HUNTER-GATHERING: wild & fresh food

Rules of Engagement.

I received an email last week from one of my readers; it was concerning the picking of wild garlic bulbs and the legality of such activities. The email got me thinking about just what the law does allow Hunter-gatherers to do and just how we should be looking after our chosen foraging environments.

In the email it was mentioned that it is illegal to pick the bulbs of wild garlic. This is not strictly true, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act it is illegal to dig up a plant by the root, however common it is, unless it is on your own land or you have the landowner’s permission. My favoured wild garlic harvesting spot is on a Friend’s farm and there is more of it than you could shake a stick at.

The other point that was raised was how essential it is to set good sustainable standards where our wild foods are concerned. Quite, I couldn’t agree more. So what are the rules of engagement when it comes to foraging?

As a regular user of the wild larder, I decided to thumb through some of my books to see what the law states. Obviously the hunter-gatherers code of conduct relies upon a certain degree of common sense, most of the published material on protection of wild plants all provide the same information.

The dons of wild food, Richard Mabey and Roger Phillips, both say how important it is to look out for the plants safety just as much as our own. Taking small quantities from several plants rather than stripping one specimen bare, will go a long way to preserving the plant for the future. Likewise, only pick what you need for yourself and when a plant is growing in profusion.

In terms of legality, as long as you have the landowner’s permission (as mentioned above), there are few wild foods that are not available to available to the forager, except in the case of protected species such as cowslip. In the past I have enjoyed a little trespass action, unless you cause damage, trespass remains a civil rather than a criminal offence. Now I am a little more grown up, the days of provoking a “GET OFF MOI LAAAND!” are few and far between, when I shoot, fish or forage I always have permission to do so. This makes for guilt free enjoyment of the chosen activity rather than mooching about looking over your shoulder every few minutes.

I remember back in the day, when I was about 12 or 13, pike fishing near some pheasant woods. My friends and I would get bored with the lack of pike action and head up to the rearing pens armed with that most notorious of childhood weaponry: the Black Widow catapult. I believe we even went as far as buying marbles and ball bearings for ammunition.  Wandering in to a rearing pen and knocking off pheasants for the pot seemed a little bit of harmless fun back then, I must confess I cannot help cringing at the stupidity and criminality of it now, but boys will be boys.

Harvesting wild food from public rights of way and parkland is acceptable as long as nothing is uprooted or damaged. Leaves, flowers, fruits, nuts and fungi are available to us all. I decided to drop in and see the head of my local urban gathering hot spot, Battersea Park, to see what they deemed acceptable gathering. Keeping schtum about my avid appreciation for squirrel fishing I met the Chief Parks Officer, Jennifer Ullman. She said that they do not encourage foraging in the park, but if someone were to ask if they might gather a few nettles or pick some elderflower (within reason), she would say ‘we never had this conversation’. So, the Parks tend to turn a blind eye to a little foraging action, however, I was told where the line is drawn in the tale of a couple of old dears that got caught with two bin bags of holly at Christmas, apparently it was for the local church…

Hunter gathering is something that brings us closer to nature and allows us to appreciate just how lucky we are in Britain to have such tasty flora and fauna. It is within all our interests to respect the countryside and take care when harvesting the hedgerows, I would like my children to be able to pick wild garlic, catch an eel from a river and find out what a pignut tastes like. It is unfortunate that in this age of supply and demand, commercial foraging has reared it ugly head, although it is something I do not condone (I feel that if the restaurants want wild food that badly they should go and get it themselves), the majority of wild food suppliers do adhere to the sustainability of the wild plants they gather and go about it in a sensible way.

So there we have the rules of engagement. Please pick carefully and look out for the future of our wild foods! For more information on codes of conduct, here are some links that lay down the law:

Wild Flower Society- Code of Conduct.

Bushcraft Magazine-Foraging and the law.

Twitter me this Batman...

After reading a rubbish article in the equally rubbish London Paper (what else can you do on public transport if you forget a book?), I found myself eager to try out this new twitter craze that is sweeping the world. I'm not to sure about all the 'tw' that is added to the start of sentances but, hey ho. I heard about some one called the twitchhiker who plans to travel as far as possible in 30 days relying on the goodwill of twitter users, well good luck to him.

It appears I am becoming teched up with neo-Mac geekery, I have just had a free upgrade in the shape of a 3G I-Phone (thank you 02...).  So I can now tell the world what I am doing, even if I'm not actually doing it (may have to put in a few whoppers). With 140 words at my disposal and as many updates as I like, I have the opportunity to be a bore or make you want more. 

So please feel free to follow me: http://twitter.com/HuntGathercook

Thanks!

Foodie: a curse amongst words.

Foodie: a word that should never be used.

