Winter shivers by in her coat of glass, spilling silver from her pockets as she goes. Frost clings to the mornings, glittering in the rising sun. Yet even now spring waits in the wings, ready with a prompt.
Foraging recipes – alexanders
If not for the vagaries of fashion we would still be using alexanders today, but it was replaced in the daily kitchen by celery, much as fat hen was replaced by its cousin spinach.
Books: Vegan Christmas by Gaz Oakley
Gaz Oakley has put together the VEGAN CHRISTMAS cookbook to help anyone cook their own vegan version of an extravagant festive feast.
Wild washing – foraging can provide more than ingredients for food
Even the most eco-friendly products tend to come in plastic bottles or similar. As is so often the case, the forest can supply a solution.
Foraging recipes – wild mushroom soup
Mushroom season is a fickle mistress. Traditionally things are winding down by November, but fungi are not sticklers for tradition.
Foraging recipes: an autumn lunch
The autumn kitchen is a busy one; filled with pans of bubbling fruit, trays of drying fungi, and boxes of curing walnuts.
Foraging recipes – chestnuts
Usually October and November are the months for wild chestnuts, but regardless of timing they are often tiny malformed things with little actual flesh. Sometimes you do come across a good crop, more often later in the season when the seed has had time to fully develop, although the squirrels also know this.
Books – Bread & Butter: History, Culture, Recipes by Grant Harrington, Richard Snapes and Eve Hemingway
BREAD & BUTTER is a love letter to two glorious foods that have graced our tables for centuries. Delving deep into the history and culture behind the bread and butter partnership, Eve Hemingway, baker Richard Snapes, and chef Grant Harrington explore how bread and butter are eaten across the world,
Foraging recipes – chicken-of-the-woods
Chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is a startling fungus. Often bright yellow, and rather alien in appearance, it grows mostly on the trunks of oak trees, though sometimes on poplar or yew. It is a parasitic fungus, and eventually causes the rot and death of its host.
Books – Time: a year and a day in the kitchen by Gill Meller
Making time to cook has become one of the most important things I do in my life. When we stop for a moment and do it, even in the simplest sense, it makes us feel good inside. Not only does it nourish our bodies and sustain our minds, but it’s vital for our happiness and wellbeing.
Foraging recipes – giant puffball burger with samphire, ginger, and miso
The giant puffball is a true beauty. In the meadows and on the hillsides in high hazy summer, they pop up in ones, twos, threes, sometimes in vast numbers. Coming across a ring of these fantastical mushrooms in a field, or spotting them from afar on the other side of a valley, is exciting and a little otherworldly.
Capturing a taste of the wild
An early lesson I learned when I began foraging was this: there is a difference between “you can eat it” and “you should eat it”. Depending on your tolerance for bitterness, hairiness, or astringency, there are some wild foods that…
Books – Finding Fire by Lennox Hastie
Lennox Hastie is fascinated by fire. He is the chef and owner of Firedoor in Sydney, Australia’s only fully wood-fuelled restaurant. Lennox spent his early career working at Michelin Star restaurants across the UK, France and Spain. Having grown captivated by…
Books – Larder by Robin Gill
Dublin-born Robin Gill has worked under revered chefs such as Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc, but his own string of restaurants – The Dairy, Sorella, and Counter Culture – are relaxed, innovative and very exciting. Absolute freshness and seasonality…
Books – Kricket by Will Bowlby
The focus at Kricket, from the start, has been to create seasonal, modern Indian plates and drinks, served in a relaxed space. Combining British ingredients with the authentic flavours, aromas and spices of India. Kricket was born in a 20 seat…