Kate Balding

News and Reviews Reviews

Six foraging workshops to keep loneliness at bay this Loneliness Awareness Week

Say ‘so long’ to solo foraging with these warm-hearted workshops

It’s time to shake the stereotype of the lonely, solitary wanderer. Foraging hangouts are in!

Sponsored post: Briar partners with individuals and brands who share our passion for the planet and its people.

Sick of solitude? It might be time to buddy up at a foraging workshop. Credit: Kate Balding

For many foragers, human connection is not on their list of things to look for while rummaging in the woods or combing the coastlines. Instead, they value time in the wild for its focus on the quiet, unassuming, non-human.

But while some seek solitude, others forage as a way to nurture their social relationships. From couples balancing on each other’s shoulders to pick the sweetest fruit, to families sharing secret spots with trusted little ones, foraging can be a gateway to new friendships and the perfect antidote to loneliness.

With that in mind this Loneliness Awareness Week, here are six of our favourite foraging workshops to help you buddy up.

1

Forage and Nibble by Forage Box

Cost: £35pp

Duration: 3 hours

Location: UK-wide

Perfect for: Foodies

Forage Box are on a mission to get people away from the supermarket giants and we couldn’t be more on board. If you’re an enviro-hero looking for like-minded foodies, their ‘Forage and Nibble” workshop is a perfect way to clue up on sustainable wild foods while making new friends.

Get ready to learn about fungi, fruit, flowers and foliage, and look forward to plenty of wild nibbles along the way. We also like their options for longer foraging excursions where you can cook and feast your way through the day. Did someone say foraged-ingredient soufflé, ravioli, and sushi?!

2

Women of the Wild: Three Day Bushcraft Adventure by The Grim Adventure Club

Cost: £235-265pp

Duration: 3 days, 2 nights

Location: Pembrokeshire, Wales

Perfect for: The gals

Eva Outram’s club got its name to challenge all those who say it’s “Grim up North” and as her Instagram will show you – it’s an easy sell. Ditching the corporate world for Channel 4’s survival TV show Alone, we love the heart Eva brings to her custom adventures and this is our top pick for anyone looking to upskill on all things bushcraft.

Expect wood carving, wild-cooked meals, tree identification, shelter building, story circles, sleeping under the stars and did we mention the Celtic Feast? We also have a soft spot for this workshop for being women only so if you’re looking for sisterhood on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, these weekends are sure to be something special.

3

Witchcraft Foraging for Spell Intentions by Urban Forage

Cost: £35pp

Duration: 3.5 hours

Location: Stanmer, Brighton

Perfect for: Spiritual souls

If you’re more interested in the symbolic and spiritual meanings behind wild plants, then this workshop is your sign to start channeling that energy with others.

Highlights include a guided walk with master forager Christian Amys, tales of herbal wisdom, healing and magic, nature-based intention jars, foraged teas, and sacred campfires to help you align with others and the power of the Wicca.

4

London Wild Foods by Fergus the Forager

Cost: £75pp

Duration: 3.5 hours

Location: Hampstead, London

Perfect for: Intermediates

Fergus Drennan is a giant in the foraging community with 30 years of wild food experience, so if you’re looking for a workshop with a little more technical know-how this could be the group outing you’ve been dreaming of.

As well as showing you how to identify 20-30 plants and fungi, Fergus shares detailed advice on food preservation techniques including salt pickling, vinegar pickling, lacto-fermenting, cordial making, wine and spirit making, dehydrating, fruit leather creation, seasoning and other ways to keep your foraged food for longer. You can always trust in a good keen crowd at these events but Fergus’s courses book out quickly – you have been warned!

5

Beginner’s Foraging Walk by Peakforager

Cost: Means dependent (contact over Instagram or email to say hello!)

Duration: 3-4 hours

Location: The Peak District

Perfect for: Beginners

If the idea of meeting lots of new people is still a little daunting, Andrew Ford’s Peakforager outings might be more your cup of tea. Book a workshop with your own group of friends or enjoy a 1:1 session across the region’s fields, meadows, woodlands and hedgerows. Whatever your choice, prepare for a jampacked tour of edible plants, flowers, seeds, berries and fungi, and learn how to avoid toxic lookalikes too.

A great choice for beginners looking for a generous introduction to the wild edibles the uplands have to offer with a focus on foraging sustainably.

6

Foraging and wildcrafting course by The Little Foragers Kitchen

Cost: £20pp

Duration: 2 hours

Location: Glasgow and Oban

Perfect for: Healers and Historians

Whether you’re interested in the therapeutic powers of wilderness or want to work on your own mental health, Vicky Manning’s 20+ years of outdoor wellbeing programmes will soon put you to rights. Learn about wild medicine, folklore, rituals and how to heal trauma through compassionate connection to others and the Earth.

Hear stories about our ancestors and the plants that sustained them, and relax into a smaller, slower setting, perfect for creating lasting connections.

By Kate Balding / 12 June 2024

Guides ID Guides

ID Guide: Alexander

Common names: Alexander, horse parsley

Latin: Smyrnium olusatrum

Appearance: Leaves are vibrant green and glossy on a thick, long stem. Yellow flowers bloom at the top in a cluster from March until June. The seeds are small green bulbs that can be pulled apart into segments.

