Open courses

My courses typically run between March and November. These dates are for scheduled wild food workshops and foraging walks, open to all.

You can also book a bespoke, corporate or private session with me for a larger group (usually min 6 adults), tailored to your requirements, subject to my availability. I don’t usually do private courses for individuals or couples, as my day rate is the same for one person as it is for many.

I’m also planning some more online foraging sessions, building on the ‘follow along’ live foraging events we enjoyed in previous years. Follow me on instagram to hear more about those in the coming weeks!

Autumn 2021

Courses usually book up quickly, and are secured on payment. When a course is full, you can join the waiting list for any you would like to attend should any places become available later. Some courses are pure teaching, others include tasters as well. See my updated full course terms too for COVID-safe events.

Gift vouchers

I can do gift vouchers for specific published dates (listed on this page) or I can do an open voucher valid for up to a year from the date of purchase.

For those with existing 2020 season vouchers (including those bought for Christmas 2019), I’ve extended them all to the end of 2021 as I was unable to run courses last year due to the COVID restrictions.

Course dates

Future dates
This is all the definite dates for 2021. If it stays mild enough, I may add another one in early November, but I’ll judge that in a couple of weeks based on the night temperatures. As soon as I set more new dates, I will publicise it well via my channels.

I won’t have any more coastal foraging dates in 2021 after the two September courses, so if you’re interested in seaweeds and coastal specialists, do watch out for my next seashore courses next April and May at the full moon! If you have vouchers, be sure to book onto an autumn course if your voucher expires between November and next April, as I stop teaching once the first frosts arrive in Leeds (usually around the end of October, everything dies off after that!).

Dates for 2022 will be going up in the early spring at the latest. I may get a couple of dates up before Christmas. You will of course also be able to buy gift vouchers for 2022. Email me for those!

COVID-safe events
Please note that in attending a course with me you’ll be expected to fully abide by current govt COVID rules if any are still in place on the day, including keeping at least 2m distance from people not in your bubble. We won’t be doing communal food etc for the time being unless stated on the event listing. We’ll be focusing on teaching and learning, which is really what it’s all about anyway! We’ll get back to feasting as the restrictions around distancing relax : )

Reviews

Cooking courses

Freelance writer and blogger Jen Chillingsworth at little birdie joined my July ‘forage & cook’ day at the Get Cooking! kitchens in Leeds and reviewed her experiences of the day along with her beautiful photos:
Foraging & wild cooking day – Jen, little birdie

Spring courses

Food writer and photographer Joan Ransley joined my May wild food walk in Leeds and wrote about her experiences of the day for the Yorkshire Post and i-Paper, along with some of her gorgeous photos:
Urban foraging: how to find your dinner in a local park – Joan Ransley

Summer courses

Writer and blogger Dawn Nelson came to my riverside foraging walk through the Winchester water meadows in July 2015 and posted a review of the day, along with her lovely photos:
Foraging with Edulis : wild food – Dawn Nelson

Autumn courses

Photographer Mat Smith writes an account of his first foraging experience on my New Forest foray in September 2015, including some of his beautiful images from the day:
Fungi foray in the New Forest – Mat Smith

What to expect

My scheduled wild food courses are open to all.

The walk itself
The walks are usually a full day’s workshop, and you you needn’t be super-fit, with around 4-5 hours of very slow, easy walking with frequent stops to introduce you to interesting wild edibles & medicinals as we go along, with opportunities to taste things. Most walks are only a mile or so in length over the whole day. If a particular route is longer or more moderate in nature I will specifically state this on the listing. Sometimes we’ll all bring a packed lunch and have a rest to eat on the way round, sometimes we’ll cook our own wild lunch as part of the course.

Foraged tasters & cook-up (COVID permitting)
Some of my longer courses include an outdoor cook-up at the end (reflected the ticket price). For courses that include this, at the end of the walk we gather round to enjoy some foraged tasters together. We’ll be able to sample some plants and flowers raw as we go along, but the vast majority of wild mushrooms and some other plants should be cooked before eating so we’ll take the opportunity to have a cook-up of our finds and see what they’re like, along with wild teas, usually from plants we collected on the walk, homemade cheeses, chutneys & bread and maybe a wild salad or cake, it changes every time! I’ll also bring my homemade wild pickles, vinegars, syrups and infused booze for you to sample.

This usually takes another hour or so, allowing for chatting and questions and to have a look in my books and to sample other wild concoctions and things I’ve brought along for you try. I ask about dietary requirements as part of booking.

