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

I have very fond memories of gathering Dandelion leaves as a child in order to feed them to my pet rabbits, of picking the full flowers and racing around the local park, arms outstretched, imagining myself an airplane and using my thumbs to flick the flowerhead missiles clasped tightly in my hands. I remember picking the furry looking, globe-shaped seed heads, taking a deep breath and then exhaling fiercely in an attempt to magically synchronise the number of exhales with the time of day and of peeling the hollow stems, to see how many thin strips I could reduce it to while occasionally touching the very tip of my tongue to the white sap and then recoiling in humour-fuelled-horror at the extremely bitter flavour: happy days! I hope those of you reading this remember your early memories with dandelion?   As I grew older, my attention turned to more pressing, age-related activities, mischief and social norms and I slowly began to forget those days of simple, innocent play and wo...

It really is one of those 'love, hate' relationships, depending on which side of the proverbial fence you find yourself. Personally, I love Japanese Knotweed. I love it's potential as a diverse food & drink resource, I'll delve deeper into that arena later. I also find it to be a striking and handsome plant. I've read some very interesting academic, scientific and medicinal literature, both mainstream and non, which raised many a question regarding Japanese Knotweed; how it's perceived professionally, and thus culturally, and how this determines and affects it's subsequent treatment by humans. I heartily recommend the book 'The New Wild' by Fred Pearce - a book all nature lovers, conservationists and environmentalists should consider reading. Like so many, I too was led to believe that Japanese Knotweed aka Fallopia japonica was a botanical nightmare, especially with regards to its reportedly negative impacts on our beautiful countrys...

I love Mackerel! It's a much under-rated fish except by those who have sampled its excellent culinary qualities. Mackerel are members of the tuna family and are always present in UK waters. Summer is the best time to fish for these oceanic beauties when they congregate in great shoals lured closer to shore by the warmer waters. They are tastiest when freshly caught - I find they don't respond well to long term storage - and given how easy they are to catch, you'd be crazy to miss out on the fun and fine feasting they offer. Mackerel will eat just about any bait you offer them and you only need 1 large or 2 small fish per person to satisfy appetites. It's very easy to get carried away when fishing for them due to their ravenous appetites, so adhering to a strict mindful, ethical code of practice is essential - I've caught a full-house on many an occasion and quite often after my first cast: a full-house is when you are using mackerel feathers as bait, these feathe...

Prepping the Pollack While exploring and playing on a delightful beach on Islay I managed to catch this lovely Pollack, total fluke catch really, was doing a demo cast for Liz of https://foragefinefoods.com  when it took the lure. It weighed approx 1.5 - 1.75lb. I'd been thinking (and hoping) of catching and cooking a fair decent fish using this method for a while and I'm really glad I got to do so while on Islay and in such grand company . After dispatching the fish at the beach, gutting and cleaning - all parts discarded became food for other creatures - it felt only fitting to clean it in the very waters it had come from. Ingredients: Pollack (or Pollock) Wild Thyme Wild garlic Sweet Cicely Sorrel Seaweed:  Pepper dulse Carrageen Sea lettuce Sea spaghetti Kelp Poaching liquor: Plum Liquer Alexander root tincture 5 Carrot bitters Method:  1) On returning to the hoose, 5 incisions were made on both sides of the fishes flanks an...

This recipe culminated after a days foraging with friends on Anglesey 2015. I'd never made a ceviche before and after finding myself with the perfect ingredients; seaweed, coastal greens, fish, I did :) Ingredients:  1 fresh Mackerel, filleted, de-boned and skinned        Sea Noodles Juice of 1/2 a Lime/Lemon/Orange (depending on fish size/quantity you may need to up this citrus juice amount) Sea Arrow Grass Sea Purslane Pepper Dulse Red Chilli Hogweed Pinch of Sugar (optional) Method: 1) Put the prepared Mackerel into a bowl with the all the other ingredients except the Thongweed. Stir & place in fridge for 20 minutes. 2) Plate the thongweed, spoon on the ceviche mix, add a little fresh chopped pepper dulse & extra sea purslane (I let the natural pepperiness & saltiness provide the seasoning). S 3) Serve with some fresh, gently steamed, buttered sea beet shoots/flowering shoots. Feel free to play with other ingre...