1984 was a dark year. A year in which a book was released, written by Paul Levy, Ann Barr and Mat Sloan called “The official foodie handbook.” It was due to these people alone that the term “foodie” was first coined. I loathe the word, I hate it so much that I would rather drink turpentine and piss on a bonfire than utter it out loud. So, as you can imagine writing this is no easy task for me, but it has to be done. The word is so offensive that as I type it up it is the only word underlined in red!

There was a time I found particularly hard when I did a brief stint at Olive magazine where the word was banded around the office more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon. Understandable if you read the magazine which is packed full of foodie this and foodie that, what is more interesting, from the impression I got, is that not many of the people who worked on the magazine were not very fond of the F-word either.
The dictionary defines the F-word as someone who; has an ardent or refined interest in food. Very nice. So gourmand, gourmet and gastronome are words that describe the same thing but are considered too snobbish in this day and age, hence the reason “foodie” was invented. I can happily stand tall and say that I am certainly not the only person who harbours contempt for this word. The general consensus amongst us who do have interest in food terminology is that it is a bad word. For example I don’t believe people are branded “shoppies” if they have an interest in shopping often a simple ‘aholic’ is sufficient to back the word used to describe someone who avidly pursues a certain pastime or subject: shop-a-holic, alcoholic, chocaholic etc. It seems as though our official foodie handbook writers felt it sounded right- damn them!

It seems evident that new words for old things are always being invented to make them sound more professional like calling a cocktail barman a ‘mixologist’ are they really? Or are they still cocktail barmen. I believe in America they now call them “bar-chefs”. How pretentious is that!

It doesn’t often happen but occasionally someone on hearing I write a food blog and enjoy my food they make the enormous mistake of saying to me “so you’re a bit of a foodie then?” er…..no, the rest of the conversation never usually happens. The f-word is meant to describe amateurs that have an avid interested in everything to do with food. I don’t mean to blow my own, but I am a fairly good self-taught cook, does that make me a chef? It has got to a point I feel that the word itself invokes the same snobbery that people thought gourmand and gastronome did. Its people such as Tom Parker-Bowles who I think love the word and his book “a year of eating dangerously”, all be it a thoroughly enjoyable read certainly adheres to this kind of F-word behaviour. People do think they are ‘foodies’ if they hold a big interest in it. Considering food is something so essential to keep us alive as well as something our hunter-gatherer ancestors lives revolved around, should we call them the ultimate foodies? They were always looking for new ingredients, new ways of cooking their catch etc. It pains me to say it but one person who has always inspired me- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is also guilty of using the word more times than he should have.

Maybe times are changing and we have to adapt to these new terms, but I say never. Not that word. I hate it now and I always will. I was relieved to have a flick through my copy of Larousse Gastronomique, not even mentioned! Oh hang on, Ken Holm has to stain the back cover with; ‘for foodies, Larousse is perfect bedtime reading’. Well all I can say is that I have never read it in bed. Why would you, it’s a dictionary of food. I like food and most things associated with it do interest me, that does not make me a foodie or anyone else who follows the same pattern.

Unfortunately like ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Emmerdale’ it is something that has been engrained into British society, which we may never be rid of. People who call themselves foodies are in fact in the same boat of snobs that they thought gastronomes were. In fact they really believe they are an elite group above the heathens, the same type who go and spend hundreds of orange and purple beer slips in Borough market and whole foods every weekend. If you like food, you like food, it is as simple as that.

Lets step up people, stop using the word, its ridiculous!

Help! I live in London!

Yes, So do I. It may seem absurd to many who read this that you can create a blog about fresh, wild food from the heart of Clapham. It is completely do-able and I shall show you. I have only been living here for 2 years and yet have seen more wild food than in some parts of Sussex, for example, there is more wild horseradish than I have ever seen growing under the footbridge at Willsesden junction. Mushrooms growing in Battersea park, nettles and dandelions everywhere. To realise this takes a little Knowlege and a keen eye. People may raise an eyebrow and think you are more than a little peculiar if you are on a footpath and stop to examine a couple of "green things" growing out of a wall or crawling through bushes in the park with a mushroom guide book. I have had these looks and I have had my findings in the pan an hour later. The people with the raised eyebrows have not.

I went on the Millenium wheel a couple of weeks ago and the first thing I noticed was cranes everywhere, the expression "London will be good when its finished" springs to mind. What this also means is lots of waste ground where many wild foods are often the first colonisers. Fat hen, a personal favourite, is always one of the first and the leaves make a great spinach as well as young stalks being a poor man's asparagus.

Next time your out and about keep your eyes down (many of us are used to doing this anyway), and look at anything green that comes your way. If you don't know what it is, take it home and get on the internet or buy a book (Richard Mabey's "food for free" IS the bible on this subject). There are always stinging nettles, we all know what they look like having felt its bite at some time in your life.

In a city as fast moving and impersonal as ours, it could just make your day.
Could I eat that? perhaps.