Wildhacks

From traditional remedies and eco printing to decor and natural skincare, we break down the what’s what of wild hacks.

Health and Wellness Wildhacks

Foraging for wellness with Joanna Ruminska

Joanna Ruminska is on a mission to reconnect people with nature through the practice of foraging and wellness exercises. She’s encouraging people to make the most of the outdoor spaces around us

Joanna decompressing while out gathering foraged ingredients. Credit: Joanna Ruminska

Foraging is an ancient practice that used to be an integral part of human survival. These days foraging offers a relaxing experience that transports you from the worries of modern life. A time to forget work-life stress and look to wellness and decompression.

Joanna is a foraging expert and member of the Association of Foragers, who has been foraging since she was a small girl. She leads walks, runs events and offers courses all centred around different aspects of foraging in Devon and Cornwall, with her business Incredible Edible .

She is also a qualified nutritionist who uses her knowledge to understand the health benefits different plants and fungi offer.

Primarily based in Plymouth, Joanna’s Urban Nature Walks project, which she piloted last year, aims to expose people to the wellness aspect of foraging. “I run the project in deprived areas with the aim of encouraging people to make use of green spaces and parks,” says Joanna. “I use foraging as a reason for people to go out and explore these spaces more”.

Joanna’s walks are open to people of all abilities and are wheelchair accessible, opening the opportunity to forage to everybody.

After the success of the pilot program, Joanna gained recognition and now receives funding from Plymouth Council, ensuring she can run these courses for free and reach a wider area.

“It’s just reaching out to people who usually don’t go out and explore green spaces, who think they don’t have a reason to be in the park,” she says. “Giving them plant identification skills, gives them the reason to go out”.

“I used to do it with my parents and grandparents, but nobody ever called it foraging,”

Joanna has started implementing mindfulness exercises on her walks in order to show people the inherent connection we have with nature and uses elements of ‘forest bathing’, an ancient Japanese practice that encourages going out into forests, to focus this connection in a sensory way.

“We try to find a quiet space and just practice listening, observing, and including different senses in our walks, along with the foraging as the main activity,” she says.

Joanna noticed that people in urban areas seem to have a real disconnect from nature but growing up in Poland, foraging and being in nature formed a big part of Joanna’s childhood.

“I used to do it with my parents and grandparents, but nobody ever called it foraging,” she says. “It was just a nice way of spending family time on the weekend and collect ingredients to use for dinner”.

While foraging is second nature to Joanna, she describes a common conversion she hears on her walks: “‘It’s the first time I’ve been here, and I’ve lived here, for 20-odd years. I’ve never visited this place before,’”. As a result, Joanna aims to continue her project and reach as many people as she can so more people will have an introduction to the nature they’ve been missing out on.

For Joanna, it’s about finding “a reconnection with nature, that gives us peace, because it’s where we belong”.

By Rupert Birkett-Eyles / 13 June 2024

Briar DIY Briar's guide to...

Briar DIY: Snails

Briar DIY: Foraging for snails

Will Brits come out of their shells and take advantage of our abundant native gastropods?

Can we interest you in some free-range English escargot? Credit: Kate Balding

Well-known for leaving holes in your newly planted bushes and easily traceable by the alien-like ectoplasm trail they leave behind them, snails are a staple of British gardens.

A popular delicacy amongst ground foragers, such as blackbirds, thrushes and the French, one must wonder why British noses are upturned by the thought of foraging for our native gastropods.

I decided to discover why snails aren’t a common dish on a British menu, by foraging and cooking the snails myself.

All snails in Britain are edible, they are in fact the same species that our European counterparts consume by the tonne. While all snails in Britain can be consumed, the small colourful ones aren’t worth the effort and the largest species, the Roman Snail are protected, leaving only the common garden snail. Luckily, as the name suggests, they are the easiest to find.

Preparation

A quick trip into your garden at dusk or after a downpour is the best time to collect a batch of escargots. Little effort is also required, after all they are not famed for their speed.

