿🧺 My foraging bit will be in episode 5 tomorrow, 4th March, 6.30pm. And I'm also watching out for a possible glimpse in episode 4 today, and 10 (next Friday), where some of the folk that met him, including me, got to eat some lovely scran! 😋

🌞🌳If you've been watching the series so far, what do you think? With all the troubles in the world at the moment, and for the past couple of years, it feels to me like lovely, escapist viewing, set in the summer sun.

🚜🌳It's all about Marcus's smallholding in East Sussex, slap bang in the middle of the beautiful @highwealdaonb countryside. He gets advice from local producers, farmers and gardeners about what he can do on his new smallholding, and does some cooking too, of course! The series, by the top peeps at @plimsollproductions started on BBC2 this Monday, and it's on at 6.30pm Mon to Fri this week and next week, and on iPlayer.

📷 Many thanks to Malcolm Wyllie for the photo, and for kindly giving up his time and land for the filming. 🤗

#wildfeast #talesfromakitchengarden #foraging #wildfood #wildfoodlove #marcuskitchen #kitchengarden #plimsoll #marcuswareing

Wild mushroom soup with wild garlic croutons 🍄🍄🍄🌱🌱🌱

Check out these crispy GREEN croutons!! I made these a few weeks ago with some of the first wild garlic shoots of the season. Feels like spring is finally here! 😍💚💚💚

I toasted thin slices of James' home made bread, drizzled them with a beautiful bright green oil ~ made with fresh wild garlic whizzed up with British cold pressed rapeseed oil ~ baked them until crispy and snapped them into tasty, savoury 'shards'! 🍞🍞🍞

The creamy mushroom soup is made with both cultivated mushrooms (on offer so nice n cheap!) and foraged wild mushrooms ~ winter chanterelles and dried ceps/penny buns ~ and a good glug of sherry, amongst other ingredients. Garnished with a swirl of sour cream and some shredded fresh wild garlic shoots. Yum! 🌱🌱🌱

PS. My mum calls this type of bowl a 'pipkin'...what a cute name! 🥰 I looked it up, apparently it's a name for a Medieval bowl with a handle, used to heat things over the fire! 🔥

#wildfeast #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foragedfood

February foraging for wild food & drink ingredient

February foraging for wild food & drink ingredients 🌿🌼🧺
What are you finding this Feb when the weather's good enough to get out?! 🌪️🌧️
Last weekend I gave a talk for the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve @rhnrfriends 🤗

🌿 It was an honour to be invited and I talked about, and created a display of, the sort of shoots, roots, fruits and flowers that can be foraged now. I focused on abundant plants (and one fungus 🍄) that can be found locally outside the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and SAC (Special Conservation Area) that is Rye Bay. Please note, you need landowner permission to uproot any plants, such as wood avens as pictured here.🌿

☠️ I mentioned some common poisonous, even deadly, looky-likeys ~ a couple of which are shown in my display: The innocuous-looking hemlock water dropwort that appears a bit like celery leaves, or flat leaf parsley...and lords and ladies which could be confused with common sorrel or even wild garlic shoots. 🌱

😋 I showed photos of the sort of food and cocktails I make with wild ingredients, and took a little taster along ~ some whipped goat's cheese with ground ivy to be scooped up with breadsticks.🍀🥖

🌊 The talk was at the new Discovery Centre on the Nature Reserve. It's been a great success since it was built and busy with folk popping in for coffee and cake. Lots of interesting things in the shop too. Definitely worth a visit! 🛍️

#wildfeast #wildfood #foragingtalks #wildfoodlove #winterforaging #forager #foraged #foraging #foragedfood #foragingcourses #sussexlife #sussexlifemagazine #kentlife #ryeharbour #ryeharbourdiscoverycentre

🎁 Need a fabulous last minute pressie fast? Gra

🎁 Need a fabulous last minute pressie fast? Grab a foraging voucher online!🎄🌿
Order and pay by midnight for emailed printable vouchers before 7am on Christmas day.

☝️See link in bio to order gift vouchers for my £55 foraging & wild food courses in East Sussex (and occasionally Kent), including a foraging walk, outdoor wild food tasting and lots of ideas on how to identify and prepare foraged ingredients. £99 full-day course vouchers also available on request. 📧📮🎁

Knowing how, what and where to forage is a gift in many ways. Learning to forage safely and sustainably with like-minded people is a fun, memorable experience, and as I've taught foraging for 10 yrs and am trained in plant ID, your friends and family will be in safe hands.🤗🌿

My first 2022 course dates will be posted on my website early in the New Year. Gift voucher holders get priority booking.

