Wild Food Foraging in Cornwall

Rachel Lambert is a foraging guide, award-winning author, recipe creator and blogger. She’s been teaching people to forage since 2007 and loves introducing them to the abundance of edible plants that surround us. She has written two pocketbooks on foraging and cooking in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and adores being outdoors, gathering nature’s bounty.

Rachel says, “Foraging is a fun and enlivening way to appreciate the environment and access to fresh, seasonal food. It’s also an excuse for outdoor adventures and quirky investigations in the kitchen. After walking together, I often hear people say, ‘I’ll never look at a hedgerow in the same way again’ and every time it makes me smile.”  Here, she shares her love of wild food and some tips for the budding forager.

Specialising in embroidery and embellishment, she has created couture botanical textiles for interiors, arts and fashion, as well as creating installations and running workshops to share her love of slow stitching by hand.

Now, with her book, she wants to inspire people to think about materials and embroidery in a different way. It contains tips and projects to help readers discover the joy of mindful craft while making clothing and accessories personal and beautiful.

As a forager, a walk anywhere automatically means I’m noticing food. The flourishing edible weeds in their happy place, where no one has placed them, but they thrive anyway. Sometimes a tree may be planted there, like the rowan tree, with passersby unknowingly leaving her vitamin C-rich berries to the birds.

As I walk, I am taking in the colours, movements, textures, size and smell of plants. As summer unfolds, I notice the flowers turning to seed and the scented roses start to grow hips. Freshly fallen rose petals can still be gathered though, and I never regret stopping to smell the roses, particularly in the warm summer air.

Whether you’re a stroller, a hiker, a commuter or an ambler, it’s worth taking a moment to really look, touch and sniff. Never picking or tasting unless you’re sure of what you’ve found but being curious and starting to notice can be a satisfying way to be. Perhaps unripe, green elderberries hang above your head, waiting for the end of summer to turn them black and juicy. The yellow, domed heads of pineapple weed is a wonderful plant for spotting on footpaths and pavements, as it loves to grow on compacted soil and smells of pineapple when rubbed.

Here in Cornwall I love the abundance of wild edibles, yet I always follow the mantra: ‘take a little and leave a lot’. Pick prolific weeds that give a lot of themselves and are perhaps despised (though useful to a forager) or start with the plants that you’re familiar with first

• Rowan berries are best cooked and have a sophisticated flavour with a twist of bitter. They’re perfect sweetened for cordials, jellies and cocktails.
• Elderberries are also best cooked, have anti-viral properties and make a delicious cordial or fruit vinegar. They can cause stomach upsets if eaten raw.
• Pineapple weed is a member of the daisy family and is also known as wild or false chamomile. It’s not the same as chamomile but can be used as a substitute with similar calming effects. Add into salads or use as a herbal tea. Some people have an allergic reaction to the daisy family and it shouldn’t be eat in large amounts.
• Roses are all edible but be sure they haven’t been sprayed. Take a moment to smell the roses and choose the most scented petals to infuse and make your own rose water, syrup or ice creams. Just pick the petals that come away easily and not the whole flower head. My favourite is Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa), also known as beach rose as it grows by the sea as well as inland.

•  You can find out more about what I do, my courses, books and blogs at www.wildwalks-southwest.co.uk or follow me on instagram or facebook.