Edible Leeds - Wild Food Foraging Courses and 4 Wild Seasons Pop Up Dining Events

Seaweeds, those most amazing of oceanic organisms, are a ' bit' like wild mushrooms, in the sense that they are continually undergoing, extensive, scientific research. Despite this, there is still much that marine biologists and scientists just aren't entirely certain of. Issues such as deciding which genera to place them in and the ongoing mysteries regarding aspects of reproductive cycles, seem to be the most common. For those reading this who have dabbled with and, are familiar with the intricacies and subtle frustrations encountered within mycology, will no doubt love seaweeds, they are the 'fungi of the ocean realm'.  If you have an interest in food, cookery, nature and spending quality time outdoors, you'll love the fascinating, delicious and wonderful world, of seaweeds.  Did You Know? The scientific name, ' Porphyra'',  is derived from a Greek word meaning 'purple-red colour' and although these colours are representative, I feel the ...

I imagine most of us were introduced to the delights of the seaside as children, which included many joyous and seemingly timeless hours of innocent fun, exploring rock-pools and coastal caves, racing imaginary horses (unicorns?) along and through the fringes of the incoming and outgoing tides, eating ice-cream and partially burying your favourite, yet annoying sibling and sculpting them into strange creations, adorned with various coastal debris & tucking into fish n chip dinners, complete with the random obligatory grains of sand that somehow find their way in no matter how carefully you attempt to fend off their incursions. I've always been fascinated by the coast and the majority of my childhood holidays were spent at various coastal locations around the UK: I consider myself very fortunate to have experienced those times. Our coastline, for the majority, is within easy reach and apparently, no-one in the UK lives more than 80 miles from some part of it. My fascination...

If you are lucky and live close to the sea, especially in striking distance of a shingle beach, then you may just find Sea Kale... As far as coastal edibles go, Sea Kale rocks: it's a true delight! Throughout the winter you will detect very little in the way of signs indicating if Sea Kale is present as it spends the winter tucked up, snugly, beneath the shingle awaiting the Spring. The first signs of life generally begin in early spring (in mild winters it may appear earlier), when the tiniest of shoots, wake from their wintry slumber and start to force their way up through the shingle and, as the season progresses, more and more shoots appear. The leaves, whether new or mature, come in an assortment of varied and magnificent colours (see image top right): greens, purples, reds, greys and lilacs. They are crinkly edged and become more open and rounded edged with age. Eventually, the flowering shoots appear on thick, tender, circular stalks and look remarkably similar to pu...