📷 photo by @bethsteddon 💞
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#wildfeast #foragingcourses #natureconnection #wildchristmas #outdoorgifts #shoplocalsussex #amazinghastings #buylocalthischristmas #supportsmallbusiness #shoplocalbattle #shoplocalhastings #shoplocalrye #shoplocalUK #intothewild #foraging #foraged #forager #wildfood #wildfoodlove #foodforfree #foragedfood #findyourwild #quietinthewild #foraginguk #rewilding #1066country #sussexlife #lovesussex #visithastings

❤️ A crimson webcap ❤️ What a lovely littl

❤️ A crimson webcap ❤️
What a lovely little fungus! Likely to be Cortinarius puniceus (no common name as far as I know), as confirmed by top field mycologist, Geoffrey Kibby.

Not an edible one, but isn't it colourful with its red cap, stem and gills? Growing in deciduous woodland.🌳😍

These webcaps are related to one of the most toxic fungi found in the UK, the deadly webcap (Cortinarius rubellus), which is orange-brown rather than red, and if it doesn't kill you, it can cause serious kidney and liver damage.☠️

🕸️ Young mushrooms in the webcap group of fungi (Cortinarius species) are covered by a cobweb-like veil called a cortina. All webcaps also have rusty spores which turn the gills of mature mushrooms brown. So treat fungi with either a 'web' or rust-coloured gills with extreme caution.⚠️

#wildfeast #webcap #fungihunting

🍄🍂 Late season 'shroominess 🍂🍄

🌳🌲A selection of November woodland wild mushrooms. Some of them a little slug eaten, but still fine for the pot. Beggars can't be choosers! 🐌😏

*Swipe for the names.👈
Blushers and deceivers especially aren't for beginners as they can be tricky to separate from some of the poisonous fungi. The hedgehogs and boletes are easier to identify.🤗🦔

I'm sure it's our last penny bun (cep/porcino) of the season ~ it was a week or so ago. We've had less of those this year than you can count on two hands, so not enough to dry and store as I usually would ~ not a great year for boletes at all 😭 ...oh well, there'll be something else. Hopefully our winter chanterelle spot will fruit reliably! 🙏

#wildfeast #fungiforaging #mushroomforaging #mushroomhunting #hedgehogmushroom #pennybun #cep #porcini #birchbolete #blushermushroom #amethystdeceiver #deceivermushroom #wildfood #wildfoodlove #foraged #forager #foraging

🎄💖Christmas tree crumpet (wild style)💖🎄

Pimped up my breakfast crumpet with some cherry plum syrup, dried rose and cornflower petals, and a sprinkling of larch needle sugar.

Bit of a fruity, floral sugar rush! 😆🍒🍒🍒🍬🍬🍬🌹🌹🌹

It tasted like late summer rather than Christmas tbh. Are we quite ready for Christmas yet though? 🤔

Do you like the enamel plate? It's a charity shop find! 💠💠💠

PS I didn't make the crumpet btw 😉 I treated myself at @marksandspencer

#wildfeast #crumpets #christmascrumpets #cherryplum #edibleflowers #inspiredbypetals#charityshopfinds #wildfood #wildfoodlove #foraged #forager #foraging

🪙🍞 Hello Penny...bun! 🍞🪙 Lovely to see

🪙🍞 Hello Penny...bun! 🍞🪙
Lovely to see you popping up at last in Sussex! It's been a while my delicious friends....🤎
Who else has found these yet this year and what do you like to do with them?

I'm thinking of a yummy porcini lasagne perhaps! It's one of my favourite penny bun meals...🤤🤤🤤

These are bolete mushrooms ~ fungi that grow from the ground (instead of trees) and have spongey-looking tubes ending in pores (instead of gills).

The edible boletes aren't too tricky to identify ~ you need to know the bitter species to avoid ruining a meal. And get to know the species that could make you sick; all of which have some red on them. I don't shun boletes with red colouring, I just make sure I've carefully identified them before eating. Some of them are quite rare too and I'd avoid picking them in that case...

#wildfeast #wildfood #wildfoodlove #boletes #pennybun #boletusedulis #wildmushroomhunting #fungiforaging

Buttermilk pancakes with damson coulis 🥞💗 Fl

Buttermilk pancakes with damson coulis 🥞💗
Fluffy pancakes were warmed over the BBQ and served in the woods with some delicious local @northiamdairyltd crème fraiche and a sprinkle of nutty Himalayan balsam seeds.

Dessert on a private foraging day I had the privilege to lead for a lovely team from @tearfund
@wearetearfund. The team foraged the seed sprinkles and made the coulis ~ the handiwork of Kylie and Paul. With @nicky.cramptonlife @becksli_

Hosted by @theoriginalhutcompany in beautiful woodland.🌳

#wildfeast #foraging #wildfood #wildfoodlove #damsons #forager #foraged #foragingday #foragingcourses

Chanterelle flower 🌺💛 James went out mushroo

Chanterelle flower 🌺💛
James went out mushroom hunting early yesterday and came back with a big handful of chanterelles and an orange birch bolete. Still not much else about yet down here in the South East. He went out again this morning and found 'jack', in his words!