Where: Coastal regions around Europe. Grows in clusters on patches of land near the sea.

How to forage: The entire plant can be foraged, so take the whole Alexander for endless possibilities in your cooking. If you only want the flowers or the leaves, then pick or cut the parts you need. The seeds can be collected straight from the plant.

When: January to September, mainly summer months.

How to use: Each part of an Alexander has a different use. The flowers can be used like broccoli and steamed with garlic. The stems are like celery in flavour and texture and can be used as such. The roots can be well scrubbed and used like a root vegetable alongside meat. Perhaps the most exciting discovery, alexander seeds can be picked from the plant before they drop for pollination and taste like strong black pepper. They can be dried and crushed down for a pepper substitute.

Commonly mistaken with…

Wild angelicas as the leaves look similar, but they are not as green or shiny and are not found in coastal areas.

By Kate Balding / 10 June 2024

Spotlight The Pros Why I forage

Why I forage: Emerald Devonshire

This week we meet Emerald Devonshire to hear how foraging child becomes foraging parent

Emerald has always made good use of the free bounty she finds. Credit: Emerald Devonshire

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!

By Kate Balding / 3 June 2024

Recipes Savoury

Fresh and Feisty Foraged Nettle Pesto

This nettle pesto is astonishingly versatile and can be adapted to whatever you have in your cupboard. If you can’t get your hands on pine nuts – sunflower seeds, cashews and almonds all make great alternatives or, for a dairy and nut-free version, nutritional yeast is our reliable vegan go-to.

You’ll find the nettle adds an almost umami note to the more traditional basil-only pesto and we love how it turbo-charges pasta sauces, stacked sandwiches and silky risottos with calcium, iron, vitamin A and vitamin C.
We used tagliatelle on this occasion, but any long pasta would work, and garnished with edible wisteria petals for a little self-indulgent moment!

Serves – 4

Foraged Ingredients

5 – 10 nettle tops, as young and green as you can find, and without buds or flowers

Other Ingredients

A handful of pine nuts, toasted
A handful of fresh greens, we recommend spinach, basil or parsley
2 generous glugs of extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
The zest and juice of a small lemon
Around 3 spoons of parmesan (grated)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Take a basket – and gloves to avoid a sting – and forage 5-10 nettle tops. These are cut from the upper 6-8 leaves of the stem.

Rinse in cool water to wash off any unwanted passengers and blanch for 1-2 minutes to remove the sting and bitter notes.

Next, heat a pan over gentle heat and cook your pine nuts until golden brown, keeping a close eye so they don’t catch.

In a food processor, add the green leaves, oil, garlic, zest, lemon juice, and parmesan and blitz until a rough paste forms.

To this, add the blanched, dried nettles and toasted nuts, adding a bit at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Season to taste and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.

Expert’s Tip

For those looking to offset the slightly more bitter note of nettles picked later in the season, we recommend blanching the leaves for an extra minute and adding a dash of high-quality balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses.

By Kate Balding / 3 June 2024

Recipes Sweet

Fudgy Foraged Nettle Brownies

Move over raspberry, there’s a new kid in town. These nettle brownies are fudgy, chunky and packed with the perfect summer zing to cut through some thoroughly deserved decadence.

We love these brownies as failsafe crowd-pleasers at picnics, parties and BBQ’s and the pretty leaf patterns on top will leave even the most sophisticated guests impressed. Just don’t forget the gloves when you’re out foraging!

Serves – 12

Foraged Ingredients

Around 20 nettle tops, as young and green as you can find, and without buds or flowers

Other Ingredients

A small squeeze of fresh lemon juice
180g dark chocolate
250g butter
A generous pinch of salt
100g milk chocolate
300g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
85g self-raising flour
35g cocoa powder

Method

Forage your nettles, making sure to wear gloves. You’ll want around 20 nettle tops for this recipe, which means just the upper stem of 6-8 leaves. Rinse the tops in cool water to remove any nasties and set aside 2 stems for later.

Blanch the remaining nettle tops for 1-2 minutes in a pot of boiling water to remove the sting and bitterness from the leaves.

Preheat the oven to 170C and line a 34 x 20cm tin with greaseproof paper. While the oven heats up, take half your blanched nettles and place them in a hand blender or food processor. Pulse with a squeeze of lemon until it forms a rough paste.

In a heatproof bowl, add the dark chocolate, butter and salt. Place over a pot of gently simmering water so the bottom of the bowl just rests on the water’s surface and stir until combined.

Roughly chop the remaining blanched nettle tops and break the milk chocolate into chunks.

In a new bowl, add the sugar and eggs. Beat until light and creamy. To this, add your slightly cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the flour and cocoa powder. Stir with a whisk to remove lumps and add your nettle paste.

Pour half of the batter into the baking tray and scatter the milk chocolate chunks and remaining blanched nettles over the mixture. Add another layer of batter followed by the rest of the milk chocolate and finally press your reserved nettle leaves onto the top surface.

And that’s it. Pop the brownies into the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes.

Once done, the brownies should be crackled on top and slightly firm to the touch but still gooey. Allow to cool completely – we mean it! – before slicing to serve.