However, preparing them properly will take about the same amount of time it takes for the snail to travel across your garden. They should be collected from areas that are free from poisonous plants, slug pellets or toxic waste and, once captured, they will need to be kept in isolation for at least a week to rid them of any impurities they may be carrying.

Keep the snails in a breathable container, such as a wicker basket or plant pot with a snail-proof lid. A roofing slate or a makeshift wire-mesh roofing works just as well. Leave their new home in a shady place out of direct sunlight.

How to cook

Through my research of how to keep snails and prepare them I followed the advice of Gordon Ramsay, who foraged snails from his Wandsworth garden. He recommends leaving the snails without food for two days and washing them regularly. On the third day give them a carrot and leave for a couple of days. When their droppings have turned orange, you can be sure what is in their stomachs. Finally, wash the snails thoroughly and place them in a sealed container in the fridge. The cold will send them into a deep sleep causing them to retract into their shells.

When it comes to the pot, there are a variety of options used by different cultures, though some may sit better with you than others. In France, they opt for a salt bath before cooking, resulting in death by dehydration within a matter of minutes, and a puddle of frothy foam to clean up.

Since we have already put them in the fridge, there is no need for this. Make sure to give the snails a final wash before adding them to a pan of boiling water. Following Ramsey’s method, the snails must first be blanched for a couple of minutes. Remove from the water and let cool.

Nothing will prepare you for what a de-shelled snail looks like.

Then for the fiddley part, removing the snails from their shells. The easiest way is to use a long pointy object, such as a skewer to pierce the snail and pull it out its shell. This part of the process is the most difficult and distressing part of the process. I found myself having to crack the shells in some cases to get the snail out, and nothing will prepare you for what a de-shelled snail looks like.

Moving away from the classic garlic butter that is popular in France, I fried pancetta with some sage, then added the de-shelled snails to sauté, adding parsley, lemon and olive oil for flavour. Once cooked, add the snails along with the other ingredients atop a lightly dressed salad. I dressed my salad with balsamic vinegar.

After raising them for two weeks and then cooking the snails, you do form a connection to them, and I found my moral compass being tested as I dropped each of them one by one into a pan of boiling water, trying not to look.

Perhaps this is why they are not a popular British delicacy. It is an intimate process that you don’t normally have when cooking a meal at home.

Nonetheless, it is an easy and delicious meal that you would pay a premium for in a restaurant, with the main ingredient found in your back garden. Perhaps the easiest meat to forage, it is a surprise snail isn’t served on more British dinner tables. The process is slow, but they are snails after all.

By Rupert Birkett-Eyles / 12 June 2024

Health and Wellness The Pros Wildhacks

Foraging for wellness with Vicky Manning

Foraging is about much more than just food. Discover how expert forager, Vicky Manning uses foraging as a gateway to unlocking your wellbeing

Foraging expert, Vicky Manning, uses foraging as a way to slow down. Credit: Photographing Everything

Vicky Manning uses foraging to connect people with nature and show them the health benefits the great outdoors can have. Vicky describes herself as a wilderness therapeutic practitioner, trauma-informed coach, forager and outdoor educator. She is a committee member of the Association of Foragers. Based in Scotland, she runs The Little Foragers Kitchen, which offers a variety of foraging and wellness experiences.

Foraging is a passion Vicky has carried with her since her childhood excursions with her grandparents, collecting wild edibles that they used for medicine and cooking. She is now devoted to sharing her expertise.

“Spending time outdoors in a natural environment is good for your health because plants give us lots of chemicals called Terpenes,” she says.

Terpenes are any large group of volatile unsaturated hydrocarbons found in the essential oils of plants. They are responsible for the fragrance, taste, and pigment of plants.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences found: “Terpenes are abundant in higher plants, citrus, conifers, and eucalyptus and are widely distributed in the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots of these plants.”

At California State University, another team of researchers found that specific terpenes could have healing effects, “One such Terpene is curcumin which holds anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antiseptic, antiplasmodial, astringent, digestive, diuretic, and many other properties.”

Vicky uses foraging as a gateway into the benefits nature can bring us, especially as a way of dealing with stress.

