Foraging for wild food is the cheapest and most adventurous way to source ingredients for a spot of Slow Cooking. It’s also sustainable as its local and seasonal grub – you just need to know what you’re looking for and, like the Zen philosophy, only take what you need, leaving the strong plantlife to propagate.  It’s a simple activity and easy to reach by bike – all you need is some patience, a few cardboard cartons or reusable bags, a pair of scissors and some gardening or washing up gloves.

So what are you waiting for? Get on your bike and forage this bank holiday for the season’s delectable collection of wild garlic, dandelion, nettle and more!

If you’re a beginner, jorg&olif has picked its favourite foraging books and courses in the UK to give you a head start.

Seaweed and Eat it: A Family Foraging and Cooking Adventure by Xa Milne and Fiona Houston

For months my dad was harping on about this book, so much so that he ended up going on a Forage Rangers tour run by the authors in Scotland. He came back with even more effervescence and  I can see why. It’s a book with inspired ideas and recipes as well as providing a friendly and comfy romp into natural history.

The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food by John Lewis-Stempel

This is a book showing a spiritual journey of the seasons month by month, with Lewis-Stempel as the hunter-gatherer in modern times. It’s the perfect Slow Life read and is the perfect call to action for some bank holiday fun.

The Forager Handbook by Miles Irving

I had the pleasure of my first forage with Irving in the autumn around Hampstead Heath, where I ended up with a secretly foraged dinner that included delicious nettle pesto and sorrel salad. Irving’s handbook is as down to earth and as interesting as the man himself, with each plants’ monograph  carefully categorised and accompanied with recipes and gorgeous photography.

All these Wild Food books and more are available at the Low Impact Living Initiative bookshop.

Wild Man Wild Food

With a fan base including Chris Evans and from the man who has attempted to live entirely on 100% wild and foraged food for a whole year, Fergus Drennan’s personal blog pays humorous homage to his efforts.
Drennan also offers eight to 13 hour forages in different habitats including woodland, field, river, seashore and brown field sites (waste ground) across Canterbury and surrounding areas. Once the food is collected, cooking commences on an open fire for a truly wild feast.

Really Wild Festival

Within Britain’s smallest city, the annual Really Wild Food and Countryside Festival in Pembrokeshire is a great way to get everyone in the family involved in foraging around the Welsh countryside. It aims to preserve, revive and hand on countryside traditions and stories for generations to come.

Wild Forage UK

Fraser Christian, a qualified professional chef, experienced outdoor instructor and forager is joined by experts Vicky Prevett formally with Neal’s Yard Remedies, Tom Litchfield a qualified marine biologist and wild food fan, Chris Tall a graduate in wild food for medicine and Robin Hansford from Eat Weeds for a truly wild experience. The Wild Forage UK courses run across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Pembrokeshire, Sussex and West Wales. Christian also provides “Catch and Cook” sessions for aspiring anglers and seafoodies.

Wild Food School
Join the outdoor classroom and get an education in weeds with the Wild Food School in Cornwall. Run by Marcus Harrison, you can enjoy half day, full day, week long and even distance learning courses that are bespoke to your requirements (and geography) and level of understanding.

Image: foxypar4

The fourth generation of dairy farmers in her family, Caroline and her brother Graham have seen how the farming industry has changed. And, while wholly dedicated to this lifestyle, they have a healthy family rule to stop talking business from midday every Saturday to ensure proper family time!

“My great grandfather used to sell milk directly from the home farm near Darlington then stopped when farming became more industrialised. Yet in 2000 and in a difficult market, we decided to convert to farming organically and sell our own milk again so that we could benefit from the end retail price.” In a wonderful reminder of yesteryear, the milk is delivered to the door in glass bottles from its 350 strong herd of Dairy Shorthorn cows based at two separate sites.

“Our switch to organic farming initially began to give us a marketing angle angle to help us sell our milk to local customers in Darlington. Aware that if we couldn’t successfully find customers to sell to directly we would have to expand our  herd size drastically to ensure profitability  as a non- organic producer .  Soon after conversion,  the farm staff were fully on board  and enthusiastic as they could see the success of the organic animal husbandry skills they were using. We would never go back to non organic farming techniques.”

With a supportive borough council, Acorn Organics Dairy is able to supply its milk and dairy products to primary schools. One of schools included is Skerne Park Primary School, part of the celebrated Food for Life Partnership and led by the Soil Association, which works with 1,800 schools and communities across England to transform food culture, inspiring families to cook and grow food, to reconnect youngster with farms and to revolutionise school meals to a fresher, healthier, organic and local focus.  The daily milk delivery, noted to have a higher level of omega 3, is one simple step for the school to take to achieve its Food for Life award. The organic dairy doesn’t just benefit the consumer’s health either.

“Organic farming focuses on preventing illness within the herd rather than treating them, and then concentrating on homoepathic remedies”, Caroline comments. “We’ve seen a massive difference in the herd. The cows are naturally healthy if they have sufficient space, creating many health problems, and due to heavier udders would regularly have severe foot problems. Now, they are content and healthy. W e breed cows that are hardier and can happily survive on a high forage-based diet, grazing on red and white clover leys, they produce less milk but do not require routine antibiotic support.”

