Wild Food

Wild food - the kind you have to forage for yourself in the countryside - has seen a resurgence of interest of late, I'm told. Perhaps the likes of Fergus Drennan (that man who cooks roadkill), the popularity of SAS Survival manuals, and Ray Mears, have something to do with it.

I've been doing some foraging of my own . No roadkill, just in case you were worried for a moment. I blame my Granny - she took us mushroom picking as children, and grew most of her own fruit and veg, which we picked and helped her make into jam in the long summer holidays. And then there has been my growing dissatisfaction with the supermarkets that are geared so much towards getting maximum profit for minimum quality produce, and their preference for selling prepackaged foods over whole veg... and the limited availability of cheaper products. And then the sudden food inflation on top of all that.

I've quickly realised there are certain benefits to wild food that didn't cross my mind as a child, when squeezing behind raspberry bushes to get at the best fruit. So here they are - in no particular order:

- Fresh air and a bit of exercise (it makes a nice early evening walk going berry hunting or mushrooming)

- You can't really watch Telly when you're busy in the kitchen

- You start to appreciate food more and don't waste so much when you've put effort into collecting it yourself

- You learn about plants & their uses

- Less food miles - the food itself hasn't gone very far, and you probably haven't needed as many trips to the shops

- Tastier food - I've discovered some new flavours and realised that my home-made jam is much nicer than what you can get in a supermarket

- A more varied diet - ever seen elderberries or stinging nettles in Tescos, anyone?

- A sense of history - not that long ago, this activity was 'normal' (at least some readers of this article will think I've gone off my rocker) and people were much more directly reliant on the land and what was seasonal.

The main downside is the amount of time it can take - that, and the fact that you start somewhat obsessively looking about you for the food in the nearest hedge.