Expert’s Tip

We’ve adapted this recipe from the wonderfully talented Max Martin, a forager and wild food recipe developer.

He warns you should only pick nettles without flower buds or flowers because of a substance – cystoliths, microscopic rods of calcium carbonate – that they start producing to attract insects and bees. It might be great for the pollinators but a little demanding for human kidneys!

By Kate Balding / 3 June 2024

Offshoots Spotlight

Offshoots: Auckland

From pineapple flavoured feijoas to bush jellybeans, ecologist Bella Burgess spills the secrets to foraging in the land of the long white cloud

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Description: Sub-tropical and humid with lush coastal environments.

Common edible plants: Kawakawa, guava, loquats, bananas, feijoas, nasturtium, sorrel, three-cornered leek, manuka, plantain, miner’s lettuce, rosehips, tōtara, tawa

Transferable tip: Don’t underestimate foraging for invasive and pest species – introduce the BBQ to the three-cornered leek!

Ecologist Bella Burgess
Credit: (as above)

Bella Burgess is an ecologist living in Auckland, New Zealand. With its mild winters, sub-tropical humidity and verdant growth from city to coast, it couldn’t be a better spot for someone with an interest in foraging.

“Things that struggle in other places are weeds in New Zealand,” Bella explains with the tone of someone who knows they’ve lucked out. “There’s this abundant mixture of native and exotic plants all over the country and we’ve got forests, pastures, beaches, parks and bush all in quite close proximity.”

For Bella though, if you’re looking for the very best foraging spots, you’ll want the weediest corners of the city. Partly, this is because bush foraging for native plants can pose ecological challenges to protected species, but taste also comes into it.

“I think anyone that does foraging learns really quickly that there’s a big difference between something being technically edible and something actually being nice to eat, and while a lot of our native plants can be eaten, not all of them are worth eating. That’s where our unkempt urban areas come out triumphant.”

In uncultivated pockets of parks or growing on rough urban verges, Bella forages for invasive weeds widely considered biological pests. These include species commonly found in Britain such as onion weed (three cornered leek), nasturtium and sorrel. In New Zealand it’s a great irony that many UK gardeners actively try to grow plants that for Kiwis sprawl over the land in excess.

“Nasturtium has the lovely pepperiness of watercress which makes a really good pesto, the seeds can be caper substitutes and the orange, yellow, red and pink flowers are also edible and provide a little nectar spurt which makes them sweet and spicy in salads.”

Harvesting is a balance though and Bella says in New Zealand she’d also advise doing a quick once over of an area to make sure you aren’t pulling out plants from sites of cultural or archaeological sensitivity. The nation’s Treaty of Waitangi enshrines indigenous rights to harvest resources from the land but there are additional laws about taking living organisms from conservation areas without strict permits. Additionally, New Zealand ecosystems are protected by the Wildlife Act which forbids wider hunting of birds, lizards and even some seaweeds to protect habitats for marine life.

That said, in recent years the country has seen a renaissance in interest for foraging more broadly with this including greater engagement with Rongoā Māori, a traditional healing practice used by the indigenous population based on plants and materials from the bush.

“I think that revived openness helps people connect with the land, seasons and sustainability in general but greater formal education in schools would definitely help too,” she says.

“It’s a delicate balance because nowadays environments simply can’t support everyone going out foraging, but you also don’t want to pull the ladder up from behind you.”

“While a lot of our native plants can be eaten, not all of them are worth eating. That’s where our unkempt urban areas come out triumphant.”

This sensitivity is something Bella carries into her own foraging practices where she tends to steer clear of secateurs. Instead, a simple pinch with the fingernail normally does the trick and she trusts that if you have to yank at something to get it off the branch it’s probably not going to be worth picking the fruit. With all the exotic plants New Zealand has to offer though it’s easy to see how you might give into temptation.

“There’s always a danger of taking too much and we need to adjust the focus from harvesting alone to also using foraging as a tool to better understand the environment around you.”

Bella herself began foraging as a child and channelled her youthful curiosity into the colourful fruit trees and verdant undergrowth of the city. To her, foraging was like one big scavenger hunt, and once she was told what she could eat, she began developing an internal map of the best spots each season. This included guava, loquats, bananas and feijoas (a sweet fruit that resembles a lime, often called pineapple guava due to their taste), with Tawa being an example of a native tree with edible berries from the Avocado family.

The tōtara tree is another one of the country’s ancient forest species popular with adults and children alike, with its sweet yellows and pinky-reds cones being known locally as “bush jelly beans” due to their sweet taste and resemblance to the American sweet. As an adult, one of Bella’s other favourites is called Supple Jack or Bush Asparagus, which is a large vine that grows straight up from the forest floor. As the spears mature they become woody and inedible but when very young they can be eaten raw or cooked just like their namesake.

As with foraging in the UK however, caution is king, and some have fatally mistaken the early Supple Jack with one of New Zealand’s most poisonous native plants – the Tutu. For Bella, knowing your edibles is only half the picture; you need to learn the toxic plants in your environment too. On the other hand, she reflects on the way New Zealand is also heavily influenced by British attitudes which tend to treat foraging with suspicion.

