The Weardale Forager
By Dr Paoi Wilmer
IN my dreams, I have a grandmother who takes me into the wild and shows me all the plants I can
eat and what to save for the animals.
She points out the poisonous mushrooms, but also shares the best recipes for cooking the edible
ones (because as we all know, edible does not always equal tasty). Unfortunately, these
grandmothers are in great demand and I have yet to find one for myself.
The reality is you’ve probably foraged or at least seen someone foraging before, but didn’t realise
it was called foraging. Maybe you have fond memories of picking blackberries as a child or maybe
you were dog-walking and saw someone holding a basket in the undergrowth. Gathering food from
the wild is foraging, and if that sounds appealing to you then we need to go on a quest for
knowledge, because foraging is fast becoming a lost art.
Since the advent of supermarkets, more and more people are losing the ability to differentiate
between a cabbage and a lettuce. Oftentimes we don’t even know the original form of the
ingredients in our meals. We don’t know where they were grown and how far they have travelled to
reach our plates. Eating, like breathing, is a vital part of survival and yet we forget on a daily basis
how food grows.
So how do we start our foraging journey? The easiest way is to buy a book or two, or five.
Another way is to look for foraging events; these are becoming more popular and should be led by
very knowledgeable and sometimes licensed people. If you’re very lucky, you may already know
someone that you trust who forages. A question people often ask me, my mother included, is how
can you be sure you’re not poisoning yourself? There are two basic rules to remember: “Don’t
munch on a hunch!” and “If in doubt, leave it out!”
Learn all you can about the edible plants, paying careful attention to the poisonous ones,
especially if there are lookalikes. This is the reason why the carrot family (like mushrooms) are
treated with such caution. Not only are features very similar across the board, but two are actually
deadly – the hemlock and the hemlock water-dropwort – a mistake could be fatal. So always check
and double-check your ID, be 100% before you eat it. It’s also very useful at the beginning to observe
a plant over the seasons because it allows you to identify every stage from leaf to flower to fruit.
Start with a small quantity, even food that’s edible for some can cause adverse reactions in
others. Always take a photo if it is the first time you’re trying something; if you should feel unwell
afterwards it’s useful to show it to your doctor, even if it’s just to it rule out.
I believe that foraging, even for a few simple plants, can take us on an incredible journey of
discovery – about ourselves, our health and the world around us. We belong to this planet. The
health of our inner world depends on the health of our outer world. We are literally what we eat!
(See below for photos and a list of books)
The three flowers in the photos all have white petals and a yellow centre. They look similar even
though the petals are of different shapes and sizes, but when you look carefully at the leaves they
are quite different. One is chamomile, one is daisy and one is feverfew. Can you tell which is which?
Here are some books that I have learnt a lot from over the years.
Richard Mabey, Food For Free (1972)
Richard Mabey, The Complete New Herbal (1988)
Audrey Wynne Hatfield, How to Enjoy Your Weeds (1969)
Ann Cliff, The Value of Weeds (2017)
John Wright, The Forager’s Calendar (2019)
Robin Harford, Edible and Medicinal Plants of Britain and Ireland (2019)