I made myself take a melfie (mushroom selfie) recently 😆...I really find it hard to share photos of myself (I'm sure a lot of people do). But I also feel it makes a feed look more so much more 'human' and personal if you occasionally see the person behind it. So here I am, looking scruffy in the woods.🌳🤗

🍄 Tip for chanterelle hunting. Look for old mossy woods, birch is one of the trees they associate with, along with beech and oak. Keep an eye open, especially around glades and banks, it's even worth peering under bracken and leaf litter. Get to know the false chanterelle to avoid confusion, but I usually find these under conifers, and chanterelles far less so ~ at least here in England.

#wildfeast #chanterelles #melfie #wildfoodlove #fungihunting #wildmushrooms

Happy UK Fungus Day! 🌳🍂🍄 Wishing you a ha

Happy UK Fungus Day! 🌳🍂🍄
Wishing you a happy weekend with this beautiful fly agaric fungus I photographed this month last year on a visit to a woodland in Kent with @theherbmanuk. If you look closely, there's another tiny mushroom in front of it! I think its a small type of Mycena.

I haven't seen fly agarics yet this year...it's been pretty quiet on the fungi front so far in the South East. Here's hoping we'll see a good variety of fruiting bodies before too long ~ there's a good chance after all the rain we had here today!🤞

Are you inspired by fungi? They're crucially important to life on this planet ~ in fact it couldn't exist without them! 🌍

To quote the BMS (British Mycological Society): "Without the recycling activities of fungi, the world’s ecosystems would soon run out of nutrients. Plants without their fungal mycorrhizal partners to deliver water and nutrients, would not be able to grow and food would quickly become depleted."

Hurray for fungi!🥳🍄

⚠️ PS Fly agarics are edible but ONLY with the right treatment first to avoid some very nasty side effects as they contain several toxins. Anyone wanting to eat them should research thoroughly first.

#wildfeast #amanitamuscaria #ukfungusday #britishmycologicalsociety #natureconnection #conservationoptimism

Wild food in the woods 🌳🍇 Fennel seed bread

Wild food in the woods 🌳🍇
Fennel seed bread with goats cheese, wild herbs & pickled blackberries...swipe for wild fruit crumble bars.

On my last foraging and wild food course a couple of weeks ago - a lovely day with a super group. They were so chatty and asked lots of questions. 🤗 October courses are getting booked up now.🍁🍂

This walk started at @thehubbodiam hosted by the @theoriginalhutcompany where I'm lucky enough to be able to use this little shelter in the woods. Our 3 hour foraging walk is no more than 2 miles as we stop a lot and talk about the identification and uses of over 20 plant species.🌱🌿☘️🌰🫐

James and I then served these lovely folk some tasters:
~ Gazpacho soup with nettle and a wild herb gremolata.
~ Foraged fennel seed bread with whipped goats cheese and wild herbs.
~ Pickled blackberries.
~ Damson & cherry plum crumble bars spiced with hogweed seed.

🙏 Thanks to my friend Leanne @wildfoodstory for the fab crumble bar idea! xx

#wildfeast #wildfood #natureconnection #foragingcourses #foraginguk

🌿💛Chicken of the Woods Thai green curry💛🌿
Banging tasty!!!👌🔥 This is such a fab dish with the meaty-textured 'chicken', aromatic Thai herbs & spices and fresh foraged ingredients. Swipe to see the foraged ingredients and some of the bought ones.😋🍃

It's my friend Lisa @eduliswildfood's delicious recipe from a cookery class she did in northern Thailand, so the green curry paste is authentic Thai.🇹🇭
You can customise her basic recipe by adding in your own foraged greens and/or mushrooms to her curry paste and the sauce elements of coconut milk & cream, chillies, sweet basil, lime leaves and fish/soy sauce.🍄🌿

I spotted the chicken of the woods mushroom on an oak tree by a country lane. It needed a ladder to get to it, so James kindly went back the next day to climb the tree and collect it.🌳🪜🥰

I added foraged, mainly coastal ingredients, seasonal at the time in July: a few sea kale leaves and seed pods (I only take small amounts as it grows in a vulnerable habitat), some sea beet, orache and sea arrowgrass, given to me by Lisa, which tastes like coriander! I garnished the dish with some tree mallow flowers, plus fresh water pepper leaves for a little extra heat (they're hot like chillies).🌱🌶️

Make sure you cook chicken of the woods well, start it off on a high heat and cook it through, as it can cause a nasty stomach upset otherwise. And it's worth trying just a small amount the first time as it's reported some people have reactions to it. You have to catch it young and quite soft too, or else it's like chewing on sour boot leather!😬

There's not much you can confuse this yellow and orange bracket fungus with. Possibly shaggy bracket (not edible), giant polypore or dryads saddle, so familiarise yourself with those. It's mainly a late spring/summer mushroom, but I've seen photos of fresh-looking ones still around.