“If you compare us to Europe where foraging is a normal part of people’s cultural upbringing, we’re still dealing with this inherited aversion. Caution is important of course and I was an overconfident kid who had some lucky escapes but sometimes we label things as toxic when they have the same chemical properties as our common vegetables. People say to steer clear of sorrel because it can effect calcium uptake in the body, but that’s just as true of spinach so I think it’s about asking for advice, cross-checking and using common sense moderation.”

At the same time, there have long been individuals turning to the country’s native plants specifically to improve their health. There’s the internationally renowned manuka honey, famed for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and soothing properties while the native kawakawa has long been used by the Māori, who chew upon its fragrant heart-shaped leaves to treat toothache due to its slight anaesthetic properties.

“The health side of things is really interesting, and you can also take kawakawa like an aromatic tea with lemon and honey, but coming from the same family as black pepper I’ve

used them instead of vine leaves for tiny dolmades or chopped them up in curries. You can also eat the orange fruits if you can beat the birds to them.”

The social side of the practice is also something that underpins Bella’s own experiences. She and her partner bonded over foraging early on in their relationship and enjoyed sharing new locally edible plants week on week. From infused gins to summer salads, foraging brought successes, failures and colour to what might be written off as mundane suburbia. It’s a reminder from down under that sometimes it’s okay if chaos reigns.

By Kate Balding / 3 June 2024

Spotlight The Pros Why I forage

Why I forage: Drew and Beth Nuttall

This week we meet Drew and Beth Nuttall, who prove those who forage together, stay together

Beth(left) and Drew (right) out foraging for wildflowers and nettles. Drew’s favourite find, Dryad’s Saddle, is shown middle. Credits: Drew and Beth Nuttall

How did you start foraging?

D: In a way it’s just something that I’ve always done. I do it more now and have more knowledge but it definitely stemmed from being a child, picking blackberries with my parents and getting used to the idea of being able to forage wild food. Then in adulthood you realise there’s more than just blackberries out there. That said, I definitely got more enthusiastic about foraging after meeting Beth.

B: I think growing up in the countryside with a “countryside-y” family you just learn the basic blackberry, hazelnut side of foraging from a young age. Then as you get older you realise you can forage at different levels. You can do the standard hedgerow stuff and then you can look beyond it and start really seeing every plant when you go out. You find yourself wondering what it is, if it’s edible, if it’s got medicinal properties and that’s where I got it five or six years ago. There’s just so many plants we can make use of.

Why do you forage?

D: I think there are a variety of reasons, but cost comes into it. I don’t mean we actively forage to save money but it is a resource that’s readily available and it makes sense to take advantage of it. It’s also a way of getting food without shipping it across the world, so for me it’s about connecting directly with a food source and my local environment. Mass-produced, preserved food, on the other hand, has a much lower nutritional value and you’ll notice the loss in flavour too.

B: Exactly, plus the bonus that foraged foods don’t come wrapped in plastic packaging. Sometimes it’s also simply the case of foraging for things like hawberries that you can’t find on supermarket shelves. For me, I’m also fascinated by medicinal plants. There’s one called the cuckoo flower, or lady’s smock, and I hadn’t realised at first but it’s fantastic for reducing period pain. You dry it and drink it as tea, and it works so much better than any paracetamol or supermarket pain relief. Those kinds of discoveries are just so exciting to me.

One essential you can’t go foraging without?

D: It might sound simple but a big stick for hooking branches down.

B: We’re lucky Drew is quite tall but a long stick or a stool is great to get those hard to reach fruits, flowers and berries.

Favourite foraging season?

D: Autumn. It feels like you’re connected to that sense of harvest and it marks the start of more hearty meals. In spring, much of what you forage is quite delicate. It can enhance dishes but it’s definitely less filling.

B: Definitely autumn too. The nuts and berries feel so much more substantial and I love the season for its cold cosiness. In spring you have to be much more knowledgeable as a lot of the very young plants aren’t so distinctive yet so it also just requires that extra level of concentration and skill.

Biggest foraging faux pas?

B: We’re quite lucky in not having had any serious story-worthy incidents but we’ve definitely learnt the perils of not using something you’ve foraged straight away. Not realising you have decomposing raw elderberries on your work surface was definitely a mistake – raw elderberries contain toxins that can cause nausea and gastro issues!

Best foraging find?

B: For me, it was the first time I found wood sorrel. It was something I’d been reading about and wanting to try for a long time when, out on a walk with family, I finally spotted some. It was very exciting and tasted just as good as I had hoped – tart and sweet.

D: I also remember one year when we just had a massive number of hazelnuts on the tree right outside our window and we dried them at a very, very low temperature in the oven so they wouldn’t spoil throughout the year. They make the best beetroot and hazelnut cake! Or, back when I was working for a landscape gardener, in the extensive grounds of one client, we found this amazing Dryad’s Saddle Bracket fungus. Delicious fried!

What would you love to forage but haven’t found yet?

B: I’d love to find miner’s lettuce. I don’t actually know if it grows here but I follow an American forager account who seems to have quite a similar climate to the south of England and she’s got a lot of recipes using it I’d love to try.

Favourite foraging memory?

B: Trying to pick elderberries sitting on Drew’s shoulders springs to mind.

