I’m delighted to say that the publication date for my book – The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food – is now set for September 8th and there will be two launch events, one for the press on September 13th and a less formal do at Stoke Newington Books (London N16) on September 29th. [...]

Here’s an entry and a couple of the illustrations from my forthcoming book, The Edible City. It’s out in September but I thought the timing of this piece was just about perfect to publish now, with some enormous stinging nettle leaves all over London at the moment. Simplicity itself, this is one of my most [...]

Spring is a hectic time of year for a forager, nowhere more so than in the city; the natural world is erupting with lush green leaves and brightly coloured flowers, stunning blossoms adorn the trees and all manner of delicious edible delights leap out at me every time I leave the house. It’s almost too [...]

Here’s a short/not so short film of me in a north London nature reserve, randomly waffling about wild plants and foraging in chilly February… unrehearsed and unplanned, I was about to take a a photo of some tasty looking young hawthorn leaves and instead I ended up making this film, without taking a breath for [...]

Last summer I ran a private event, a foraging walk for a swanky south London cocktail bar, an excitable bunch, brimming with ideas and eager to explore and utilise some of the cities wild flavours in their drinks. It was a roasting hot day and many of the plants we encountered were very dried out, [...]

2019 update. It’s a few years since I originally published this article and despite my continued disagreements with the Forestry Commission in Hampshire, I have tried to develop a reasonable working relationship with them, and to be fair, they have too. Year on year the problem is always the same…all sides of the debate having [...]

My bloody back is killing me! Too much time in the car and too much time in front of this cursed screen! Hold on, I hear you say, nobody wants to read a blog where all you do is moan, not even your mum. Absolutely right, so instead of complaining and instead of more computer [...]

It’s more commonly a plant, a recipe or some historical information that inspires me in the kitchen…In this case it was quite simply the packaging, not that I can exactly remember where this plastic tray came from or what was in it to start with. Last month I wrote about my trip to Scotland, something [...]

Would you like an all expenses paid trip to a beautiful and remote Scottish island, to forage, cook and generally just hanging out as the guest of a whisky distillery? Oh, and there will be a group of like-minded people, foragers, chefs and booze people with you, you’ll have to spend your time visiting some [...]

The internet is awash with regurgitated information and nowhere more so than in blogs like this one. I always try to write about things I have actually experienced rather than repeating the findings of others, but it’s hard to stay on the path especially with so much information to draw on. Facts and lies seem [...]

I’ve said it before but foraging is easy, it really is, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not to be trusted. My approach hinges on taking the tinniest bit of knowledge and putting it to myriad uses; simply being able to identify a Dandelion will provide numerous, all year round, foraging opportunities and produce [...]

OK, I admit it. I do have a tendency to go on a bit, especially about wild food, foraging and all things connected. So, for this month I’m going to shut up and just give you some delicious new recipes to try, either created by me or generously donated by foraging friends. Actually when I [...]

Last month I started writing about how to stay healthy during the winter months, a vast and diverse topic and as a result, one that I have split into two halves, even then only really scratching the surface. Ideally we would all spend more time concentrating on our health but modern life, especially in the city, just [...]

Big cities like London; magical, vibrant and eclectic environments in which to exist. Perhaps the reason so many of us choose to spend so much time living and working in them, although the flip side to all this wonderful humanity, squashed in together, is never more evident, than come winter time. A hot, packed ride on [...]

It’s early November now and not too late to get out of the city and look for some tasty edible mushrooms. I love Antonio Carluccio’s poetic description of mushroom hunting…he calls it “The Quiet Hunt” and this is a task best undertaken with an experienced guide to help you sort the delicious from the deadly. [...]

Nature is a massive relay race, endless and cyclical; numerous plants run the length of their season, overlaps occur as others start theirs, the batons are passed and off go the next group. What a wonderful, fertile world it is and as foragers we are placed, probably better than anyone, to watch this marvellous and never ending [...]

In the Spring I published an article about how to learn fifty wild plants in just ten minutes (all the wild UK members of The Mint Family). To continue on a similar theme, this month I have chosen another huge group of plants, many of which are part of our conventional food chain and plenty [...]

…(actually it’s just 5 and there’s one with me in). The more time I devote ( waste, give, spend…you decide) to the wonderful world of foraging, the more diverse the directions it leads me off in. Foraging is such an amazing mix of so many topics; wild food, herbal medicine, gastronomy, survival, nutrition, botany, history, [...]

I live in Highbury in North London, really very close to Arsenal’s massive Emirates Stadium, I am not, however, much of a football fan. Fortunately, if I walk just three minutes in the exact opposite direction, I come to Clissold Park in Stoke Newington. During my recovery from back surgery seven years ago, I used [...]