Foraging in The UK/Ireland

[Brady]

Two of my favourite TV programs are River Cottage (Channel 4/More 4) and Ray Mears (Dave).  These guys have really inspired me to go out and look for wild food.  This year I have picked seaweeds, nettle, dandelion, raspberry, wild strawberry, blackberriy and now rosehip.  Find it really satisfying finding food in a hedge.  I also bought the River Cotteg Hedge Row Handbook which is a good guide.  Have any of you guys been out foraging this summer and what have you found?

Hope to have a gun licence for next summer and hunt wild game, who knows some day I could be self sufficent.

[goodsamaritan]

How about insects and grubs?

[TylerDurden]

I live in London where I can only find genuinely wild, raw blackberries in certain national parks. In my Italian holiday home, I can forage for raw limpets, raw sea-urchin-eggs, and raw samphire. Sadly, the Mediterranean is way overfished so I dare not go in for octopus-fishing and the like.

[Brady]

How about insects and grubs?

I eat worm castings and the odd worm as a probiotic, I got the idea from a personal trainer I met in Australia who is on the Primal Diet about 6 years, Scott Wheeler.  This guys the real deal, probably in the best physical condition of anyone I've ever met.  He only sleeps 3 hours a night 8-12 and trains clients all day, plus he's an absolute gentleman.  You may have seen the vidoe of him and his kids on youtube which aired on national television.  If not have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-PcGP0BLqM

Part from the worms I haven't tried anything else, our insects are a bit boring over here, unlike the monsters you probably have in the philipines! lol

I would love to try some of those grubs the Aboriginies eat, appartently they're delicious.  I found a cool shop in Belfast (about 40 miles from me) that has frozen locusts, they are very expensive however.  Will try them someday as a treat.

What about you GS?

[kurite]

I eat worm castings and the odd worm as a probiotic, I got the idea from a personal trainer I met in Australia who is on the Primal Diet about 6 years, Scott Wheeler.  This guys the real deal, probably in the best physical condition of anyone I've ever met.  He only sleeps 3 hours a night 8-12 and trains clients all day, plus he's an absolute gentleman.  You may have seen the vidoe of him and his kids on youtube which aired on national television.  If not have a look:

Sorry to bug you but you said he sleeps 3 hours than 8-12 and was wondering what you meant by this?

[Brady]

Sorry to bug you but you said he sleeps 3 hours than 8-12 and was wondering what you meant by this?

Doh!  Sorry yeah 4 hours, he said the hours of sleep before 12 are much more valuable than those after.

[Brady]

I live in London where I can only find genuinely wild, raw blackberries in certain national parks. In my Italian holiday home, I can forage for raw limpets, raw sea-urchin-eggs, and raw samphire. Sadly, the Mediterranean is way overfished so I dare not go in for octopus-fishing and the like.

Tyler you'd be surprised what edibles can be found in London, in one of the episodes of River Cottage (A Cook on the Wild Side) they go foraging in around central London, they find lots of herbs, a fig tree, Snails and go fishing, very entertaining.

[TylerDurden]

Tyler you'd be surprised what edibles can be found in London, in one of the episodes of River Cottage (A Cook on the Wild Side) they go foraging in around central London, they find lots of herbs, a fig tree, Snails and go fishing, very entertaining.

Yes, but I'm sure they are heavily contaminated. I see quite a lot of blackberry bushes around bus-stops and train-stations. While some of them are very luxuriously covered with blackberries when in season, I am , somewhat understandably, put off eating them by the fact that I invariably see signs of contamination such as used toilet paper in same bushes.