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

Wow! What a wonderfully, flavour packed herb Common Sorrel is! This super-delicious plant really doesn't get half the attention or culinary kudos it so rightly deserves. Aside from it's mouth-watering, citrusy, super tart and punchy taste profile, it's easy to identify, abundant and very versatile in the kitchen, forming the base of many an amazing dish whether savoury or sweet. Identification and Habitat: Common Sorrel has a preference for grassy areas; meadows, waste ground, fields and gardens. Each plant produces numerous leaves and can therefore be treated like cut and come lettuce (continuously producing leaves, except when in flower/seed stage).  Common Sorrel (as with Sheep Sorrel) has very obvious identification features and it's wise to spend time familiarising yourself with these. One particularly stand-out feature is the distinctive 'split' located at the base of each leaf, instead of attaching to the leaf stem, it splays out, akin to a snakes to...

Hard to believe a full year has flown since hosting our last winter pop up - time flies! Spurred on by glowing feedback from diners at last years event, we can't wait to get back in the kitchens and tantalise your taste-buds once more. The following link will take you to a page I recently published, explaining more about 4 wild seasons and it's ethics: https://edible-leeds.blogspot.com/p/4-wild-seasons-wild-food-dining.html Game For It... 4 Wild Seasons are taking over the kitchens once again at Seven Arts:  http://www.sevenleeds.co.uk/  in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, to cook and serve you a menu that is local, seasonal, natural, wild & different. Game For It, will be a 6 course, 2 canape and petit four, taste odyssey, featuring the harnessed yet untamed flavours of forest, hedgerow, mountain, coast & meadow, bringing you the very best in wild, seasonal, foraged and other flavours. All foraged & non-foraged ingredients will be ethically sourced, lovingly fer...

I was approached by David Laycock, creative visionary and driving force behind Independent Life Magazine: Leeds and York in Spring 2017 and after several conversations and a meet up over coffee, I wrote my first article for them in July 2017: https://leeds.independentlife.co.uk/wild-gathering/ I've been contributing regularly as an independent food writer for their publications ever since then and hope to continue doing so. My latest offering explores the theme 'What The World Needs Now' in relation to current global food systems, the issues with them and offers beneficial, logical and sensible alternatives to those damaging practices and of course wild and feral foods as part of those new, innovative, biodiversity beneficial, integrated global food systems. I hope you enjoy reading it:  https://issuu.com/independentlife/docs/il_mag_vol17_june_3 Links to my other articles for Seasonal Eats: https://leeds.independentlife.co.uk/seasons-eatings/ https://leeds.independ...

'What The World Needs Now' with regards to, environmental sustainability, was the topic for the most recent publication of Independent Life Magazine (formerly, Independent Leeds), published in June. My article is on page 10:  https://issuu.com/independentlife/docs/il_mag_vol17_june_3 In the article I explore and discuss the potential use of wild, feral and foraged foods to be part of new innovative, global food production systems.   We currently waste approx 40% - 50% of what food we grow in the UK alone. Wild food sources are neglected massively, with, I estimate, as much as 90% of what grows wild and feral being left to rot, what a tremendous waste, of very viable, nutritious and free food! Restoring Vital Connection with wild foods and the land has never been so important. I hope you enjoy reading the article.

4 Wild Seasons will be popping up in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, to cook and serve you a summer menu that is seasonal, natural, different. A 3 course taste journey, featuring the harnessed yet untamed flavours of coast, forest, hedgerow and meadow, bringing you the very best in wild, seasonal, foraged flavours. All foraged & non-foraged ingredients will be ethically sourced & lovingly fermented, cured, smoked, pickled, prepped, cooked & served. All you need to experience this wilder side of Summer is a sense of culinary adventure and: £27.50pp (payment required on booking). A wild inspired gin summer cocktail is available for £5 only when booking (usual price of cocktail is £7.50). Please mention this offer when booking (price will be £32.50). Booking essential. Email:  edible.leeds@gmail.com I have a very different ethic with regards to food and the quality served to my guests than most restaurants and food chains. I spare no expense on ingredients and alway...

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...