D: Exactly what I was thinking, piggyback elderberry picking! Or just all the strange ways we’ve climbed and balanced on things to get something. But also I guess thinking back to my childhood by the canal, those early memories picking blackberries really stick with you even as an adult.

Top tip to foragers just starting out?

B: We’re quite old school so don’t have the apps, but my starting book was one of the classics, Food for Free by Richard Mabey. It’s got heaps of great stuff in it and recipes for inspiration. I also think I’d advise anyone starting out to just learn one plant at a time. If you’re out and something looks distinctive – go home and try and look it up. Learn how you could use it and if you might mistake it for anything else. Then try and identify it again. That way you very quickly build up knowledge and confidence.

D: I completely agree with Beth and would add if you know anyone or a friend that knows a little more than you, try and go out with them. You learn so much more with friends and I think it helps normalise foraging as a practical and social activity, not just something old people do!

By Kate Balding / 3 June 2024

Briar's guide to... Wildcrafts

Natural dyes: Where foraging meets fashion

A beginner’s guide to foraged dyes

Textile artist Daisy Gray on where foraging meets fashion

In a cobbled mews near Elephant and Castle, Daisy Gray is pulling out the thickest book you’ve ever seen. Between the covers, swatches of coloured linen, cotton, silk and wool spill out from the pages. This means the book is practically impossible to close. Fortunately, that suits Daisy, for whom the volume is in constant use as a research catalogue, buyers’ brochure, scientist’s journal and work of art all rolled into one.

Flicking through the heavily embroidered pages, she begins explaining how she first became interested in dyeing fabrics with natural materials.

Daisy’s natural dyeing bible. Credit: Kate Balding

“I was studying fine art at Chelsea College of Arts and there’s an amazing textile course at the university. It meant I’d go in and use their workshops from time to time, playing with fabrics in different ways, but it wasn’t until I graduated and a friend put me in touch with Sissi and Stefano, that I really got into the dyeing process.”

Sissi Castellano and Stefano Panconesi are specialists in hand weaving and natural dyeing. Living in northern Italy, Stefano comes from a long line of natural dyers passionate about the craft and, today, the couple nurture that heritage with their own textile experimentation and artist residencies. It was during one of these residencies at their Casa Clementina, that Daisy began honing her own practice.

“While I was out there I learnt that dyeing is done differently all around the world – in Japan, China, India – and that’s partly the beauty of it, discovering the social histories too. These reconnect you with traditions, places and paces which, in the modern world, we increasingly forget, and I love how natural materials force you to embrace that things are not always perfect.”

As a child, I was so particular about how things had to look but in nature uniformity is impossible and there are so many variables in a hand-made process. This might be the time of year when a plant was harvested, the length of time it has been dried, dyed, or even different pH levels in the water. At each step there’s this element of surprise and the variety is also part of why we do it.”

According to Daisy, it’s a mentality that’s on the rise. “Now you’re seeing a greater number of clients, companies and customers not just appreciating but looking for bespoke items that might fade in time and with use. For them, the materials, craft and quality are what’s important and fabric changes can add to their beauty.” It’s a marked break from contemporary obsessions with fast fashion.

Instead, natural dyeing leans into a slow-living movement that prioritises custom-made, environmentally conscious products. And looking at other British makers it’s a market that’s doing well. Natural ingredient perfume brand Ffern, have sold out year on year with their small-batch, seasonal fragrances and jacket company, Paynter, have gained cult interest for their buy now, make later model, with products only being made after a restricted ordering window. For Daisy, it’s a change for the better, recentring care while tackling waste.

Pulling out another workbook, this one padded with beautifully woven linen, we’re now flicking through hot pinks and deep indigo swatches, past olive greens and corn yellows. “I’ll talk you through the process, shall I?” Daisy offers as she connects plant to pigments. “It’s easier than you might think. Anyone can make a home dye kit from things in a local charity shop or car boot and then it’s all just about getting out, looking at what’s about you and experimenting.”

Daisy’s study on the effects of different mordants. Credit: Kate Balding

Daisy’s “I’m not a very patient person but I do have patience for this” guide to natural dyeing

The first thing Daisy explains, is that dyeing depends on your fabric fibres as much as it does your foraged materials. “Wool and silk come from animal sources – they’re protein-based fibres – whereas linen and cotton come from plants so they’ll be cellulose-based. That’s important to note because while a pigment might transfer easily onto one fabric, it doesn’t necessarily lock well onto others.” That’s the reason most natural dyers, including Daisy, turn to mordants.

A mordant is a pre-dye treatment, which helps unlock the carrying capacity of natural fibres and ensures colours stay true after wear and washes. Most simply, mordants are a mixture of water and salts. Historically, these salts varied depending on what was geographically available but today the three most commonly used (aluminium, copper and iron) can be bought for £5-10 from most large craft or specialist art stores.

“Alum salts help achieve bright colours, coppers draw out blue tones and iron helps with darker notes so there’s a lot of colour variation you can get from just one natural dye. I know the salts can sound scientific and a little intimidating but people have actually been using minerals to prime their fabrics for hundreds of years. I was up in Shetland recently doing some research on the region’s historic wool textiles and there are records there from the 1700s describing fishermen whalers going out to trade specifically for mordant salts to make coloured Taatit rugs and fabrics to sell.