🔎 For the full recipe, search 'Edulis wild food Thai green curry':
www.eduliswildfood.co.uk/thai-green-curry

It's not quite vegan because of the shrimp paste, but you could replace that, as Lisa suggests, with an umami paste or sauce.

#wildfeast #thaigreencurry #wildfood #wildfoodlove #foraging #foragedfood

🧀 ❤️Cheese on toast with haw ketchup❤️🧀

I don't shy away from bread...gimme bread! I grew up with bread. Brown, white, sourdough, rustic, ready sliced...I don't mind! No bread shaming here...

Here's my quick, late toasty lunch. Smoked cheese grilled on top of the last of James' little home grown tomatoes and topped with sweet, fruity ketchup made from hawthorn 'berries'. If you haven't made this thick, ruby sauce yet, you must! Make it, and dollop it on all the things.

I'll try and do a step by step vid, but there are already some out there...

#everydaylunch #thingsontoast #hawthornketchup #hawthorn #hawthornberries #nevergonnagiveyouupbread #wildfeast #wildfood #foraging #wildfoodlove #autumnforaging

A wee vid of my fab find at the weekend. It was my

A wee vid of my fab find at the weekend. It was my birthday last week ~ I was richly rewarded! 🥳💝🍄

I don't make many videos and I'm not sure why I used such hushed 'David Attenborough' tones in this one 😆 ...think I was trying to be low key about my discovery in case of passing woodland walkers! 🤫😏🌳

#hedgehogmushrooms #hydnumrepandum #wildfeast #wildmushrooms #foraging #foraged #forager #fungihunting #fungiforaging #wildmushroomhunting #mushroomsofinstagram #wildfood #wildfoodlove #foragedbyfolk #mushroomhunting #ediblemushrooms #foragedfood #wildharvest #natureconnection #foodforfree #findyourwild #quietinthewild #foraginguk #sussexlife

🐕🌼Sparky and Yarrow 🌼🐕 Typically late

🐕🌼Sparky and Yarrow 🌼🐕

Typically late for International Dog Day yesterday, here's Sparky in a meadow next to yarrow! I'm pleased to devote a whole post to my sometime foraging partner, edible yarrow can wait...🐾🌿

We love Sparky - he brings us a lot of joy! 🥰 His talents are making us laugh, being cute, racing through meadows, jumping in circles, barking at seagulls and motorbikes, farting and keeping me warm in a sleeping bag (the last two ideally not at the same time 😖). 🐕💨

He is *not* talented at tracking animals. In fact he'll often miss a pheasant or rabbit right in front of his nose.🐇😏

He's a rescue dog and a bit of a townie. He's in his element pounding the pavement thinking he's top dog - he has a bit of 'small dog syndrome' tbh 😆...And whilst he loves doing a little-hound-on-the-prairie romp through the fields, he's a total wimp when it comes to thistles and brambles, and refuses to continue, necessitating being carried to less prickly safety. 😅

He loves walks and blackberry treats, but isn't keen on the stop-start nature of foraging...he finds it boring. He adores a pub, any pub ~ there's potential for hoovering the floor, making some human friends and maybe even snaffling some dog biscuits.🍻

I'd love to hear about your foraging friends....🐕🐈‍⬛🐎

Sparky's a terrier of unknown heritage ~ I reckon wire-haired Jack Russell, maybe a bit of Yorkie...could even be some Westie in there? He belongs to my friend Jane, but we look forward to having him to stay every so often, so he doesn't have to go to kennels.🐶💖

#rescuedog #terrierlove #terriergram #terriersofinstagram #terrierist #foragingdogs #wildfeast #foragingcourses #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foraged #foraging #forageandfeast #wildedibles #foragedfood #foodforfree #edibleflowers #eatweeds

Hedgerow fruit: Hawthorn and elderberry ❤️💜

Hedgerow fruit: Hawthorn and elderberry ❤️💜

Keep your eyes peeled for wild fruit ripening now! 👀

Hawthorn berries are turning red, but still a little hard at the moment. They're not very tasty raw ~ a bit like a wooly apple in flavour 😬...but I'll be making a tasty hawthorn ketchup with them once they've softened up a bit. A fab, fruity, ruby-coloured sweet & sour sauce, great with vegan tacos, bacon sarnies or chips! 🤤🌮🍟

Elderberries don't all ripen at the same time and they take a while to process ~ you need to pick each berry very carefully from the stem. So why not pick some, process, rinse and freeze, then add to them over the next couple of weeks. Elderberries generally need to be cooked and sieved ~ they're perfect for syrup, sauces and vinegar.😋 They're not for eating raw in any quantity though, or you could get a stomach upset.⚠️

As always, leave some for wildlife - but you'd be hard pressed not to as these bushes are abundant in the UK! 🐁🐦🐛🦋

#wildfeast #foragingcourses #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foraged #foraging #forager #forageandfeast #wildedibles #foragedfood #foodforfree #wildfruit #hedgerow #eatweeds

Cocktail canapés: goats cheese & wild herb crosti

Cocktail canapés: goats cheese & wild herb crostini 🍸🌿

Whipped Welsh goats cheese and wild herb crostini with blackberry vinegar molasses and self heal flowers. Made for a wild food talk a few years ago, and I recreated a similar canapé as a snack for my wild cocktail course last Sunday.

