Henrietta

A beautiful weekend working at Woodfire camping, Westerlands. Lovely guests, great teamwork with Griff, Ben and the lads. Staff supper so good, all cooked on open fire, and rustled up a quick lunch of common hogweed flower buds in my camper van. Picked from just beside it! Don’t want to leave… @woodfire_camping #griff #bestcampsiteuk #woodfirecamping #woodfire #commonhogweed #associationofforagers

The last few days have been very exciting, bought a new camper van and went for a walk in the woods after at @nymansnt Gorgeous wood sorrel nestling in a decaying tree, common hogweed buds/flowers a plenty and then some already dehydrated chicken of the woods found in a crack of a tree at Ashburnham place on Thursday. Ate almost all of it just now, and forgot to take a photo until the last morsel!! I rehydrated it and added to a stir fry with the hogweed buds and nettles left over from a cup of nettle tea… and some sea arrowgrass instead of coriander- so good! Damn! And some lovely ducks at @nymansnt #hogweedflowerbuds #woodsorrel #chickenofthewoods #zerowaste #foodforfree #nymanswoods #associationofforagers

Just back from an incredible time teaching foraging to 200 (I think) Y7&8 students at such a beautiful venue @ashburnhamplace . Huge thanks to Tim from Closer to the Land and @miles_irving_wild_food for the heads up and passing the job on as he couldn’t make it. Such a gorgeous place and the kids seemed to enjoy it, and learnt a lot! Love how the Fat hen outdoes the cultivated lettuces in the veg garden!! #limetreeflowers #tuliptree #lakeswimming #fathen #associationofforagers

Sprucing up some cheap shop bought chicken (?) noodles, with an omelette and some gorgeous additions I found today in abundance … my tummy is feeling a bit dodge so I craved simplicity and my grandma’s chicken noodle soup! Spruced up with some very exciting young and new growth alexanders, sea aster, spear leaved orache, sea aster, mallow and white campion flowers, and some sea arrowgrass, and fennel seeds to aid recovery hopefully! Discovered they go so well with the noodles! Woody my borrowed doggy had a ball too, loving the little river for a swim, before he launched himself into some stinky marsh mud! 🫤 #mallowflower #whitecampion #seaarrowgrass #seaaster #alexanders #chickennoodles #associationofforagers

A few shots from the most amazing weekend at The British Wild Food Festival that I volunteered at- what a treat! So many talented foragers and forager chefs sharing their knowledge, and so great to hang out with my foraging buddies. Special shout out to @foragersam for organising it. Brilliant. Also to mention @andrea_pickleandbrew for her inspiring talk and fantastic company, @wild_roots_foraging for her amazing flatbreads on Friday night and her loveliness, @edible.leeds for the seven course foraged dinner, picture here was a dish with wood ants, yes!! @thelittleforagerskitchen for our foray up into the caves and foraging pine cones, with @the.fungi.guy Ali- where his eagle eye found the spent puffballs complete with mycorrhizal attachments, and the rhododendron parasitic fungus, burst blast I think he said, plus his amazing presentation on Saturday, @eduliswildfood for her great talk on seaweeds, @k.kocsis for her amazing book and ferments, @thewildcooke for her beautiful presence, @charlotteflowerchocolates for her delicious wild chocolates and @cotswoldforager and @force_of_nature_chef Alex for the fantastic venison sausages, @buckandbirch for the gorgeous elderberry liqueur, @foragefinefoods for the amazing book and talk on edible flowers… last but not least the talented @wild.pickle and her fermentation workshop that I missed sadly, and everyone involved. So happy to be part of this thing. Thank you all. I urge you to visit next year when hopefully the weather will be kinder! 🥰🌱 #thebritishwildfoodfestival #associationofforagers #foragersuk #foragerchefs

A great guided ID walk with these lovely guests on Saturday! Such a pleasure to share knowledge and I even learnt something new! Salsify growing in Hove lagoon and the smell of sea kale flowers is divine. Like honey. None picked as it’s illegal to do so down here, but good to see at this stage of bloom. Everything is growing so fast. Blink and you’ll miss it! #foragingwalkseastsussex #idwalk #treemallow #wildcarrot #hovelagoon #rocksamphire #salsify #associationofforagers

