≡ Menu
Book cover of 'The Edible City - A Year of Wild Food' by John Rensten, founder of Forage London & Beyond.

Welcome to Forage London and Beyond, a collective of independent foraging teachers offering London wild food walks, Dorset seashore and coastal foraging, Hampshire and New Forest mushroom hunting.

Private and Company Foraging Events

We offer Private and Company Foraging Events tailored to your requirements.

Over the last decade, I have organised and hosted hundreds of private foraging courses and wild food events. Some of these have been for charities, corporate team building events, company away days and many have been for private groups who wanted an bespoke individually tailored, special day out foraging. Working with a small group of extremely knowledgeable foraging teachers, I am able to offer a wide range of urban or out of town experiences. The areas we cover include…

Corporate group on forage London wild food walk

Some of the events we offer are listed below, but feel free to email me at [email protected] and we can discuss any ideas you might have. 

  • Foraging and wild pizza making.
  • Team building foraging outings.
  • Mushroom growing workshops.
  • Urban foraging walks, London, Southampton etc.
  • Wild booze walks (plant foraging and basic cocktail making).
  • Wild food, wild medicine (introduction to herbal medicine).
  • Autumn Mushroom hunting (with optional cooking).
  • Seaweed and seashore foraging in Dorset.
  • Coastal foraging day (with optional cooking).
  • Introduction to bushcraft skills (fire, water, food, shelter).
  • Plant identification and basic botany.
  • Wild food and drink product development.
  • Learn to make a fire.
Wild booze walks (plant foraging and basic cocktail making)
Wild booze walks (plant foraging and basic cocktail making)
foraging course foraged lunch happy diners
Team building foraging outings
mushroom growing workshop with Jack Cox
Mushroom growing workshop
making candles from foraged ingredients
Wild plant cosmetics and remedies workshop
Seaweed and seashore foraging in Dorset
Seaweed and seashore foraging in Dorset
Forage London foraged store cupboard on garden table
Wild food, wild medicine
Man holding large foraged nettles
Plant identification and basic botany
Foraged ingredient pizza being put into fire
Foraging and wild pizza making
Group of people foraging in wood
Autumn Mushroom hunting (with optional cooking)
Plate of sushi made from foraged ingredients
Wild food cookery classes
Man starting fire
Learn to make fire
Man and Child identifying foraged plants in woods
Plant identification and basic botany

To arrange a walk in your local park, woods or common for groups, private parties or any other event please email [email protected] or call me on 07958 304287 to discuss. 

Recent clients and partners 

The Botanist Gin

John has been playing a huge role in the development of The Botanist Gin, his knowledge and expertise helped us to convey our message to in the UK. His foraging walks have always taught us loads and helped us to understand our surroundings better and use them in food or cocktails. ‘

Miller Harris Perfume

We have had the great pleasure of foraging with John on numerous occasions, with guests from all different creative fields and everyone is always thoroughly delighted with the experience. John’s walks transform the way you view the city and we wanted to experience it from an olfactive perspective whilst understanding what could be a source of food in the urban landscape. We learnt so much and found John’s personality is equal to his knowledge. As one of our press guests complimented, she will never see the city in the same way again.’ 

Lush Cosmetics

We thoroughly enjoyed our foraging with John, learning about all the different fungi species we came across. Much like the mycelium network, we’re all interconnected and rely on each other for nourishment and support – so this was exactly what we needed to bring us together as a global team and connect to our vision of leaving the world Lusher than we found it. We’ll definitely be back for another walk with John soon.’

Seedlip/Diageo

Our foraging day in London with John was highly inspirational. As a team of mixologists constantly working on cocktail recipes and menus, our day foraging with John learning about native British ingredients with punchy and unexpected flavours certainly made us think outside the box. It was a fascinating day learning about the wonders of nature & everything it provides. Thank you, John, for helping inspire the team’.

Green and Blacks

‘Thank you so much for today, you were super!! So interesting and  very insightful and bringing such valuable experience to our ‘creative spark’ workshop day.’

Tate Modern

‘John was welcoming, entertaining and engaging; a natural presenter who is obviously very passionate about what he does.’

The Museum of London

‘Thanks again for leading a great event – I had such positive feedback from the guests, and I think many of them will be coming to your future workshops too!’

Westminster University

‘Thanks John. It was great! My students had lots of amazing reflections the next day and the feedback from the pupils was really positive.’

Islington Ecology Centre 

‘Johns walks are highly educational and have been valuable to the local people, encouraging engagement with nature in a responsible way.’

Bushmills Whiskey

‘John was a great help not only in the execution of our event but also in helping us understand the principles behind foraging and what we could achieve with foraged ingredients. His enthusiasm for wild food and the process of collecting it was infectious, and both media and consumers commented on how much they enjoyed his walk. John is knowledgeable, affable, and professional; a rare combination but one that ensures that we’ll use him again. Thanks John!’

London Wildlife Trust

‘We have had such marvellous feedback from your event, so thank you once again.’

Victorinox/Swiss Army Knives

We just wanted to send a thank you for hosting the workshops with us and joining us at Wilderness Festival. It was a pleasure to work with you.’

White Pepper Cookery School

‘Working with John on our various foraging courses in Dorset is as much a joy as it is an education, he has great expertise in relation to our edible landscape, nutritional facts, horticultural medicine, cookery and the history of plants and fungi. To pass on this sometimes complex information, to include Latin names, in an accessible, relevant, and fun way to groups of all sizes, takes great teaching and interpersonal skills.  This is what, in our opinion separates John from the other tutors and experts in his field.  John’s students leave feeling inspired, more confident and hungry for more. In short foraging with John is an exceptional experience not to be missed.’

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

‘We manage a nationally recognised nature reserve in east London, and we have had a long relationship with John.  His walks are hugely educational and hands on. Via the theme of foraging, he wants people to enjoy the natural world as much as he does, and he aims to help people do this in a considerate and responsible way so that plant populations aren’t removed and are maintained for both wildlife and people.  John is truly engaging and fascinating to spend time with.  Walking the landscape with him is immensely rewarding.’

Blue Ventures 

‘Thanks again for a great morning of foraging, fascinating facts about our local park and the edible delights that we could find there and the chance to try some of your home-produced drinks and food. We all had a great time.’

Green Alliance

‘We booked a wild food tour with John as part of an office away day and were really impressed with his knowledgeable and entertaining guided tour of the edible delights of a London Park. It was a really interesting (and tasty) afternoon out, which got people talking and learning – and inspired several of us to be more adventurous with our eating! Highly recommended.’

Upham Pub Co.

‘We had an amazing experience with John doing Urban Foraging in Southampton. Our head chefs felt engaged and thought that John was very passionate, enthusiastic, and very inspiring. We will definitely be doing this experience with John again.’

Rolling Drinks Trolley

John is THE voice when it comes to foraged ingredients in the UK.  Friendly, knowledgeable & creative, a pleasure to collaborate with.’  

Our Vodka London

‘Your forage walk has really opened our eyes to the truly magnificent range of herbs and plants that are all around us in this great city. 
Your knowledge, and the interesting way you shared this with our guests on the walk, was top quality!’ 

Abbots Court

What an inspirational morning. We were all blown away by the experience and we can’t wait to get cracking on organising the next one.’

Talisker Whiskey

‘We had a fascinating and extremely enjoyable time with John looking at some of the wild cocktail ingredients that can be found in any London Park, more outing s to follow soon.’