“Foraging makes you slow down. If you’re going out to collect a particular plant, you need to stop and slow down and look very carefully at what you’re collecting. If you don’t, you could pick the wrong thing, and you could kill yourself,” she says.

“It warms people’s confidence up and empowers them to think, if I can cope with this, now I can cope with whatever’s happening in their personal life.”

Although there are dangers for inexperienced foragers, she says, “The added bonus is that you’re outdoors in the natural environment and you’ve been exposed to all of these Terpenes which have a beneficial effect on your physiological and mental health too.”

An important part of Vicky’s mission to provide wellness through foraging is her Trauma Therapy programme – an eight or 12-week programme, that takes a small group of people out into a natural environment with the aim of “empowering individuals to take control of their own health and wellbeing through the power of the great outdoors”.

“The activities that they’re doing are very mindful, they have to focus on what they’re doing,” says Vicky. A combination of breathing exercises, bushcraft, building fires and shelters and cooking creates a “community aspect outside of their comfort zone”.

Overcoming new problems through new experiences is what Vicky believes is the transferable skill people need to conquer their problems in everyday life. She provides an example:

“If you are having a stressful, awful time out with the group, but you managed to get the fire lit and it’s absolutely pouring with rain, that’s a real achievement”.

“It warms people’s confidence up and empowers them to think, if I can cope with this, now I can cope with whatever’s happening in their personal life.”

The programme encourages people to learn how to use the outdoors for your mental wellbeing. Credit: Photographing Everything

The programme provides an intimate experience that focuses on putting the mental health and the wellbeing of individuals at its centre. The experience is all about learning new practical, outdoor skills, but also learning about yourself and how to better your wellbeing.

“People are encouraged to share if they want to, but they don’t have to. And everybody gets treated equally, nobody is treated any differently because of their issues,” says Vicky.

Nature wellness has seen an increase in popularity in recent years, with the first Nature Therapy Conference held earlier this year, providing a space for therapists, practitioners and anyone who works therapeutically outdoors to share their practices, through workshops and guest speakers.

“Foraging and mindfulness go hand in hand” says Vicky, it is a journey where “everybody succeeds and nobody fails.”

For more information about the Little Foragers Kitchen please visit the website or find them on socials.

By Rupert Birkett-Eyles / 3 June 2024

Earth Nurse Health and Wellness Wildhacks

Earth Nurse: Elderflower

Elderflower

Our series on the bizarre and wondrous healing properties found in nature

Historical context

Many of us are familiar with the idea of yin and yang. Traditional Chinese Medicine has this restorative balance between opposing energies at the heart of its philosophy.

While yin and yang – or, for that instance, any paradoxical energies such as happiness and sadness, or stress and peace – can promote wellness if they are balanced and flowing freely, TCM believes that even minor imbalances to this delicate framework and disrupt our life force and energy, known as qi (pronounced chee).

Flowers – ranging from magnolia blooms to chrysanthemums and lotus stalks – have been used for centuries within TCM, often in concoctions such as herbal teas. In fact, TCM has one of the most robust flower-derived dietary medicine traditions of all the holistic healing frameworks.

Often, it’s the acrid and bitter taste of these sweet-smelling flowers that is believed to have a positive healing effect. Herbalists often turn to elderflower to treat cold and flu symptoms, especially congestion and fever. And, as with many things that come to the fore when one becomes well-versed with the rhythms and cadences of nature, in a sort of divine dance, the creamy spray of flowers blooms in perfect time to help alleviate pesky hay fever symptoms.

While the UK may associate elderflower most with cordials and sorbets, it has long been used in vinegar form to soothe a sore throat, as a floral water for skin and eye conditions, and to soothe inflammation. However, in Chinese medicine systems, its functionality lies in its ability to diffuse and ‘float’ upwards through the body to dispel phlegm and pathogens from the body.

Usage and evidence

Elderflower’s musky, floral notes make it one of the most palatable flower-infused medicinal concoctions in TCM – and it’s plentiful in the summer months.