One of the lovely people on my course said, "you don't find these flavours at the supermarket"...too right you don't! These foraged flavours are very special. 😋

#wildfeast #foragingcourses #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foraged #foraging #forager #forageandfeast #wildedibles #foragedfood #foodforfree #edibleflowers #eatweeds

🌞 I'm looking forward to running my first wild

🌞 I'm looking forward to running my first wild cocktail workshop this Sunday!🥂 Let me know if you'd like to mix cocktails with me in this socially-distanced event near Hastings (link in bio).🍹

🥳 In celebration of my new workshop, here's a wild cocktail vid for ya ~ tap for birdsong and music! It's how to make my version of a Bourbon Blush cocktail at home, such a gorgeous combo with Kentish strawberries and may blossom syrup, which I made with hawthorn flowers in spring. If you haven't got may blossom syrup, just use a teaspoon of maple syrup.🌳

I just love the depth of flavour of a bourbon cocktail, especially with a sweet fruit like strawberry, so delicious! Whiskey in cocktails is nothing like sipping it neat, but if you're not a fan, you can easily adapt this and use vodka or rum instead.🥃

Who fancies making this??

No fancy mixing kit required ~ you can use the end of a rolling pin instead of a muddler, and a large jam jar with a lid instead of a cocktail shaker.🍸

🍓 60ml bourbon eg @jimbeamofficial
🍓 20ml @chambord_uk or homemade raspberry vodka
🍓 7.5ml (1/2) tbsp may (hawthorn) blossom syrup
🍓 3 ripe strawberries
🍓 Ice

See vid for the simple method. Ignore my mistake at the end which says 20 of may blossom syrup ~ it should be 7.5ml, but I couldn't trim it 🙄
👉 Recipe modified from @diffordsguide

@wild.cocktails #wildfeast #cocktailsathome #mayblossom #hawthorn #strawberrycocktail #daisies🌼 #edibleflowers #foraging #foraged #wildfood #wildfoodlove #wildcocktails #diffordsguide #wilddrinks #wildbooze #liqpiq #instacocktail #craftcocktails #cocktailoftheday #floralcocktails #botanicals #inspiredbypetals #findyourwild #quietinthewild #jimbeam #bourbonlover #womenandwhiskies

Tawny grisette - just hatched!🥚🍄 Look at tha

Tawny grisette - just hatched!🥚🍄
Look at that pretty tawny orange colour! When I found this mushroom, its cap still had the remains of the volval sac (from which it emerges) sitting on top of it - swipe to see it in situ in the second photo. It got me a bit confused and I thought it was a blusher looking at it from the top! 🙄 Just shows how careful you need to be with identifying mushrooms properly!⚠️

As you can see, the cap of the tawny grisette starts off egg-shaped and then flattens out. For more on tawnies, see my previous post.🧡

Humphrey and the tawny grisette 🐶🍄 Aww Humph

Humphrey and the tawny grisette 🐶🍄
Aww Humphrey, so handsome! My friend @harmarbrown's lab pup. He was such a good boy on the lead with the lovely @ericawordsmith. He didn't want to go home...yes Humph, I agree, staying out sniffing and exploring is much more interesting! 😏🌳🐾👣

Really appreciating snatched moments with friends now, I think it's one of the silver linings of covid not to take those times for granted. 🤗

...So the MUSHROOM: tawny grisette, Amanita fulva ~ usually a woodland mushroom. Orange-brown cap with white flesh and gills, a slender whiteish stem with no ring, emerging from what's called a 'volva' ~ that's a cup-like sac. The edge of the cap has radial grooves, or 'striations'.

This isn't a gourmet mushroom, but it's nice enough with a mix of others. ⚠️ Cook it thoroughly before eating though to destroy toxins.

☠️ There's potential to confuse this common, edible fungus with the deathcap (Amanita phalloides,) - one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the UK. Fungi of the Amanita genus are NOT to be messed with...most mushroom poisonings come from this family. 😱 It took me a while to feel confident enough to eat tawnys, and that's the best way to go about it.

🐢🐌 No need to rush with getting to know edible mushrooms. I've built up my knowledge steadily over the years with the help of books, websites like first-nature.com and trusted friends and experts like @eduliswildfood @wildfoodstory @andy_overall @jesper_launder @markwildfood @brothandbutter @loominpapa @foragingwithvirn @foragerfamily @johnwrightmushrooms
***check out their social media posts and responses on fungi Facebook groups. 🤓🍄

💛🍄 Chanterelles 🍄💛 Hello my beauties!