Food ready for my foraging walk today! Elderflower drizzle cake, elderflowers picked from @woodfire_camping Firle, seabeet, mallow, plantain buds and pasta and wild garlic pesto salad. Pickled rock samphire, fermented wild garlic buds and stalks, candied nettles, sourdough crackers. Woody my borrowed dog helped me on my reccy yesterday and did some foraging himself- seemed to like a bit of the old sea kale! Tree mallow ‘cheeses’ ready to have a wee munch on and so happy to find a patch of spear leaved orache to show my guests today! Just a note to add that sea kale is protected unless it’s from an area where it is super abundant- always check the law in your area. My borrowed dog doesn’t understand the law! My old dog used to eat the purple sprouting broccoli in our allotment- couldn’t stop her! She trashed quite a lot of it! 🙄 #foragingeastsussex #coastalforaging #associationofforagers

Very badly edited but a snippet of the last few days at Woodfire camping at Firle. Helping out front of house, cooking on fire, and foraging when I have some free time! A snack of foraged finds, nettles, bristly ox tongue, ground ivy, ash keys, cleavers, dandelion, horseradish root growing out backstage, and burdock root. Took me an hour to dig it up! Blisters to prove. 🤪Delicious cooked over the fire. My first time foraging it and preparing. #campingeastsussex #burdock #cooking on fire #woodfirecamping #foraginguk @woodfirecamping @theassociationofforagers

I love Spear leaved orache and it grows along the shingle beaches near me. The way it glistens with almost glitter sparkles! A little collection of some other coastal finds, added to yet another pasta dish! 😎 So so delicious. Lions mane mushrooms I grew, dried and rehydrated with a mix of mushrooms from last winter and some fresh Chicken of the Woods I found! Umami fermented sauce I made too from cleavers and ginger and turmeric waste from earlier this Spring. Bit of wild garlic and nettle pesto. Bloody gorgeous! Join my next event to find out more about some of these finds… Link in bio above. 🌱 #coastalliving #coastalforaging #foodforfree #eastsussex #wildfoodharvest #coastalplants #associationofforagers

Upcoming event! Early Summer coastal foraging guided walk. Saturday 1st June at 10am. A three hour walk with me starting at Hove lagoon and onwards along to a nearby shingle beach. We will ID the many abundant edible plants that grow by the sea. Learn about the plants to eat, and those to avoid, the foraging law, ways to cook with them… and taste some of the pre prepared foraged snacks I will bring along to share with you. This event is on Ticket Tailor and also Eventbrite. Follow the link in my bio for more details. Hope to see you there! 🌱 #foragingeventsbrightonandhove #foragingeastsussex #guidedforagingwalks #foodforfree #edibleplants #coastalwalkseastsussex #tickettailor #eventbrite #whatsonbrightonandhove #associationofforagers

A great weekend - some spent with friends and some alone, but always manage to get in a forage! Obsessed? Slightly. Found the mother of St. George’s mushroom rings- literally covering acres of a field. Too many to pick! Thought they were well over so was surprised to see SO many. New patch too. Dehydrating wild garlic flowers and now the seeds too. Delicious umami/caramel depths of flavour. So good. Use as a rub and flavour enhancer. And found so much Spear leaved Orache growing locally to me. Tastes better than Spinach, growing in municipal flower beds! I am helping stopping it spreading by picking as so as much of it…which will go to seed… @lucyfeilding @vicky.slater.923 @justine_lois_thorpe #spring #wild garlic dehydrating #spearleavedorache #treepollen #St .George’s-mushrooms #associationofforagers

Our last expedition to find the last of the St. Georges mushrooms. Last year they were still popping up, now shrivelled and almost gone over. Left lots to go back into the ground. New Gerbier knife tho, try not to lose this one 🤣 @alixpaley #stgeorgesmushroom #gerbier #workingcockerspaniel #borrowmydoggy @association_of_foragers