TCM celebrates Elderflower as a way to dry ‘dampness’ or congestion within the body, and transform phlegm in the upper part of the body to regulate the Lung Qi and remove stagnant congestion or blockages.

In TCM, this impact is believed to be a result of elderflower’s ability to induce sweating and thereby warm up, then cool down the body. It is also thought to relieve edema and reduce excess water retention as a diuretic.

Here’s how Briar foragers can benefit from centuries-old wisdom to use Elderflower for detoxification and begin to feel lighter and sprightlier starting today.

How to use it

For medicinal purposes, elderflower blooms are mainly used in an herbal tea form, either on its own or mixed with another herbal tea.

Add elderflower blooms in a steaming cup of herbal tea and allow it to steep for 10-15 minutes with a lid on. Chamomile tea works best.

To enjoy elderflower tea on its own, put one spoon of dried elderflowers or two spoons of fresh blooms in nearly boiling water and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

NOTE: This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition.

By Aysha Imtiaz / 3 June 2024

Earth Nurse Health and Wellness Wildhacks

Earth Nurse: Fennel

Fennel

Our series on the bizarre and wondrous healing properties found in nature

Historical context

Fennel is anecdotally valued by many as a digestive aid. Culturally, chewing fennel seeds is a common practice for many Indians and South Asians – a sort of natural, after-dinner mint to cleanse the palate. In India, many families keep a mixture of lightly roasted, sweetened fennel seeds on their coffee or chai tables. In fact, sometimes fennel makes its way into the tea itself, imparting a delicately sweet, licorice-like flavour to the beloved staple. Many Indians associate fennel seeds with digestion, detox and weight loss because they believe it is soothing to the stomach and ‘cooling’ to the body.

This association is entrenched in the common belief systems by Ayurvedic practices.

Stemming from the Sanskrit words for life and science/ knowledge – (ayur) and (veda) – the ancient Ayurveda system of medicine embodies a holistic approach to healing. In its loosest translation, Ayurveda means the knowledge of life. This approach to health stresses the interconnectedness and delicate balance between the body, mind, spirit, and environment.

Fennel features prominently in many Ayurvedic preparations for its purported effect on the digestive fire, or Agni. It has also long been used in the Ayurvedic wellness space as a claimed lactation aid for nursing mothers, as well as to reduce bloating and cramps.

Usage and evidence

Some studies even outside of Ayurveda suggest fennel has potential positive health benefits because it is a source of folate and vitamin C.

However, it is important to remember these nutrients are only present in trace amounts, and it is unlikely that one would consume enough fennel to reap these purported health benefits.

Newer studies are exploring the estrogenic effect of fennel seeds, possibly leading to hormonal PCOS treatment in the wellness space.

Further clinical trials are warranted and, as always, adequate medical advice should be sought to treat any medical conditions. Pregnant women should avoid taking very concentrated forms of fennel, such as fennel oil or fennel supplements.

How to use it

In its seed form, here are some ways Briar readers can use fennel for wellness.

Steep one tablespoon of fennel to brew fennel tea. Add ginger and lemon to help boost its purported digestive properties.

Or, take it a bit further and make an Ayurvedic CCF tea that is widely prescribed by practitioners as it is believed to help ease constipation. CCF stands for cumin, coriander and fennel – simply add half a teaspoon of each to boiling water, continue to boil for 5-10 minutes and strain. Keep the liquid in a warm thermos and sip throughout the day. Remember, fennel often acts as a diuretic and may not be suitable for everyone.

Similarly, some ayurvedic practitioners recommend boiling fennel and a pinch of fenugreek seeds in water until the mixture is reduced to half and drinking it first thing in the morning (ideally before brushing your teeth). They believe this leads to reduced bloating.

Try cooking with fennel bulbs. Use them as you would use garlic – sliced, crushed, for tempering or even roasted and sauteed with green beans.

Lastly, try chewing on fennel stalks or seeds to make your breath fresher. Keep fennel seeds accessible to munch on and reach for naturally, as you would for a far unhealthier mint.