💛🍄 Chanterelles 🍄💛
Hello my beauties! 🌞🌦️
Apricot scented and egg-yolk coloured. With false gills, more like wrinkles than the pages of a book, which extend a little way down the stem - the technical word for that is 'decurrent'.

Some ways to tell these apart from lookalikes, the rare Jack o'lantern and the false chanterelle:
🍄 check that the gills fork
🍄 check that they're not growing on wood, or buried wood.
🍄 make sure that while the gills and cap are golden, the stem flesh inside is white.

False chanterelles are pale orange throughout the stem and the Jack o'lantern has unforked gills and grows on wood in a cluster.

Chanterelles fruit in relatively small patches down south - they're far more abundant further north in Scotland. So we harvest very carefully. Please leave the little ones to grow and spore, as these are a relatively slow-growing mushroom.🙏

Mycorrhizal fungi like these are important to forest ecology, in fact they're essential to the health of most plants. They form mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots ~ in the case of chanterelles these include birch, oak, beech and pine. They supply water and soil minerals to the plant, while the plant provides the fungus with carbohydrates created through photosynthesis. Nature is wonderful! 🥰💚

#wildfeast #chanterelles #cantherelluscibarius
#wildmushrooms #fungiforaging #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foraging #sustainableforaging #forager #foraged #foragedfood

🍓✨ Strawberry Elderflower Sparkler ✨🍓 I

🍓✨ Strawberry Elderflower Sparkler ✨🍓

I often serve this refreshing floral and fruity, fizz cocktail on my summer courses. The combination of elderflower and fresh strawberry puree always goes down a treat! 🌞

See below for the cocktail recipe ~ I hope you enjoy it, it's even better if you have a stash of your own home made elderflower cordial to use. Cheers! 🥂

Fancy mixing wild cocktails with me?! 🍸🌺🌼🌿 There are just 5 places left on my new Wild Cocktail workshop on Sunday 15 August at 2.45pm in Three Oaks, near Hastings - you can even get there by train! 🚞

Includes a countryside foraging walk, delicious wild drinks ingredients to taste, cocktail recipes and the chance to mix yourself a wild cocktail.
BOOKING: See link in bio to get booking and course deets.

🍓✨ Strawberry Elderflower Sparkler ✨🍓

• 130ml chilled brut prosecco
• 10 to 15ml elderflower cordial (or elderflower liqueur)
• 3 (or more) medium-sized, ripe strawberries
• Additional small (or wild) strawberries for garnish.

Makes one glass: Whizz up strawberries with a stick blender until smooth and push through a fine sieve to strain out the seeds. Add the strawberry puree to a champagne flute with the elderflower cordial/liqueur ~ you may want to add more or less cordial according to taste ~ shop-bought cordial tends to be sweeter than home-made. Top up slowly with prosecco while tilting the glass. Garnish with strawberries and edible flowers such as borage, or green alkanet flowers, which are bright blue. 💠

#wildfeast #wildfoodlove #wildcocktails

Chanterelle lasagne ✨🧡✨ Yum ~ summer 'shro

Chanterelle lasagne ✨🧡✨

Yum ~ summer 'shroomy deliciousness! 😋

This simple, creamy, open lasagne allows the chanterelles to shine. I sautéed the wild mushrooms with garlic and home-grown thyme, then added sherry and cream to make a sauce to layer between sheets of buttery pasta, topped with finely-grated grana padano. Lush with a fresh green salad and crusty bread with wild garlic or seaweed butter.🧀🥖🌱

Decorated with thyme leaves and edible flowers: cornflower and catsear (a yellow-flowered dandelion relative) petals, purple self heal and little pink marjoram flowers.💠

We struck gold after the rains and this was the second time I've been lucky enough to make this deconstructed lasagne with chanterelles this year. The first time we dined outside and shared it with a friend (who loved it)...and last night just to ourselves.🍴🤤🍄

#chanterelles #cantherelluscibarius #lasagne #wildmushroomlasagne #openlasagne #wildmushrooms #fungiforaging #mushroomhunting #forager #wildfeast #foragingcourses #wildfoodlove #wildfood #foraged #foraging #forageandfeast #foragedfood #foodforfree

Mix wild cocktails with me!🍸🌺🌼🌿 Hens

Mix wild cocktails with me!🍸🌺🌼🌿

Hens having fun at my wild cocktail mixing parties.🐔🥳
Now you can join in with my new WILD COCKTAIL WORKSHOPS. First one is 15 August - you can even get there by train! 🚞🥂

Discover the secrets of using hedgerow herbs, fruit, seeds and flowers to make wonderful wild cocktails with the author of @diffordsguide Bartenders' guide to foraging (that's me btw 😄).