“It’s amazing the process was being used and prioritised so long ago and reminds you that natural dyeing isn’t just a twee hobby but part of our social history. That said, other organic substances like clubmosses, rhubarb leaves and soy, can also be used as mordent soaks so if you can’t find salts, mordants are still worth playing around with.”

When it comes to foraging your own dye materials though, Daisy says you don’t need to go far. In fact, some of the best dyes can be made from our native British trees. Oak and Birch are great examples of this where you can use leaves, barks and galls, to create a range of colours. Barks tend to produce paler pinks and silvers, leaves produce ochres, golds and yellows while Oak galls – irregular-looking growths which appear on oak branches – were historically used for ink due to their black-brown hues.

The dyeing process is, however, full of secrets. While some flowers look colourful, they may barely release pigment at all, whereas more unassuming plants can produce fantastic vibrancy. The extent of this experimentation can be seen hung in ribbons and patches all around Daisy’s studio.

“The colours can be so joyful but it’s not all about excess. This bright lime green swatch is from a type of moss that you’d only gather in really small quantities because moss has such an important role in ecosystems. Species use it to navigate territories and so I try to use majority fallen or dead materials as a guide rather than putting too much strain on a single living organism.”

It’s a reminder that foraging is not just about taking from the earth but about developing an understanding and lightness of touch as we live in relation to it. With that in mind, you’re ready to transform your wardrobe with Daisy’s no-fuss guide to natural dyeing.

FORAGING

First things first, you’ll need to forage your ‘Dye Stuff’ – that’s the name dyers use for the raw organic ingredients they use to extract colours. If you’re just starting out, nettle leaves are a great option for green, khaki and tan shades, purple Buddleia flower heads are a reliable source for bright and warm yellows, dock leaves will produce green-toned yellows (with a spoonful of baking soda) and blue-greys (with an iron mordant), while the cones from Alder trees can be used for caramel browns and golds.

NOTE: The younger the plant the brighter the hue.

MATERIALS

Before you begin dyeing you’ll also need to make sure your material is made from 100% natural fibres. You can check this by looking at your fabric label. Look for cotton, hemp, linen, wool or silk and experiment with yarn, handkerchiefs, ribbons or pillowcases to make sure you’re happy with the dye before trying larger items.

SCOURING

The next step involves making sure your material is as clean as possible, with no pre-existing oils or stains that could disrupt the dyeing process. For those in the natural dyeing community, this process is called scouring but in simple terms, it just means giving your fabric a soapy scrub and a thorough rinse.

MORDANTING

Mix your chosen mordant – metal salts, soy milk etc – with water in a bucket and stir thoroughly. Submerge your fabric in the solution making sure there is enough liquid for the fabric to move around in freely. Leave this mixture to soak overnight or simmer on a low heat for an hour to speed up the process. Remove and air dry.

NOTE: The general rule is for every 100g of fabric use roughly 1 tbsp of salt. If you want to be more precise aim for 10% of your fabric weight for alum salts, 5% for copper and 3% for iron. If using soy milk or other natural mordants the ratio of water to substance works better at 50% but experiment and record your own results!

EXTRACTION

To extract colour from your flower, bark, root or leaf, the rule of thumb is to forage roughly the same weight as your chosen fabric. Place the plant matter fresh or dried (experiment for different hues) into your pot with plenty of water. Simmer on a low heat for an hour.

NOTE: if working with cones, soak these in cold water for a couple of days before heating for extraction.

STRAINING

Filter out the plant matter by straining the liquid with a sieve. Save the coloured water which will become your ‘dye vat’ and compost your leftover natural material.

DYEING

Place your fabric and coloured liquid into your pot and simmer on a low heat for 30-60 minutes. The longer you heat the dye vat, the more the colour will develop. This process can be done as a simple cold soak but will take up to 24 hours for the colour to transfer. With both techniques remember that colours will look darker while still wet and dry a few tones lighter.

NOTE: If silk and wool are in a vat with cotton and linen, they will suck the majority of the dye towards them.

DRYING

Remove your fabric from the dye vat and air dry. If you want to add more pigment you can return it to the pot for a second round. Enjoy your naturally-dyed upcycled materials!

Daisy’s natural dyes, textile practices and research can be followed as part of her collaborative project Centre Half or check out Boss Morris and Cabinet 49 for ideas on how to style your newly dyed fabrics.

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By Kate Balding / 29 May 2024

Spotlight The Pros Why I forage

Why I forage: Adi Staempfli

This week we meet Adi Staempfli who shares how his upbringing in a Swiss village nurtured his love for fungi

Adi’s basket is always full of a variety of mushrooms. Credit: Ali Staempfli

How did you start foraging?

I grew up in Switzerland and, being Swiss, foraging is really much more part of our culture. That’s not to say everyone goes foraging – in my family it wasn’t part of our tradition – but when I was 14 one of the other kids in our neighbourhood asked me whether I wanted to go foraging with his dad. That’s how it started and I was just immediately hooked.

In Switzerland every village or town also has a mycological association and, and at the federal level, there’s an exam people can take to become local mushroom controllers or in Swiss, “Pilzkontrolle”. It’s actually a really tough qualification and they are amazing people who then offer a free service where anyone can bring a basket of foraged mushrooms and they go through it with you, telling you what is safe and what each specimen is.