By Aysha Imtiaz / 3 June 2024

Earth Nurse Health and Wellness Wildhacks

Earth Nurse: Wild Garlic

Wild Garlic

Our series on the bizarre and wondrous healing properties found in nature

Historical context

People have historically turned to garlic as somewhat of an anti-inflammatory vegetable for centuries.

It is especially popular in the subcontinental homeopathic and alternative medicine space. Beyond using it to add a pungent kick to South Asian cuisine, temper daals and as the base for many curries, traditionally, in Pakistan and India, some natural medicine practitioners use garlic as a natural, holistic healing medical intervention.

Some preparations of garlic in Unani Tibb are more elaborate than others, and the complexity ranges from the simple – swallowing one raw garlic clove on an empty stomach every morning – to the complex – such as an intricate preparation of garlic-infused mustard oil, a popular remedy prescribed for hair growth. Extracts from dried garlic bulbs were thought to be a potent remedy to regulate menstrual cycles and aid digestion.

Eastern medicine practitioners claim garlic has the potential to manage symptoms of high cholesterol and address various skin conditions, though further clinical trials are warranted to substantiate these findings.

Unani Tibb, an Eastern medicine system widely practiced in South Asia, claims garlic has a purported alkalising effect on the body. Based on a medieval belief system that the body has four humours (blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile) garlic, Eastern medicine practitioners say, helps keep a balance in place by allegedly ‘cleansing and purifying’ the blood and expelling excess phlegm from the body.

Usage and evidence

While we can’t speak to garlic’s ability to ‘purify’ the blood, some of the potential health benefits of garlic are beginning to be supported by science. Emerging research points to garlic’s anti-inflammatory properties, with 2024 research exploring its use in managing cardiovascular diseases. Recreations of some ancient remedies have even found that in unique preparations, garlic has been effective at treating diseases, such as MRSA.

There may also be some evidence of garlic as an antifungal, antimicrobial supplement. Studies point to garlic’s potential health benefits, particularly in weight management, modestly lowering blood pressure and possibly decreasing the ability of blood platelets to form clots.

Most of the positive effects come from Allicin, an organosulfur and colourless oil found in garlic. Still, many studies are based on patients consuming garlic compounds or extracts of aged garlic in high amounts, meaning cooking with a couple of cloves will not have the same impact.

When it comes to the documented health benefits of garlic, separating fact from fiction is important, and more clinical trials are warranted to substantiate these findings. It is important to consult a doctor and seek adequate medical intervention.

How to use it

Try adding extra garlic cloves when simmering a broth before you get a cold. While there is inconclusive evidence to show garlic’s impact on flu-like symptoms, it is generally believed to help boost immunity by reducing the severity or frequency of infection.

One study suggests consuming one clove of garlic a day (raw) to help thrombosis.

For indigestion, Eastern medicine promotes blitzing together garlic and milk. Boil the mixture until it is reduced to one third; strain and drink after each meal.

For a headache, a popular folk remedy is to crush a clove of garlic and mix it with olive oil, then apply it to the temples. Alternatively, boil a handful of garlic cloves for half an hour, then dip a tea cloth in the water to place over your head once it cools.

By Aysha Imtiaz / 3 June 2024

Briar DIY Recipes

Forage a full South Asian meal with me

Briar DIY: forage a full South Asian meal

Aysha Imtiaz spells out how to encapsulate the food traditions of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and apply them to UK-foraged ingredients. We go through trial and error to chase that elusive, inventive spin so you don’t have to

This month’s “Forage a Full…” challenge is based on South Asian cuisine. Known for decadent feasts passed down from the royal courts of Mughal emperors, explosive flavours and eye-watering spices, South Asian cooking might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re faced with sprightly dandelions or wispy wisteria blooms.

Here, Briar’s team spells out how to encapsulate the food traditions of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and apply them to UK-foraged ingredients. We go through trial and error to chase that elusive, inventive spin so you don’t have to.

Traditionally, local plant knowledge has been pivotal to sustaining robust food systems in the northern areas of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. While the more arid regions and sprawling megacities (think Bengaluru, Karachi and Dhaka) may rely more on cultivated crops and animal products, the confluence of mountain ranges in the Himalayas is a forager’s paradise… perhaps out of necessity more than demand.

