Eat entirely for free by foraging ✓

Look, you might think this isn’t the most interesting of all the posts from ✓ Project Bucket List, I wouldn’t put it past you if you expected me to just upload a bunch of pictures of me eating stuff off the floor. However, I promise you that if you’ve ever gone into a pharmacy and wanted to eat the little bits of paper that they use to showcase the different perfumes – this article has a way to make your dreams come true.

If you head over to Eventbrite and search for Foraging, you may experience the same thing I did. Guided classes ranging from £45 to £90, where somebody with dreadlocks will walk you through the woods and point out all the nice things you can eat. If, however, you get lucky and see somebody walking around a university campus (you might be there for, say, figure drawing) with a sign saying “FORAGING CLASS NEXT SATURDAY“, you might only spend £5.

In our case, we pulled the good straw, and found ourselves following one kindly Yi Wang, who excitedly showed us and a group of around 15 others a series of plates, all filled with foraged food. They explained that we’d be leisurely strolling around the university, exploring everything that Springtime foraging had to offer.

We set off, and then stopped immediately.

We learn about hazelnuts, miner’s lettuce, rosehips, and broadleaf plantains, all of which we found within a metre of the car park. I’ll stick a list at the bottom with all the stuff I learnt. I won’t bore you with lists of names in the article, I know that you skipped over those first four.

We keep walking and, skipping forward a few steps, get to the Elder tree. All throughout, Yi Wang is excitedly bouncing around showing us examples and explanations, and giving guessing games. This person is an absolute delight.

It turns out there’s a whole bunch of plants and trees where you can just eat the leaves, though many of them are kind of bitter and a bit rubbish. We get a clear stance on foraging from our guide: This is for fun, not for survival. We also get a clear stance on safety: Do your own research, I’m not responsible!

Many foragers offer the same advice. If you don’t know what something is, don’t eat it. Additionally, if you want to eat something, but there’s a small chance that you might be mixing it up with something poisonous, don’t eat it.

The crowd following along are varied in demographic. There’s a young kid excitedly running around regaling us with facts about the mushrooms he’s seen. At each stop, we all engage with the tour and learn about what we can and cannot eat.

At one point, we stop near some wild garlic, the third most delicious thing I ate today, and are presented with some little pancakes and toast that Yi Wang made for us to try, out of food foraged from the ground beneath us.

Moving on, we circle around the campus, attracting a few curious looks from dog walkers, as we stoop down and put things in our mouths.

One of my favourite features was the magnolia tree, the second most delicious thing I ate today, a gorgeous flowering beast reaching above us. Kymberley and I tried one of the petals that had fallen to the ground, and were amazed at the taste – the most fragrant thing I think I’ve ever been allowed to eat. This is the part where I call back to the first paragraph about eating perfume test paper. If you ever wanted to do this but the cops stopped you, go eat magnolia tree flowers. They’re fucking delicious.

It seems like time flies way too fast, and by the time we get to 12:30, the tour is over and we’re saying goodbyes. Kymberley and I snoop around and decide to grab the most delicious features of the day, and stuff our pockets full of primrose, wild garlic, and magnolia petals.

After such a beautiful morning, the first hint of summer this year, we decide to have a barbecue. We add our goodies to our burgers (the most delicious thing of the day) relishing in the taste of nature. I know the title of this ✓ Project Bucket List item is “Eat entirely for free by foraging”, however I’m making an executive decision to count this one as ticked off.

Sure, the wild garlic, magnolia and primrose took the place of lettuce in my burger, but my god, they took the spotlight while doing so.

Foraging did absolute wonders for vibes – spending a morning out in nature, learning and appreciating it, then experiencing it with a new sense was a great start to the warmer season. We’re now armed with the knowledge that sometimes it’s ok to eat things off the floor, as long as you know what they are first.