My spring foraging courses this year were snapped up by gift voucher-holders (they get priority booking) ~ places are limited to 12 at this short-notice event, so book asap if you're keen to join! Link for booking details in bio.

We'll take a foraging walk in the beautiful Three Oaks countryside to identify edible wild botanicals. You'll pick garnishes and taste delicious wild drinks ingredients.

At the charming 50's style village hall, I'll show you how to mix delectable cocktails and give you ideas for foraged booze infusions, then you'll mix your own cocktail to savour on the terrace.

LOCATION: Three Oaks, near Hastings, just a couple of minutes walk from Three Oaks station.

DATE: Sunday 15 August 2021, 2.45 to 6.30pm.

BOOKING: In advance. Over 18s only. Link for deets in bio.

🌹🌸 Elderflower and rose Turkish delight 🌸

🌹🌸 Elderflower and rose Turkish delight 🌸🌹

Soft, sweet, floral, slightly chewy...delightful! 😄😋
Such a dreamy combo, I had to ration this and give some away so I didn't eat it all at once...💗🙈

Made with Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa) petals and elderflower infused water, sugar, a little lemon and lime juice, cornflour, and four raspberries (just to add colour rather than flavour).

I used leaf gelatine to set this, but you could try an alternative like Vege-Gel ~ it doesn't always set as well so make sure you use enough. Then I rolled the squares in cornflour with a little icing sugar.

Adapted from an elderflower recipe in John Wright's Hedgerow (River Cottage) Handbook.

Always a bit of a worry if a recipe will work/set when you modify it...but it did. Phew! Yay 🙌😁😆 #wingingit

#wildfeast #wildfoodlove #wildfood #japaneserose #rosarugosa #elderflower #turkishdelight #foragedbyfolk #eatweeds #foodforfree #forager #foraging #foraged #inspiredbypetals #botanicals #foragedfood #foraginguk #wildharvest #quietinthewild

🌿🍄 Oyster mushroom & black bean tacos 🌮🌿
DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO PHOTOGRAPH A TACO with one hand while holding it in the other??!! It's NOT EASY I can tell you! All the filling wants to fall out! 😅😆

Anyway sorry for shouting 🙈 just had to get that off my chest 😏

...So lucky to find oyster mushrooms (well James found them 🕵🏼‍♂️) they're such a good texture for something like this, pan-fried until just turning crispy, and being mild-tasting they absorb flavours brilliantly. I hope this looks as good as it tasted. Pretty darn good! All the umamis and meatiness but no meat.🤤

Encased in a tortilla: 🌮
Wild oyster mushrooms marinated in spices and garlic with a dash of soy and balsamic.🍄
Black beans & sweetcorn with tomato puree.🌽
Young ground elder leaves.🌿
James' mum's lettuce 🥬 (thanks Margaret).
Fresh tomato salsa.🍅
Tahini drizzle.🥄
Edible flowers: Green alkanet and catsear petals 💠

#wildfeast #oystermushrooms #vegantacos #wildfood #wildmushrooms #wildfoodlove #wildtacos #foraging #foraged #forager

Yay! 🙌 Wild oyster mushroom tacos coming up....

Yay! 🙌 Wild oyster mushroom tacos coming up....🦪🍄🌮
Well done for spotting these in the woods James! 😘

Hand model: James 👐

Camping cocktails: Dirty Elderflower Mojito✨🌿

Camping cocktails: Dirty Elderflower Mojito✨🌿
👀 Watch my friend Lisa's @eduliswildfood vid to see what's in my delectable but simple wild cocktail with homemade elderflower cordial and apple mint. Btw it's called a 'dirty' mojito, not because we're scuzzy campers, but because I use golden rum instead of white rum, which is just delicious in this drink! 😉🥃

Ingredient captions added as my mojito also has a splash of soda and I forgot to mention that as I wasn't expecting to be caught on vid! My surprised little face trying to remember the ingredients from the drink I'd literally made just a minute earlier! 😳🤔😆🙄

I was a bit weary as I'd been up much of the night chatting and mixing cocktails for fabulous foraging friends at the Association of Foragers meet-up.🥱
This was last month when Lisa, Torben and I had supper on the banks of Coniston Water in the Lake District. Lisa cooked sausages and wild mushrooms over her portable wood stove, and I rustled up some sorrel & pig nut pesto and cocktails. There's nothing quite like eating outdoors with friends and a beautiful view is there? 🤗🗻💞

I'll post the recipe for my mojito shortly ~ it's a lovely way to use your homemade elderflower cordial ~ I can thoroughly recommend it!🍹✨😋
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#elderflower #elderflowercordial #mojitotime #foraging #foraged #wildfood #wildfoodlove #locktails #wildcocktails #wildmixology #foragedcocktails #diffordsguide #wilddrinks #wildbooze #liqpiq #instacocktail #craftcocktails #cocktailoftheday #floralcocktails #edibleflowers #inspiredbypetals #findyourwild #quietinthewild #natureconnection #seasonalliving #outdoorliving #forageandfeast #coniston #conistonwater #associationofforagers

Evanescent elderflower.✨🌿 Every year she deli

Evanescent elderflower.✨🌿
Every year she delights me for a few fragrant weeks with her mass of frothy, creamy blooms and citrus-honeyed floral scent. But as quickly as her flowers arrive, they vanish on the summer breeze!

