From Fruits, flowers, foliage, roots & fungi, there is always something to forage.
On our courses in addition to sharing our knowledge of wild edibles and their uses we also identify and therefore elinate those that are toxic.
Here our our finds from our recent courses in the Taste the Wild woodland.
If you would like to join us on a One Day Foraging course, please take a look at the course details here: Countryside, Coastal, Fungi.
| Acorns | Chop nuts as soak then grind to make a flour | |
| Aniseed funnel | Mushroom | |
| Artist bracket fungus | Mushroom | Fun to draw on! |
| Bay bolete | Mushroom | Small bolete, mushroom with pores dark brown cap and has a distinct yellow ring at the stop of the stem |
| Bittercress | Cress replacement, found all year round | |
| Blusher | Mushroom | Striped skirt and bruises red when touched or nibbled, must be cooked thoroughly |
| Bracken | Carcinogenic | |
| Bramble | Pickled bramble stems | |
| Brittlegill | Mushroom | |
| Brown roll rim | Mushroom | Toxic large brown mushroom, gills run down the stem and the rim rolls inwards |
| Burdock | Edible roots can be roasted or used to make dandelion and burdock beer. Leaves can be used like a banana leaf | |
| Buttercup | Toxic | |
| Chicken of the woods | Mushroom | Edible but can cause gastric upset in some, try a small bit (well cooked!) |
| Clover | Tea or salads | |
| Common stinkhorn | Mushroom | |
| Cow parsley | ||
| Dandelion | All parts edible, leaves in salads, buds pickled, flower petals in sugar water to make vegan honey, root roasted to make coffee | |
| Deciever | Mushroom | Small orangy brown cap, with a wavy edge, widely spaced gills with a smaller gill inbetween, fiberous stem |
| Dog Rose | ||
| Earth ball | Mushroom | Looks like a potato, is firm when young flesh is usually black inside but sometimes white in young specimens – Toxic |
| Elder | Cordial, shrub (with vinegar instead of water), fritters, tea, alcohol infusion. Berries- vinegar, tea, jam etc great for colds and flu | |
| Enchanters nightshade | Toxic | |
| Field mint | ||
| Fools parsley | Toxic | |
| Guelder Rose | ||
| Hawthorn | Young leaves great in a salad, blossom to make an almond syrup or in salads, berries high in pectinm great for jam or fruit leather | |
| Hazel | Edble nuts, ready to pick end of August, green are cob nuts | |
| Herb robert | Salads | |
| Hogweed | All parts edible, young shoots great in a cheese bake, flowers in a salad or tempura battered and fried, seeds like cardamom | |
| Horseradish | Leaves and root can be used, both have the wonderful radish flavour | |
| Japanese rose | ||
| Lords and Ladies | Toxic | |
| Milk caps | Mushroom | |
| Nettle | Multiple medicinal and edible uses, it’s a super food and delicious – pasta, cordial, soup, crisps etc | |
| Oak gall / Oak apple | Use to make ink | |
| Oak mazegill | Mushroom | |
| Pestle puffball | Mushroom | |
| Plantain | Ribwort and broadleaf: leaves contain antihistamine, anti-fungal, anti-viral, antibacterial and stop bleeding, both have edible flowers tasting of raw mushroom | |
| Purple vetch | Flowers and leaves in salads etc seeds toxic | |
| Ragwort | ||
| Raspberry | Edible leaves, flowers and fruit, leaf tea good for menstrual pains | |
| Red cracked bolete | Mushroom | |
| Rose | Petals in salads or cakes or make wine | |
| Rose hip | Syrup v high in vitamin c | |
| Russula / brittle gill | Mushroom | Thin coloured cap flesh that easily peels to reveal a white flesh, the gills break easily when you rub your finger across them, stem snaps |
| Sea buckthorn | Berries have a wonderful sour juice | |
| Sedge | Long grasses use for weaving or making cordage | |
| Self heal | Made into balms or creams for skin complaints | |
| Shaggy ink cap | Mushroom | |
| Snakeskin grisette | Mushroom | |
| Spruce | Tea or dry to matcha | |
| Stinking dappling | Mushroom | Toxic |
| Sulphur tufts | Mushroom | Toxic, sulphur yellow gills turning blackish green with age |
| Sweet clover | Tea or salads | |
| Sweet woodruff | Best dried and then used as a flavouring | |
| Tawny Grisette | Mushroom | |
| Turkey tails | Mushroom | Medicinal mushroom, great for immune boosting |
| Vetch | ||
| Willow herb | Leaves as a salad or spinach, leaves rolled and dried for tea, stems- young can be treated like asparagus, flowers- salads or colour changing water | |
| Wood avens | ||
| Wood ears | Mushroom | |
| Wood sorrel | Looks like clover with heart shaped leaves, salads, sorbet etc |