Drawing from rural traditions and the indigenous wisdom of the northern Punjab regions and the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya mountains, these rich recipes are popular for staving off colds and celebrating festive occasions with your loved ones.

Appetiser: Pakoras

Vegetable fritters such as pakoras and bhajis offer a quick carb hit and energy boost. The base of gram flour and ‘holy trifecta’ of red chili powder, turmeric and salt readily embraces a wide variety of flavours and foraged greens. While spinach and coriander leaves are most commonly used in South Asia, essentially, what you need is any kind of green that can be chopped and mixed into the batter.

While trying our own version of nettle pakoras we found the peppery, rocket like taste of nettle to meld beautifully with the welcoming canvas, while a more citrusy green such as foraged wood sorrel may be too overpowering.

Depending on what time of year you’re making this, try watercress, borage, garlic mustard, dandelion leaves and chickweed. Take care to remove the stem and finely chop the leaves. As our correspondent found, the stems can turn very slimy, very fast.

Take it further: Use your foraged greens for a variety of South Asian fried delicacies, either folded into a mashed potato mixture for samosas or sprinkled over fried garbanzo bean chaat. Just watch out for the ratios and treat it as a garnish rather than the main event, and try to use the younger leaves, as pungent leaves can overwhelm the gram flour base.

Main: Saag

Saag is a term used to describe a sumptuous blend of cooked down greens tempered with mustard oil and garlic. It is a favourite in the winter months due to its inherently warming quality, as South Asian cuisine relies on an ancient system of assigning foods with innate warm or cold qualities. The reason saag works so well for foraged meals is because the greens are endlessly customisable – use spinach on its own, add vegetable tops, throw in foraged greens, toss in chopped broccoli or do all of it, all at the same time. The complexity of flavours, here, rather than overpowering the dish, adds to a multi-layered complexity.

Try dandelion leaves, primrose leaves, sea beet, young shoots of goosegrass, young Hawthorne leaves and even a small handful of boiled nettle. This is a perfect dish for when you have a merry little symphony of foraged greens.

Take it further: Use edible flowers to top the dish and add a delicate sweetness and beautiful pop of color against the verdant green canvas. Calendula, marigold, basil flowers and violets or pansies can elevate your saag, but avoid rose petals, carnations or wisteria as the sweetness may interfere with the deep, earthy notes of the dish.

Dessert: Vermicelli pudding

Nothing says togetherness better than this dessert, which is intricately associated with the festival of Eid. Vermicelli cooked in milk until it thickens and garnished with coconut and an assortment of nuts makes for a hearty dessert on its own, but adding foraged flower-infused sweetness can help impart a more summery taste.

Traditionally, vermicelli pudding is topped with expensive garnishes such as edible flattened silver leaf. However, using floral notes can bring this decidedly royal dish down to earth. Steep any sweet flowers you’ve foraged in cream overnight, we recommend using measurements from Briar’s recipe.

Take it further: Instead of making the foraged flowers a small side, it may be worth omitting coconut and dried fruit entirely for a lighter, more cholesterol-friendly version of the dish.

So, there you have it, a beginner’s guide for UK-based foragers to using their plentiful bounty and making South Asian cuisine. With such intricate layering of flavours and elaborate cooking techniques, the cuisine is actually more receptive to foraged ingredients than we had thought. Using local ingredients also helps impart a milder, lighter taste to suit diverse palates.

What’s next – squirrel biryani?

By Aysha Imtiaz / 29 May 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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Centre Half (@centre.half)

By Kate Balding / 29 May 2024

Briar DIY

What happens when you take kids foraging?

Briar DIY: what happens when you take kids foraging?

How receptive is the mini Briar-forager-to-be generation? I took my eight and six-year old kids foraging at Beckenham Place Park to find out

Dandelion picking is a firm favourite. Credit: Aysha Imtiaz

As with most things involving young children, Pinterest presents foraging as a dreamy blend of smiling cherubs, plentiful bounties and holistic development. It was this happy imagery that dominated our discourse when my husband and I decided to take our children – eight-year-old twin boys and a six-year-old daughter – foraging in the sprawling woodland of Beckenham Place Park.

