Foraging Fun

Something I've been wanting to do more of for a long time is foraging. Having recently visited Ardkinglas woodland garden I went onto their website to look at what events they had on and stumbled across a foraging afternoon with Mark from Galloway Wild Foods.

I took the opportunity to meet up with Adam and Emma for a walk round the estate grounds beforehand, which was glorious in the sunshine, although we ran out of time for a joint picnic, so I left them to it and headed for the foraging meet up at the beautiful Ardkinglas house.

Mark really knew his stuff and led us on a 4.5 hour walk round the estate, although never more than 5 minutes from the house as there was so much to see in such a short distance. We made our way round the lovely garden nibbling on various leaves and flowers and learning how to identify them and avoid potentially fatal snacks.

We tried things like wild garlic, wood sorrel, magnolia flowers and my favourite surprise - Japanese knotweed! As long as it hasn't been treated with any herbicides then the young shoots are delicious like a sweet rhubarb. We also tried egg wrack seaweed and a few other shoreline and coastal plants.

We also tried a range of tasters along the way, with elderflower champagne, pine needle vodka, hogweed bitters and elderberry vinegar. These sweet things were absolutely amazing.

What an incredible afternoon! Mark also runs kayaking and foraging camps, mushroom foraging courses and various other things. Check out his website, linked above, for loads of free information about how you can find edible stuff everywhere, and what to do with it.

At the end of the walk we rounded it off with the most delectable picnic made with foraged foods and transformed into a range of amazing things, including wild garlic pesto, pickled wild garlic leaves, fermented wild garlic flowers, yoghurt with sweet cicely and Japanese knotweed puree and parkin made with hogweed.