3rd May. Springfield Park It was hot, really deliciously hot, that weekend in early May where the weather pretends it’s mid-summer for a few days before settling back to the seasonal norm of ‘slightly disappointing’. There are probably 250 wild and not so wild plants in my urban repertoire, it may be more, I’ve never [...]

This months blog is written by my dear friend Irwin Edgehill. Irwin describes himself as a trainer and personal development coach. Over the last decade he has helped hundreds of people build or rebuild their confidence and resilience in their personal lives or at work. For my own part, when reading a book about mindfulness [...]

1st December. At a friend’s in Walthamstow, post fungi-hunting in Essex ‘When are you going to take me mushroom hunting then?’ If I had a penny for every time I’d been asked that question I’d have, well, about £1.50, I think. The trouble is, I am always ready to head out but when that rainy [...]

September 5th September. Tottenham I like to call it ‘green vision’. Once turned on, it’s pretty much impossible to ever turn it off again. Rushing to the Tube is punctuated by flashes of edible plants, just leaving the house turns into an opportunity to lookat potential ingredients, and a walk in a local green space [...]

June 5th June. Stoke Newington Sunshine, blue skies, roadworks and traffic jams. I’m not a huge fan of summer in the city but I never tire of visiting my most local park, an old friend who keeps me sane and always has something interesting to say. Today he says just one word: blossom. Lime, elder, [...]

April 2nd April. Waterlow Park, Highgate A dense and damp mist was hanging over most of the city this morning and Highgate, which looks like something of a time warp even without it, was positively Dickensian. For various random reasons I seem to have visited this park at regular intervals across the last twenty-five years, [...]

Buy your copy now! I can think of nothing more fulfilling than cooking with food that I have foraged. To feed yourself and those you care about with ingredients sourced by your own hands is to rekindle a relationship with nature, and the simple act of gathering our own food is the way man has [...]

Did you know that there are lots medicinal extracts and tasty wild foods that can be made with roses? Roses are possibly the love of my life so this is quite the ode to them. People are usually fascinated to discover how easily they can make things from them. Here are recipes for using Roses [...]

Baker and food writer, Helen White, interviewed me for her own blog. We talked at length about the concept of forgotten exotic spices in the UK – our very own homegrown spice rack! More details of Helen’s writing and fantastic cookery here. Helen begins… The disconnect between humans and the environment outside our cities and [...]

Sea Spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata) While you might not be able to forage Sea Spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata) from any of London’s green spaces, with the growing movement towards a grain or gluten free diet this amazing seaweed deserves a mention. You can find sea spaghetti for sale at health food shops or you can easily buy [...]

Vivienne Campbell Bsc (Hons) MNIMH is a qualified herbalist, foraging teacher and professional natural cosmetic formulator. She teaches classes in Ireland & UK and worldwide via her online video courses. Vivienne loves teaching people how to use herbs simply, effectively and joyfully. She believes it is everyone’s birth-right to know how to use common local [...]

Vicky was born and raised in London. She had a calling to study nature from a young age and didn’t let city living get in the way. She began foraging and growing food and medicine as a teenager in any green space she could find – local parks, wastelands, window boxes and back gardens. Her [...]

Richard Mawby is a forager and a modern hunter gatherer. He has re-wilded his gut over a number of years and attains most of his nutrition from wild seasonal food alongside traceable food staples that closely mimic a true late-paleo diet.  “With the not-so-harsh winter on its way out, wild spring greens start making their [...]

I have spent the better part of four years ‘re-wilding’ my gut, my senses, my instincts and my knowledge to better serve me as I walked away from many commercial and intensively farmed sources of food. The greatest challenge I have faced is to attain a modest healthy number of calories from wild starches during [...]

John has very kindly invited me to contribute a guest blog. I am a fellow foraging guide who is based in Mid-Wales. Almost all of my forays are in the vast conifer plantations scattered along the Cambrian Mountains. I am lucky in that no one seems to want to restrict mushroom picking here. This is [...]

This month, some recipe ideas, an excerpt from my own book, The Edible City, and some beautiful hand drawn illustrations courtesy of the mega-talented Gwen Burns.

As they say, “It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it”. So I guess the responsibility falls on me, again. After all, that booze won’t make its self will it? Usually I’m out and about foraging near me, but instead we found ourselves at this picnic table conveniently placed on the banks of [...]

If I were you, and obviously I’m not, I’d just watch this film about foraging and not bother to read any of the blog below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6rrMqFBT1o For anyone who was unfortunate enough to make it to the end of my last blog, here is the second half; the further rantings of an ego unchecked, the product [...]

OFFICIAL WARNING : Blogging is the most self indulgent and self serving pastime known to modern man. With this in mind I politely suggest that you  DO NOT READ ANY OF WHAT FOLLOWS  unless you have almost saintly tolerance of other people’s opinions and a small amount of time to waste. For anyone who’s new [...]