Weather
Come prepared for anything the great British weather might throw at us, I never cancel for a bit of rain or cold! We forage in all normal UK weathers. I would only cancel a course if the weather conditions are deemed unsafe rather than just inclement. Suitable clothing for the season is essential, waterproofs/warm clothing for the colder months, suncream/hat etc for the sunny days, and always come wearing good sturdy footwear to go foraging, wellies/waterproof boots if it’s likely to be muddy or if we’re going to look at seaweeds in the rockpools.

Prices

Prices vary depending on course length, venue and whether or not any food is included. Prices are specified on each listing further up this page. There’s usually a limited number of child and student places on each walk. You can redeem gift vouchers for open courses and you can pay the difference to top up your voucher value on more expensive special events if you like too.

How to book

Please email me at eduliswildfood@gmail.com telling me which course you’d like to book and for how many people and I’ll send you the payment details, payable by bank transfer.

Courses must be paid for in full in advance to secure your booking. For my refund and cancellation polices, have a look at my terms & conditions for foraging courses before booking on.

If you wish to redeem a gift voucher, please let me know this at the time of booking. If the course you wish to book is more than your voucher I’ll send you the payment details for top-up and booking. Any queries just get in touch!

Children

Children are most welcome and I love having them on my walks, their enthusiasm is wonderful and they are fantastic at spotting things!

All children must be accompanied by a parent or other responsible adult and will be in their care throughout the walk. There isn’t a lower age limit (unless specifically stated on the listing, most courses are open to all but very occasionally it’s adults only or not suitable for littlies). I leave it up to parents to judge whether their child can walk for a mile or so (or 3 miles for a couple of the Cumbria courses) over the 4-5 hours of the course and will follow safety instruction. I do sometimes do family foraging sessions which are 2 hours which are very suitable for children.

The terrain is mainly flat for Leeds courses but you might struggle with a pushchair in some locations, so please contact me first if you plan to bring one. A carrier might be more suitable for very young children. For the Cumbria and coastal courses and some others, the terrain can be steeper or more challenging and absolutely isn’t suitable for pushchairs or very young children. I do put this in the course information for the ones it’s relevant to, but if you’d like more detail on what to expect on the day for any particular course I’ve listed on my event calendar, then please do get in touch, I’m happy to tell you whatever I can about the route and plan for the day at that location!

Locations

I run courses all over the UK, predominantly in Yorkshire and Cumbria, also North Wales and Scotland, and sometimes Hampshire and the south coast too. I will also teach wherever I’m invited, even abroad! I do love to travel for foraging.

The exact timings, content and locations for my courses are confirmed on booking (or you can email me any time to ask) and I send out detailed joining instructions the week or two before the day of the course.

Wild food is incredibly seasonal and weather-dependant, so sometimes I may elect to change to a different location a few days before the course so that I will have more to show you, especially on the Leeds courses. This is very unusual but can happen! So I don’t usually specify exact locations when I first post up the course dates on my website as they may change.

Seasonality

I can find something edible to forage all year round, however I prefer to run courses in the months when nature’s larder is most bountiful and varied! I typically run courses March/April to October/November, depending on frosts.

Spring is great for fresh new greens, roots, flowers and tree ID. Crunchy common hogweed shoots, garlicy ramson buds, sweet-and-sour darwin’s barberry flowers and earthy-green nettle tops are abundant. If we’re lucky we may also find some of the first good edible fungi of the year such as st george’s mushrooms, morels and scarlet elf cups! Spring is also a rich time for seaweeds like pepper dulse and kelps before the relentless summer sun de-colours them, as well as gifting us super-low tides for shellfish such as cockles and razorclams (‘spoots’) on the sandy shores and mussels on the rocks.

Summer boasts greens, flowers and also the first fruits start to appear. Colourful cherry-plums, creamy pollen-covered elderflowers and fragrant beach-rose petals abound. With rain comes flushes of warm-loving fungi such as chicken of the woods, chanterelles and summer ceps. A few spring species are already turning to seed for us to enjoy, like wild garlic and alexanders. Saltmarshes on the coastal estuary mudflats are at their most perfect in mid-summer for marsh samphire, sea arrowgrass and other ready-salted succulents for us to sample.

Autumn is the best time for a wealth and variety of fungi and fruits, as well as seeds, roots and foliage, some of which can persist long into the winter, especially if it stays mild. Biennial plants such as burdock and wild carrot with their starchy roots are best harvested in the autumn of their first year. Rosehips, elderberries, hazelnuts, sloes and haws line every hedgerow like bright jewels. Annual seaweeds such as dulse and sea lettuce are fully grown in late summer/early autumn so it’s a great time to harvest those, plus game & shellfish return to the wild foodie’s menu.

Check out my Instagram feed, my Facebook page, and my blog to see what I’m finding right now and what’s coming into season shortly for you to look out for!

Terms and conditions

For further detail about the basis on which I offer my foraging courses, gift vouchers and other services, please see my terms and conditions page.