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A WILD FOOD WALK AND A BUSHCRAFT LESSON COMBINED.
A morning exploring the edible delights of one of North London’s most interesting wild areas, followed by an introductory bushcraft lesson looking at one of the basic essentials of survival, in this case knife skills. The event will be led by Forage London teacher and qualified bushcraft instructor, James Grant, and will last for about 4 hours, involving safely picking and eating various leaves, berries etc as we go along with various new foods and drinks to try (made from different wild ingredients we’ve previously picked, cooked, fermented, pickled etc), learning to identify plenty of edible plants and discussion touching on numerous topics including, nutrition, medicine, herbalism, botany, cookery, horticulture and history.
Basic Knife Skills.
Every forager needs a way to collect their spoils and one of the best devices is the humble basket. Baskets can be purchased in all sorts of shapes, sizes and materials but making your own foraging basket from materials you’ve collected allows for a deeper immersion into this ancient activity. For the last hour of this extended walk you will use a Swiss Army Knife and learn how to make a stitched tree bark container, establish which tree barks are best suited, along with learning their properties.
About James.
James was born in the London suburb of Roehampton and moved to the countryside of East Surrey at the age of four. From the age of six he was out picking blackberries and sloes from the local footpaths and fields with his great grandmother. The family moved to a new house when James was seven. Not long after moving, James took a walk with his father across the field behind their house and they discovered dozens of white mushrooms. With the guidance of his father they picked a few and identified them as field mushrooms, with the help of Richard Mabey’s book ‘Food for Free’. James’ father was not confident enough to go beyond the basics though and soon, fishing took over as James’ main outdoor nature based activity.
Still… an interest in wild food had been nurtured.
It wasn’t until in his late twenties that he became interested in the field of bushcraft and quickly identified foraging as the most important part of the field (after shelter, fire & water). An obsession with finding and identifying fungi soon followed. Inevitably, this lead to tree and plant identification and learning more about the natural resources around him whether it was food, poisonous, medicine, craft material, animal track & sign, navigation or just a wonder to behold.
James has now been seriously studying foraging for around 12 years and started leading walks for Forage London in September 2016. In 2017 he obtained the qualification ‘Level 4 Bushcraft Leader’ at John Rhyder’s Woodcraft School in Surrey. He is also a member of the British Mycological Society, Coracle Society and a founding member of the Association of Foragers.
As well as our advertised walks, James has also led privately booked Forage London walks for clients such as; Miller Harris, Wholefoods, Greenpeace, and Soho House.
If this event is fully booked and you’d like to go on the cancellations waiting list, please email me at john@foragelondon.co.uk
