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Welcome to Forage London and Beyond, a collective of independent foraging teachers offering London wild food walks, Dorset seashore and coastal foraging, Hampshire and New Forest mushroom hunting.

Nature Connection

This months blog is written by my dear friend Irwin Edgehill. Irwin describes himself as a trainer and personal development coach. Over the last decade he has helped hundreds of people build or rebuild their confidence and resilience in their personal lives or at work. For my own part, when reading a book about mindfulness [...]

The Edible City September, authored by John Rensten of Forage London, Wild plum

September 5th September. Tottenham I like to call it ‘green vision’. Once turned on, it’s pretty much impossible to ever turn it off again. Rushing to the Tube is punctuated by flashes of edible plants, just leaving the house turns into an opportunity to lookat potential ingredients, and a walk in a local green space [...]

The Edible city June, authored by John Rensten of Forage London, Nasturtium

June 5th June. Stoke Newington Sunshine, blue skies, roadworks and traffic jams. I’m not a huge fan of summer in the city but I never tire of visiting my most local park, an old friend who keeps me sane and always has something interesting to say. Today he says just one word: blossom. Lime, elder, [...]

The Edible city April, authored by John Rensten of Forage London

April 2nd April. Waterlow Park, Highgate A dense and damp mist was hanging over most of the city this morning and Highgate, which looks like something of a time warp even without it, was positively Dickensian. For various random reasons I seem to have visited this park at regular intervals across the last twenty-five years, [...]

The Edible City book cover, authored by John Rensten, exploring foraging for wild food and mushrooms in London and other UK cities including Dorset, Hampshire and the New Forest.

I can think of nothing more fulfilling than cooking with food that I have foraged. To feed yourself and those you care about with ingredients sourced by your own hands is to rekindle a relationship with nature, and the simple act of gathering our own food is the way man has existed for the majority [...]

rose infused chocolate truffles

Did you know that there are lots medicinal extracts and tasty wild foods that can be made with roses? Roses are possibly the love of my life so this is quite the ode to them. People are usually fascinated to discover how easily they can make things from them. Here are recipes for using Roses [...]

uk native wild spices

Baker and food writer, Helen White, interviewed me for her own blog. We talked at length about the concept of forgotten exotic spices in the UK – our very own homegrown spice rack! More details of Helen’s writing and fantastic cookery here. Helen begins… The disconnect between humans and the environment outside our cities and [...]

cooking with sea spaghetti foraged cooking Richard Mawby

Sea Spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata) While you might not be able to forage Sea Spaghetti (Himanthalia elongata) from any of London’s green spaces, with the growing movement towards a grain or gluten free diet this amazing seaweed deserves a mention. You can find sea spaghetti for sale at health food shops or you can easily buy [...]

Sticky Weed Cleavers (Galium aparine)

Vivienne Campbell Bsc (Hons) MNIMH is a qualified herbalist, foraging teacher and professional natural cosmetic formulator. She teaches classes in Ireland & UK and worldwide via her online video courses. Vivienne loves teaching people how to use herbs simply, effectively and joyfully. She believes it is everyone’s birth-right to know how to use common local [...]

turkey tail mushroom foraging

Vicky was born and raised in London. She had a calling to study nature from a young age and didn’t let city living get in the way. She began foraging and growing food and medicine as a teenager in any green space she could find – local parks, wastelands, window boxes and back gardens. Her [...]

Richard Mawby cooking with Thistle Root

Richard Mawby is a forager and a modern hunter gatherer. He has re-wilded his gut over a number of years and attains most of his nutrition from wild seasonal food alongside traceable food staples that closely mimic a true late-paleo diet.  “With the not-so-harsh winter on its way out, wild spring greens start making their [...]

foraged wild blackberry and apple sourdough

I have spent the better part of four years ‘re-wilding’ my gut, my senses, my instincts and my knowledge to better serve me as I walked away from many commercial and intensively farmed sources of food. The greatest challenge I have faced is to attain a modest healthy number of calories from wild starches during [...]

mixed wild foraged mushrooms wood blewitt

John has very kindly invited me to contribute a guest blog. I am a fellow foraging guide who is based in Mid-Wales. Almost all of my forays are in the vast conifer plantations scattered along the Cambrian Mountains. I am lucky in that no one seems to want to restrict mushroom picking here. This is [...]

The Edible City wild garlic illustration

This month, some recipe ideas, an excerpt from my own book, The Edible City, and some beautiful hand drawn illustrations courtesy of the mega-talented Gwen Burns.

Forage London foraged store cupboard on garden table

As they say, “It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it”. So I guess the responsibility falls on me, again. After all, that booze won’t make its self will it? Usually I’m out and about foraging near me, but instead we found ourselves at this picnic table conveniently placed on the banks of [...]

basket of foraged wild mushrooms collected in the New Forest

If I were you, and obviously I’m not, I’d just watch this film about foraging and not bother to read any of the blog below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6rrMqFBT1o For anyone who was unfortunate enough to make it to the end of my last blog, here is the second half; the further rantings of an ego unchecked, the product [...]

Pink lilac cuckoo flower or Lady's Smock

OFFICIAL WARNING : Blogging is the most self indulgent and self serving pastime known to modern man. With this in mind I politely suggest that you  DO NOT READ ANY OF WHAT FOLLOWS  unless you have almost saintly tolerance of other people’s opinions and a small amount of time to waste. For anyone who’s new [...]

basket of foraged mushrooms

It’s late November and although all my organised forays are over for the season, there are still numerous edible species out there to hunt for. Alas this autumn has been as much about politics as it has about foraging, with The Forestry Commission in Hampshire announcing a full ban on picking and then doing something of [...]

The Edible City A Year of Wild Food John Rensten

I’m delighted to say that the publication date for my book – The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food – is now set for September 8th and there will be two launch events, one for the press on September 13th and a less formal do at Stoke Newington Books (London N16) on September 29th. [...]

illustration from Edible City

Here’s an entry and a couple of the illustrations from my forthcoming book, The Edible City. It’s out in September but I thought the timing of this piece was  just about perfect to publish now, with some enormous stinging nettle leaves all over London at the moment. Simplicity itself, this is one of my most loved recipes [...]