Wild Food Summer School Forage

I made it to Blackstairs Ecotrails’ Wild food Summer School for the morning forage with Miles Irving yesterday and what a treat it was!
Miles was able to show us numerous edibles in the small area of the field we were in focusing on grasses and trees. His hope is that we can harness technology to make preparing wild food easier whilst keeping it wild and nutritious.
Here are some points I took away – please note that these are simply observations I noted and one should ALWAYS inform and educate themselves on the safety (and sustainability) of eating any wild food – check out Miles’ book on foraging here for useful tips and advice:

  • Dock weed seed is bitter but good for the liver – maybe chef’s can come up with a way to make them tasty – particularly great if they can make it something to accompany alcohal! 🙂
  • Blackberry leaves can be used to make a very nice tea
  • The young shoots of the Rowan tree taste like almond
  • You know those stickleback plants that stick to you when you walk through them? Turns out that you can use them to make a coffee type drink! Best when brown.
  • Don’t eat nettles when in flower as the crystals in them will irritate the kidneys – note that they don’t taste very nice at this time anyway…
  • Green Pine Flowers are best!

Thanks to Mary and Robert for a great event – am sure they are all still having fun! Wild Food Summer School runs until Sunday evening this weekend. Visit www.blackstairsecotrails.ie/wild-food-summer-school/ for details.
Follow Miles Irving on Twitter @ForagerLtd

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