So, I started spending all the time I had in mushroom season just out in the forest exploring, gathering mushrooms and bringing the baskets back to learn all I could. By the time I was 18, they actually told me there was no reason to come back anymore and that gave me the confidence to go out and do it myself. Since then, I’ve been foraging.

Why do you forage?

I think part of what attracted me to foraging when I was a child, was having the opportunity to be on my own, just out in the forest and engaging with life. Every time you find a mushroom, especially if it’s one of your favourites, it’s just such a rush, like a dopamine hit or a cry of joy. I think it’s a kind of alignment and an immediate connection to an ancient way of being.

One essential you can’t go foraging without?

That would be my basket. My wife has given me plenty of mushroomy presents over the years including my basket, although I also always take my beautiful Italian mushroom knife. It’s got a folding curved blade and a clip with a brush on it so it’s just classic for mushrooms.

Biggest foraging faux pas?

I’m reminded of one by my partner all the time. When we had kids I became much more careful with the mushrooms I dish up, but this one day I decided to pick a specific type of ink cap.

Ink caps can be totally fine but there is a risk if you drink alcohol with them, they’ll act like the drugs you’d give to someone struggling with alcohol dependency. Essentially, if you do drink alcohol with them, you’ll soon be vomiting. Luckily, we didn’t that evening but I’m reminded of it enough that it’ll never happen again. It was a long time ago though and definitely an outlier!

Best foraging find?

Maybe the best story is that we used to take our kids on a holiday where we would pull a horse drawn caravan from village to village through France, just travelling through the woods. I’d always joke that I would go out and find three kilograms of ceps to bring home, as they’re my favourite mushrooms, and everyone would always laugh at me because it would never happen.

Then one year we got back from the holiday and I went to one of my spots outside of London and there really were kilos upon kilos of ceps. Sometimes you just get years like that and that was the best of my life.

What would you love to forage but haven’t found yet?

There’s one species called Horn of Plenty – they’re these little black mushrooms loosely in the family of chanterelles, and I had a great patch of them back when we lived in Switzerland which I could fill a basket from. So delicious. They have this almost smoky flavour when dried but I’m still looking for them here in the UK. They’re the elusive mushroom I’m always keeping an eye out for.

What’s your favourite way to cook foraged food?

I always like to eat the first ceps of the year raw in the forest – it’s a wonderful moment. It tastes all nutty and sweet but in terms of cooking mushrooms, I’d always just start with a mix of olive oil and butter and shallow fry them with salt pepper, and garlic to keep it simple. That said, I make and sell my own foraged mushroom jerky too. It’s great on scrambled eggs or pasta, but also fantastic on its own.

Top tip to foragers just starting out?

It can be really overwhelming when there are so many different mushroom varieties so I’d say start by learning how to differentiate between groups of mushrooms and the first I would recommend are boletes. These are mushrooms with a spongy underside to their cap. There aren’t many mushrooms in that group that will cause you trouble and certainly none that could kill you. So, familiarise yourself with one species in that family, like a cep or a birch bolete, and start from there.

My second tip would be to join specialist Facebook groups like Mushroom Foraging UK where you can upload pictures of your finds and where you found them. There, group moderators often help safely identify what you’ve found just like the Pilzkontrolle and there are featured posts and guidelines which can be good starting points. That said, always try and cross-check. If you know someone personally that’s always best and if you can, go out foraging with them or take a course to do in person because foraging isn’t just about identifying a single mushroom or its Latin name, it’s about the whole environment and getting a feel for the entire experience.

By Kate Balding / 29 May 2024

Briar's guide to...

The strange and impish tales behind our common plants

Goosefoot? Lamb’s ear? Don’t worry, foragers are rarely hunting down what the names suggest

When a forager says goosefoot is tasty this time of year or that lamb’s ear couldn’t be more tender, you’d be forgiven for thinking pastoral pastimes have become barbaric. But whether they’re out seeking honesty, jack-by-the-hedge or some lady’s smock, those who forage are rarely hunting down the literal objects they describe. So where did these confusing names come from and what can they reveal about the histories, folklore and beliefs of our nature-loving forebearers?

Nowadays the stories behind our historic plants names are largely forgotten, swept away by an 18^th century effort to systematise the unruly natural world with scientific Latin terms, and a 21^st century disconnect with our living environments. For much of the foraging community however, these quirky and unsuspecting common names continue to carry the humour and experiences of the past.

These are the affectionate, and not-so-affectionate, tales behind some of our most charismatic plants.

Goosefoot

Thought to have earned its name from its somewhat pond water smell and the resemblance between its water-repellent leaves and a goose’s foot. In some regions, goosefoot is also known by the name “fat hen” or “lambs quarters” because it was grown widely as a food source for pigs, sheep and chickens. The earliest recorded use of the term is 1777.

Goosefoot is a member of the buckwheat family and before spinach, it was used as a common British green. Its leaves are high in vitamin A, calcium, potassium and phosphorus and you can also eat the flower petals.