Fields went through a transition process of removing chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides. The business has considerately reverted one field back to how  it once  was- taking drainage systems out – this is now packed with wildlife including amphibians and ground nesting birds not seen on the farm prior to organic conversion. Across the rest of the farm hedgerow quality and size is encouraged. Wildlife studies are carried out by local interest groups and wildlife variety has increase d substantially with birds such as skylarks, kestrels, sparrowhawks and herons.

Acorn Dairy

Photographer and artist Anna Hillman has aided just that with her Amazingness project, part of slowLab, which promotes slow design.  Hillman is raising awareness of the subtle and complex interaction of nature in the urban environment and invites individuals to capture it through photography. “I’m constantly finding amazing things – a pale green lichen growing on a bright pink fence, fascinating in its intricacy and oddness; a leaf caught in some fencing glowing intensely orange in the sun…things that continually lift my spirits and make me glad to be alive. These first-hand experiences, coupled with an underlying fascination with biology, a strong environmental ethic and a desire to share this wonderment, and the benefits it yields, with others, are my inspirations.”

This provides the opportunity for everyone to discover the natural treasure close to them and share with others.

“Every day the sky is different, seasons change, different flowers grow, buildings weather, shadows appear and disappear, rain drops splash, puddles dry up, blossom tumbles in the wind, colours change with the changing light…there is always something new to enjoy.”

For the project to be widely appreciated, Hillman employed “Guerrilla Graphics” where she took chalk and placed bold, handwritten message in unusual and often surprising locations across the city of London. It is her call to action for those on daily auto-pilot to notice and engage more deeply in everyday places, using all the five senses.

“I did once get in a bit of trouble for guerrilla graffiti-ing outside someone’s house…until I explained what I was doing and why, and then he was much happier and let me get on with it – I was chalk writing: ‘AMAZING sprouting plants’.”

“The words “FEEL ME” invite a passerby to stroke soft patches of moss atop a brick wall, while the message “LOOK AT THE SKY” on a pathway reminds people to enjoy the nature that floats eternally above their heads.”

jorg&olif particularly loved the inviting message scrawled by a park bench: “Take a minute….Watch the world go by.”

Hillman further adds, “Exploring is easy and brilliant, although it does involve being open to, and aware of your immediate environment, which can sometimes be hard, especially if you’re in a hurry or too preoccupied. It’s a process, facilitated by slowing down and becoming consciously engaged with where you are, your ‘here and now’. I find that having a camera can really help at first, as it gives me, and others, a reason to focus. I find that I can spend hours on the same street exploring with my camera. Other times, if I’m in a hurry, when I notice something amazing I’ll pause, investigate quickly, appreciate it, smile, then move on.”

Amazingness can work both ways: having something not particularly pleasant highlighted allows individuals to re-connect and make positive change…

I have a friend whose mother developed a touch of environmental activism at a later age. For a time she was known, like Hillman, to highlight certain aspects of daily life, although in her case it was by placing little flags on dog dirt in her local park with amusing messages including “Mind your step!”, “Is this yours?”  as well as “Are free removal services offered?”

It turns out that you don’t always need to fall down the rabbit hole to meet the Madhatter.

Amazingly, in the terror of being caught and embarrassed by this eccentric individual, the regular dog walkers quickly learned to scoop up after their canines and the space was once again clean and green.

If you would like to feel inspired to leave your own positive messages around your area, look at Hillman’s 150 page photography book, bursting with thought-provoking text and diagrams that explore the relationship between organic and synthetic.

Images courtesy of Anna Hillman

Six Senses is a highly regarded, luxury resort group that promotes slow life and environmental conservation throughout its spas in Thailand, The Maldives, Vietnam and Jordan.

The book’s title – SLOW LIFE – doesn’t irk from its contents either. This particular SLOW LIFE stands for Sustainable, Local, Organic, Wholesome and Learning, Inspiring, Fun, Experience, and it’s a philosophy that shimmers from its very cover.

In its beautiful delta square perfect bound form, the book considers every aspect of your life that you can slow down, including our favourite, Slow Travel. While including its own Six Senses Spas within its “eco experiences” chapter, this book is far more than a self-promoting accolade. The jorg&olif team have already had a love affair with it.

There are wonderful refreshing sections from The Slow Home and Office for powering down at work and Slow Parenting – in which creativity is given its own space and time to Slow Food with various raw and organic recipes delectably  teasing you and inspiration of ‘from waste to wealth’, and Slow Style which looks at wholesome beauty and fashion and the innovative designers pioneering the change.

We adore the presentation of the section Local Knowledge which through gorgeous imagery and informative prose uncovers the species that share our world, including the many threatened animals and plant life.

The book doesn’t shy away from the big issues or startling facts either. Unlike most books of its time, the issue of climate change has been dealt with in an unusually unhurried way within the first chapter entitled A Sustainable Planet, inviting the reader to think more. It also invites you to participate at its own resorts through volunteerism.

There’s mesmerising photography throughout that keeps your heart warm and your mind calm – it’s the perfect book for winding down and capturing a few moments of alone time. Don’t forget to make a slow hot chocolate or slow cocktail to accompany the captured mood.

Visit your local book shop (ISBN 9789814217385) or wander over to the Six Senses website for further inspiration.

Images: Kiattipong Panchee, Ulli Schonart and paintlight, and courtesy of Six Senses.