Some foraging channels

I've been foraging since I was a boy. As I've explained in previous blogs, I grew up in Cornwall and my late father was a very keen fisherman and game hunter. Much of the protein we ate as kids came from the wild larder - rabbit, pheasant, pigeon, duck etc. and a wide variety of fish and seafood. But there were foraged wild fruits in our diet too. Mum made hedgerow jellies and jams from blackberries, bullaces, crab apples and much more. And we made the use of plants like wild garlic and three-cornered leek as well as growing vegetabes in the garden. My maternal grandfather was also a keen countryman and was a farmer from a long line of Cornish farmers. His knowledge of wild plants and animals was encyclopaedic. So it's no wonder that, from an early age, I knew what was good to eat and what was poisonous.

That's me in the second photo with Dad and Grandad and a pretty good haul of wild game for the pot. And, in time, I learned to handle .303 rifles, 410 and 12 bore shotguns myself. I could gut and paunch a rabbit when I was 12.

That's me aged 23 in 1984 with Dad's gun dogs, Holly and Spring. I was already living and working in London when that photo was taken but would often visit home and would ocasionally go out shooting.

Dad died unexpectedly in 1991 at the tragically young age of just 51 - he'd had a heart defect he hadn't known about. And that was the last time I went shooting. It was also the last time I went sea fishing for nearly 20 years. And working in London meant that I slowly lost contact with the natural world.

But then the Covid lockdowns arrived in 2020. I was, by now, living in Buckinghamshire on the Chiltern Hills and right on the edge of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. All my work had stopped. All travel had stopped. The world was on hold. So I decided to use these extraordinary times to sort out my physical health. I used the lockdown to shed over four stones in weight and I reversed my Type-2 diabetes (full story here). My diabetes remains in remission. 

I sorted out my mental health too by shedding my addiction to negative mass media, getting off the worst social media platforms (full story here) and spending more time walking in the countryside with my dogs. To keep my mind active I created the Monster Zoo (see here), started this blog (and, later a Youtube channel), and set myself the task of learning to identify every species of tree in my local area. This ignited something inside me and my childhood love of foraging soon returned. I was quite surprised by how much I still remembered. But my knowledge was increased tenfold by reading excellent books by people like John Wright, Robin Harford, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Richard Mabey, Florence Williams and by watching some excellent Youtube channels - see below. I also learned about the science behind 'Soft Fascination'. It's scientifically proveable that being in contact with Nature is good for us in a very real and measurable sense (see here).

Here are a few of the best foraging channels that have helped me to rebuild my knowledge. 

We start with Wild Food in the UK. Here's a sample video (they publish good books too):

Next up is UK Wildcrafts, which is probably my favourite foraging channel:

I also strongly recommend Atomic Shrimp. While not a dedicated foraging channel, he's a chap who shares many of my passions and interests and his foraging knowledge is excellent:

I also recommend Fieldstudy:

Eat The Country also has some great videos (but is even better on Instagram):

The final Youtube channel I'll mention is Home is where our Heart is and they also produce some excellent books:

One last mention is actually Instagram rather than Youtube. It's Hedgerow Healing, which may seem like a curious choice but it's an interesting blend of folklore, paganism, and herblore and always a delight.

So there you go!

I do the homework so you don't have to.