Would an afternoon spent foraging rekindle a primal connection with nature, we wondered, and sow seeds of self-sufficiency? Would it be only the beginning of a lasting family tradition of fully-foraged Friday night dinners? There’s a special sort of joy in venturing out into the wilderness and being one with the land, in tune with the seasonal cadences of nature.

Then, there’s reality.

Armed with a jute sack, craft scissors and lots of decidedly unforaged snacks of cookies and juice, we set off for our journey. Here are five unexpected things I learned from the experience.

There’s more tech than you think

Sans guided tour or ancestral wisdom, and with many foraging-gone-wrong horror stories fresh in our minds, we found foraging, counterintuitively, to be quite a plugged-in exercise. We’d see a plant, identify it on LeafSnap and immediately Google “Is X edible”. However, even if the answer was a resounding yes, the inflated risk in our minds meant we then plopped down to search other variants of the question: are all parts of X edible? Does X look deceptively similar to Y, which is actually lethal? What can the unassuming X be confused with or contaminated by? More often than not, we ended up unconvinced that said ingredient was, indeed, what we thought it was. At the very least, we ended up online for a long time.

The ethics quickly become murky

My son’s immediate declaration when I told him we could find food for free and take it home? “That’s illegal.”

In a world of such staunchly enforced borders and ideas of ownership, the blurred boundaries of food from the land and of the land was difficult for him to reconcile. Who owns these foraged ingredients, and if we can forage in the park, why not gather some wild craft materials from that lovely rose bush in our neighbour’s garden, or forage for rollerblades while we’re at it? Where is the line?

It’s a bit of a slippery slope: where does nature’s abundance end and private ownership begin? Not to mention, “Those hard-working plants who spend all this time making babies and we just kidnap them,” courtesy of my fiercely loyal daughter.

For the latter at least, I had read about 1/3 rule where you forage only a third of the plant, and spoke to the kids about leaving an area better than when you found it, as well as acquainting themselves with non-native species. We didn’t fully shake the feeling that this might somehow be wrong though and were less than happy doing it in full public view.

They understand the ‘what’ more than the ‘why’

While intellectual discussions theorizing the foraging mindset weren’t particularly fruitful, children are wonderfully skilled at embracing the tactical nitty-gritties. Once a specific type of plant was identified, they gleefully plucked off Hawthorne buds or Dandelion stems. That was likely the high point of our experience, as they genuinely felt they were part of nature’s elaborate scavenger hunt.

Fully embracing the persona, they became confident tour-guides – almost deceptively and scarily so. “We are in the heart of the Amazonian jungle,” my daughter brazenly declares under the perpetually overcast British sky. “And this plant that you see here is Teliza,” she motions, basing her knowledge off unreliable sources such as The Lion King.

Children expect some sort of output or finale…

As we trudged on, it was difficult to explain when, exactly, one can tick the box that foraging is “done”. My younger twin failed to realise why we were “Hiking for an hour instead of going to Sainsbury’s when I’m already starving,” but when he got into it, they found many things they wanted to forage on the way home – not recommended because of the pollution and special dog vinaigrettes. In hindsight, it would have been best to cook with the foraged produce immediately as it lacked immediacy and gratification the next day. Going forward, we will schedule our foraging adventures with time built in to enjoy nature’s bounty shortly afterward to make it more meaningful.

…But they remember the experience anyway

Despite all our hiccups, I’m confident there will be a next time. Overall, foraging with children – whether you’re the cool aunt/uncle, a teacher, cousin or the parent yourself, leaves an indelible imprint and opens the door to many intriguing conversations. While they may not become expert foragers right away, children will remember something that, perhaps sadly, is a novel experience for them in their increasingly hyper-connected, urban world: “Remember that day we went to find our own food out in the jungle, Mama?”

By Aysha Imtiaz / 17 May 2024