Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Dylan Goes Foraging for Shared Earth

• Alasdair Cross
• 1 Oct 07, 04:29 PM

Could you survive for a year on food foraged from the wild? lived off the land for a month this summer. He emerged, he says, healthier and wealthier but can he really live for a year on a hedgerow harvest?
Dylan Winter went to find out:

'Fergus emerged from his terraced house in the back streets of Herne Bay eating the reddest juiciest apple I have seen outside of a fairy tale. He is a compact, energetic man in his early thirties and sports a neatly trimmed beard. In the hall of his terraced house is the bike that is his main tool for foraging. It gives him access to the woods, foreshores and parking lots within a five mile radius of his house.

Fergus has done a number of jobs over the years, including working as a chef. He is currently making a living running courses on foraging - his clients range from the usual beard and sandal suspects to city executives on a corporate team building exercise.

The first place we went to gather wild food for lunch was along the wind battered seashore of the English Channel. A litter-strewn scrubby slope leading down to the sea defences was covered with a lush variety of plants and bushes. It was there that we found a fine range of plants to eat, half a dozen types of juicy green leaves - some like lettuce, some like spinach. We ignored the blackberries and crab apples as being too easy and headed for a bush with bright mustard yellow berries called a sea buckthorn. The soft berries had a wonderful flavour - unlike anything I have ever tasted. We harvested a few handfuls and added them to our basket.

Then off to a small area of heath for mushrooms - which were an easy win - and to collect the seeds from the docks which produce tall seed encrusted stems. Simply running a hand upwards along the length of the plant gathered a whole handful of seeds. Ten minutes would be enough time to collect a whole sackful of seeds which Fergus could grind up into a nutty flavoured flour for pastry.

Then to the railway station car park where there was a magnificent apple tree - the one that produced the juicy monster Fergus had been eating when we first met.

Then it was back home for mushroom and spinach tart with a mixed seed pastry. That was accompanied by a wonderful mixed chickweed salad and we ended up with a sorbet made from the juice of the apples and the berries of the sea buckthorn

Delightful.

Fergus says that he is going to start his year of wild food in April of 2008. There will be lean months - but he certainly won't lack variety.'

You can hear Dylan's interview with Fergus in the new series of Shared Earth which starts on October 12th on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Four at 3pm.

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