Why I forage: Emerald Devonshire
This week we meet Emerald Devonshire to hear how foraging child becomes foraging parent
How did you start foraging?
I suppose it was picking stuff from the garden with my mum when I was a kid. Growing up in the countryside, she was a garden designer and my grandad was a gamekeeper so I got used to being outdoors. If I was naughty mum would throw me out of the house to play and, being quite a greedy child, I always ended up looking for things to eat!
I remember picking garlic chives or those little white flowers from dead nettles, which look like nettles but without the sting. You can suck the nectar right out and it tastes just like honey. That’s the kind of curiosity I’m trying to pass on to my own two-year-old now I’m a parent.
Why do you forage?
Not much has changed since I was a kid – I’m still hungry! – but now there’s also a mentality of common sense. With the cost of living and having two kids, it just makes sense to save money and my children honestly eat berries like they’re going out of fashion.
So I guess, why wouldn’t you use it when it’s free and right there? I don’t travel to any special foraging locations but if I happen to be somewhere I’d always have a look and see what’s around. On holiday maybe that’s lemons, figs and pomegranates, but there’s just as much on our doorstep.
One essential you can’t go foraging without?
Oh, maybe my pair of mini clippers, which I always carry in my bag just in case, or a penknife my grandad gave me. That’s really handy for all sorts and quite special.
Favourite foraging season?
Probably the autumn or just that last bit of summer. That’s when you get giant puffball mushrooms (must check for any sign of yellowing, or worse browning, as they will cause severe gastric distress) which I love to make steaks from, but the seasons are getting more and more delayed and it was so hot right into September last year. That said, I love the elderflower out now – even if you need a lot of it to make anything and it’s a bit of a slog to get all the bugs out!
Biggest foraging faux pas?
Oh, the day I went to get IVF treatment to try for my second daughter my mum was looking after my eldest. They had gone out for a walk together and she said she had found loads of wild garlic. So there I was, very potentially pregnant, and we decided to make something with the garlic for dinner.
It got to the point we were actually cooking the leaves when I thought I’d double-check my ID books to be extra careful. On closer look it turned out to be some sort of very similar-looking daffodil-type leaf that would have made us horrendously ill so that was a close call and potentially a £2,000 treatment down the drain!
What would you love to forage but haven’t found yet?
More mushrooms. Definitely. That’s the focus this year. I didn’t actually like mushrooms until very recently but after Covid-19 I lost my taste and it’s taken a full two years to get back to normal. So now I want to try everything again. I just need to do some proper research which I haven’t quite had the time or brainpower to do since my second came along, but this is the year!
Favourite foraging memory?
When I was at school I actually once got a detention for picking and eating all the blackberries growing along the back field behind the school site. I think technically it was for being out of bounds but that’s a good example of how I started foraging and my priorities as a child!
What’s your favourite way to eat foraged food?
I make the best sloe rum. Maybe that’s a bit basic. Everyone uses sloes – we fight for it around here and you’ll see neighbours trying to beat each other into the field after a frost to get the best fruit. It’s a bit ridiculous, but then I do it too!
Top tip to foragers just starting out?
Go with someone that’s done it before. It’ll make it easier if they know the area. Just keep it simple, ask what’s local, use your hands or kitchen scissors, and get a good app or reference book. I use my iPhone’s plant app ‘Picture This Plant Identifier’ if I’m out and about but have some failsafe books to double check in Ray Mears Wild Food book and the RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers.
My other tip is just: be resourceful. As I said, you don’t need fancy new equipment, and if a recipe says you have to strain with a cheese cloth, the reality is a pair of clean tights will do, or just a pack of baby muslins. You don’t need to spend money on gadgets, just get out there!