Foraging and cooking in London, UK

Cost of living has reached crisis point, so we thought now would be the ideal time to head off on a foraging course and learn how to gather our own food for free. We headed off on a gorgey Spring day with Totally Wild to Horsenden Hill in London to see what nature could offer up for our poor, hungry tummies.

We set off from our parents house in the morning with rain hammering down on our family heirloom umbrella (it may be over twenty five years old, but it’s still the perfect den building block), crossing our fingers around the world that the weather would be kinder once we reached our foraging destination – Horsenden Hill. We reached the nature park by train, automobile and bus (how do you like them vehicular modes of transport Steve Martin?). Having arrived in Wembley, it was shock to find such an abudance of Spring greenery only twenty minutes away by bus.

After walking over a quaint canal, lined with Rosie and Jim styled barges (thank god there were no nightmare inducing singing rag dolls), we met our foraging guide and settled into a circle with our new found foraging companions. April showers were in full swing, and the heavens opened and closed more than Kate and I open our copies of Jessica Elliott Dennisons cookbooks. We were allotted wicker foraging baskets, Kate and I being given control over the leaf green basket, and we set off on our merry way.

Our first stop on the foraging train was poison-ville. The guide immediately stopped by a bunch of white leafy headed plants and asked us to guess what they were. One keen boi guessed at wild chervil (if anyone knows the proper pronounctian of this then please get in contact). But it was not! In fact, the innocent looking plant was hemlock, 150mg of which is enough to kill a person, and there is no known cure for the poison (if you have any serious enemies and are comfortable spending 25 years in prison, take note). We all had a sniff of the stalk, which smelt like petrol, and compared it to its cousins wild chervil and fool’s parsley – which will not kill you, but will make you rather sick. On the guides advice we did not pick any hemlock look alikes.

The next stop on our foraging tour was nettles. But we weren’t picking them, no no, we were looking at what to use as a balm if you’re ever stung by a nettle. It turns out that doc leaves are not the cure, this is instead parent propoganda, spread to stop children from crying when they are stund by a nettle. It is actually plantain – not the banana looking one – that helps with nettle stings and insect bites, luckily it usually grows near to nettles. We all picked a plantain leaf for any potential stings we might get later on and forgot about them in our pockets to find several days later when they have turned to mulch.

Next up, it was still not nettles that we were looking at, but instead deadnettles. Kate and I grew up calling these lady nettles, thinking that it was the male ones that were nasty and would sting, and the lady ones that grew pretty white flowers – everyday sexism at play in the natural world. We picked some of the flowers to taste, unfortuantely they stop being sweet once a pesky bee comes and pollinates the flower.

The verges that we were walking through were truly verdant with snacks. Around the dead nettles was lots of goose grass, which we all probably know better as sticky weed. It turns out that this isn’t just a fun plant that you can sneakily throw onto your friends’ back, but you can also eat it – but just the tops. We next picked some doc leaves and finally had something to put in our leafy green basket.

We carried on up the hill, stopping in a shadey copse to pick some greens closer to the ground. At this point, the start of May, there wasn’t as much wild garlic around to pick – althought the woods did still smell like a giant salad. We sampled another leaf and had to guess what it was called by its flavour. We guessed correctly that the flavours were garlic mustard, as was the plants name!

We carried on to the tippy top of the hill through a narrow path. Unforunately, the couple with the baby had to dump their pram somewhere in the woods to make it to the top. But at the crest of the hill was a well desereved reward! We found an elderflower tree, which used to to make harps and flutes by the ancient Greeks. It wasn’t quite it bloom, but our guide did a Blue Peter moment and whipped out some elderflower concotions she had made earlier. We had some elderflower gin spritzed onto the back of our hands to lick off. We were then provided with a wet wipe, which we weren’t allowed to eat even though we basically foraged it.

The top of the hill was covered in hogsweed, but we were not fooled! Hogsweed can often be mistaken for giant hogsweed, which is highly dangerous. We scuttled away from the dangerous hogsweed and were rewarded with a chat by some silver birch trees and a sampling of their sap. It was much nuttier and less sweet than maple syrup, we were both big fans!

We finished of our circular forage by heading down the hill and eating every kind of blossom that was blooming on the way – we picked some apple blossoms as well to use in our cooking, our baskets were filled up to the brim with foraged goods.

Back at foraging/ cooking HQ we appreciated everything we had gathered and were split into a production line – and yes, its true – Kate and I were separated and it was truly tragic.