Not long left for foraging elderflower! Flowering started late this year, but they're getting scarce around here in the South now and have been tricky to harvest in the past few weeks with rain shortening the windows of sunny foraging days.🌦️

I've got cordial on the go and have to decide between champagne or gooseberry and elderflower liqueur for the last few flowers. Tricky choice! 😬🍾

If you can still find elderflowers and haven't made cordial yet, my zingy recipe with lime should last unopened on the shelf for a least a year, provided you filter the infusion through muslin before heating it, sterilise your bottles and lids properly just before filling them, and bottle your cordial while it's still hot. Link with recipe and ID tips in bio.🍶

Wild hop shoot risotto with chanterelles 🌱💛

Wild hop shoot risotto with chanterelles 🌱💛

Hop shoot risotto, risotto di bruscandoli, is a traditional Italian dish, and the shoots are eaten in Belgium and Holland too. They're a late spring/early summer delicacy and to me they taste mildly nutty with a green herby-ness. I'll post something on hop shoot ID next.💚😋

I topped my tasty risotto with some of the gorgeous chanterelles I foraged on Sunday with a few crispy fried lentils, crushed hazelnuts and home-grown marjoram leaves.🌰🍃

Wild hop shoots aren't hard to find here in the #HighWeald of Kent and Sussex. Hops have been grown here for beer making since the 16th century. The hop is thought to be native to the UK but they often grow in hedges and verges around the many oast houses here (originally built for drying hops) as wild descendants of cultivated crops. I love oast houses...and hop shoots! ❤️🍻

For my risotto for 2, soften finely chopped celery & onion in butter and oil. Add a clove & a half of chopped garlic and 200g risotto rice, and fry that for a bit before stirring in chopped hop shoots and a good glug of dry vermouth or white wine. Once that's cooked off, slowly add 600ml of veg stock, stirring. Season the rice with a little salt and stir in finely grated grana padano.🧀

I made the topping by pan-frying my wild mushrooms in butter & oil and adding cooked lentils, frying until crispy, with some crushed hazelnuts and the other half of the garlic clove, chopped. Plus a couple of fried hop shoots and fresh marjoram for garnish.🍄🌱

#chanterelles #cantharelluscibarius #foraging #foragedfood #wildfood #wildfoodlove #wildfeast #wildmushrooms #foragedbyfolk #foodforfree #forager #wildharvest #findyourwild #hopshoots #hopshootrisotto #bruscandoli #humuluslupulus #hopcountry #wildgreens #hedgerow #oasthouses #highwealdaonb #risottolover #risottodibruscandoli #hopshootrisotto #risottorecipe

HELLOOOO chanterelles! 🌟💛 👋 I see you pee

HELLOOOO chanterelles! 🌟💛
👋 I see you peeking out beneath the branches and leaf litter! 🍂
So good to see these golden woodland beauties popping up again at the weekend - they're loving all this summer rain...at least something's enjoying it! 🌦️

Chanterelles have a delicate aromatic mushroomy flavour which is quite easily overpowered. I find fairly simple recipes, where they're not competing with a lot of other strong flavours, let these delicacies shine best. I'm thinking of frying some of these up with butter and a little garlic and serving them on top of a wild hop shoot risotto.😋

If you're looking for these lovelies, take care not to get them mixed up with false chanterelles (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) and check on differences. One of the key ones is that the stem flesh of a true chanterelle is white in cross section, but the false chanterelle is orange throughout.🤍🧡
Chanterelles are slow growing 'shrooms, so leave little'uns to mature and spore.👶

Oh and a BIG HELLO to you from me! 😃👋 It's been WEEKS since I last posted! I've had a busy few months with spring foraging courses, private sessions and wild cocktail hen parties. Plus a meeting up in Cumbria with wonderful professional foraging colleagues and a hectic house move at very short notice thrown into the mix...Phew! 😱
If you're waiting for courses, summer/autumn dates will be on my website soon, with priority for gift voucher holders.💝

#chanterelles #cantharelluscibarius #foraging #foragedfood #wildfood #wildfoodlove #wildfeast #wildmushrooms #foragedbyfolk #foodforfree #forager #wildharvest #findyourwild

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2 thoughts on “Gallery”

Manoj Sharma
August 18, 2017 at 10:00 pm
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cooking is my passion and a hobby for me, besides, i love to eat lots of foods-
Sharleen Mccalebb
January 11, 2019 at 4:13 pm
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Thank you for this post, very informative.

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