Nightshade

A plant with white flowers and black berries, named from the old English nihtscada which literally means ‘shade of night’. It is also thought the name may reflect how some members of the nightshade family grow best in the shade. Other names for the nightshade include ‘devil’s berries’, ‘naughty man’s cherries’ and ‘belladonna’ which literally means ‘beautiful lady’ in Italian.

In mythology, nightshade is connected with the Greek god Dionysus, a figure who represented wine and pleasure. Literature and legends often link the consumption of nightshades with witchcraft and revelry, with the side effects including pupil dilation, hallucinations, convulsions, rapid heart rate and death.

Cow Parsley

Thought to have gained its name due to its abundance and inferiority to true parsley. Its other common name, mother die, stems from a children’s folktale which warned that if you picked the plant, you would lose your mother. This story was said to deter children who might not be able to correctly differentiate between safely edible cow parsley and it’s similar looking but deadly counterpart, hemlock.

While hemlock has purple blemishes on hairless, round and hollow stems, cow parsley has hairy, ribbed and rigid stems with a more celery like stem cross-section. The overarching advice is, as always though, never eat a plant unless you are 100% sure of its identification.

Lady’s Smock

Also known as the cuckoo flower or the water cuckoo because it tends to blossom around the time the cuckoo birds begin to sing and thrives in damp environments. The name lady’s smock however, is thought to derive from the fact the plant blossomed around Lady’s Day at the end of March, with the spring flowers also resembling the delicate pale under layers of women’s clothing which would be washed and seen hung out to dry in early spring after a break over Winter.

Lady’s smock is entirely edible but has a slight mustard heat to an otherwise cress-like flavour which makes it most commonly used as a garnish or a herb. It was also used to treat scurvy due to its high vitamin C content and is said to be good as a tea to alleviate menstrual pain.

Elder

Best known for its summer flowers used to make cordials, sparkling wines and desserts but the name is said to come from its association with the end of the Pagan agricultural year when elderberry wine would be used to honour those who had passed on to the spirit world. This would take place around the time we now know as Halloween, and it was said at this time of year the connection between the realm of ancestors and the living was closest. In Scandinavian folklore the tree is also tied to a crone-like character, a dryad known as Hyldemöer or the “Elder Mother”. This mystical figure could offer you safe passage and protection but if her wood was taken without permission, you could be punished.

Beware that while the flowers are said to lower fever, and the berries treat cold and flu, the stems, leaves, wood and roots are toxic to humans. The berries should also be cooked, fermented or pickled before consuming.

Lamb’s Ear

Lamb’s ear is actually a member of the mint family and the long hairs on the leaves prevent the plant from losing moisture in direct sunlight in its native Middle East. Its uses in foraging are largely medicinal where it has been used for its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, for example to treat skin conditions and insect strings.

Earned its common name due to its elongated silvery leaves which have a soft, velvety texture similar to the ear of a lamb.

Jack-by-the-hedge

Commonly known as garlic mustard or poor man’s mustard for its strong taste and prevalence along shady boundaries of native hedgerows and woodlands. It is thought to have got its name either from the folkloric term “Jack” being synonymous with the ‘everyman’ and therefore the plant’s prevalence or from the strong smell it emits alluding to the “Jakes” or toilet.

You can eat all parts of jack-by-the-hedge, and the leaves can be used in salads, pesto’s and as seasoning in the same way you would use its more popular forager rival, wild garlic. Despite the similar taste however, this plant is part of the mustard family rather than the garlic. Medicinally, Jack-by-the-hedge has also been used to help relieve asthma and chewing the leaves has been said to relieve mouth ulcers.

Herb Robert

Said to have derived its name from Germanic folklore where a goblin, whose name can be found recorded as Rupert, Robin or Robert, went about causing mischief and playing pranks in people’s homes. This figure became the basis of the English “puck” or “goodfellow” character popularised in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer’s Night Dream. When crushed between the fingers the plant gives off a smell of burnt rubber and it was thought that by planting Herb Robert outside your home the pungent scent could keep the goblins tricks at bay.

You can identify herb robert from its delicate pink flower and red stems with both the leaves and flowers being edible. As the plant grows and is exposed to more sunlight the leaves turn from green to red which led people to believe it could help cure blood related ailments and open cuts or sores. Today it is not used for any medicinal purpose but by rubbing the leaves on exposed skin it can keep mosquitoes away.

Honesty

A purple flowering plant whose name owes to the revealing translucency, or “honesty” of its seed pods. These are found beneath the flower on the stem and are round and papery in texture. These coin-shaped pods also lend to their common name in Southeast Asia where it is known as the Money Plant.

All parts of Honesty can be foraged for eating, with the plant being part of the Brassica family. The roots can be roasted like potatoes and the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked for a cabbage flavour.

Dandelion

So called from the medieval Latin dens leonis, or “lion’s tooth”, thought to be named because of its jagged leave pattern. The earliest known use of the name is in the 15^th century but historically the plant also had another common name, most popularly used by children. Instead of dandelion, the name was Piss-a-bed, so called because of the plants notable diuretic properties.

The leaves, flowers and roots are the most widely foraged items for eating in salads, teas, or cooking (the younger leaves have a similar function to spinach), and its medicinal uses centre around improved kidney and liver function.

By Kate Balding / 17 May 2024