COASTAL FORAGING WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!
Coastal Foraging at Robin Hood's Bay - What an Experience!
I found Wild Food Wisdom online when looking for interesting things to do for our guests staying at Sea Fern Cottage.
I missed the Robin Hood’s Bay Coastal Foraging course, but decided to join the one at Cloughton and I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID!
The course is much more than a search around for edible plants and seaweeds, it was a wild food culinary experience combined with foraging know how and useful tips. The hosts, Tee and Andrea are the most amazing people, they are so generous and kind and it is obvious from the start that they want to share their joy of eating wild foods.
We were greeted in the car park with a power house of a soup made from wild garlic and Hogweed – It was delicious! Then after a brief introduction into the woods we went…
My first wild food experience was a yellow primrose, followed by the green tips of some sticky weed and Wood Sorrel an applely tasting, clover like plant with white flowers. Tee is a chief and makes gorgeous food from her finds and Andrea is a medicinal herbalist who advised us that we could use the underside of birch polypore mushrooms instead of a sticking plaster and a what to use to make a herbal poultice to help protect our eyes against age related deterioration.
We then had a break and it was time for some homemade wild garlic and cheese scones and some herb based port, delicious, followed by a search for some scarlet elf cup mushrooms. Apparently, these are like wild pepperoni for pizzas, I’ll be cooking with those tomorrow! Then we stumbled upon some jelly ear fungus, which would have been impossible to spot without a guide as they are brown and camouflage against rotting fallen trees. Tee had dehydrated a batch of these earlier and soaked them in some delightful wild elderberry juice and coated them in chocolate and wild flowers. To say that they tasted like chocolate coated Turkish Delight would have been insulting to the jelly ear fungus, because it tasted way better, they were absolutely sensational! Everyone had seconds.
After picking some wild garlic, we dropped down to the beach for lunch. I was not expecting such a hearty meal, but I soon realized that the emergency soggy cheese sandwich in my rucksack would not be needed! There was wild food based quiche, salad and sushi all pimped with wonderful homemade pickles.
After lunch and a dip for some in the waterfall, we headed out to find some seaweed. Pepper Dulse, Gutweed and Kelp were all easily harvested using the scissors we were told to bring along and yet again in true Wild Food Wisdom hospitality we were treated to some of the seaweed dried crisps Tee and Andrea had made earlier for us to try.
The day closed too soon, although 5 full hours had clearly passed in a blink, with a chocolate brownie and a delightful sweet pastry both with a wild food twist. If we weren’t already feeling full up to the brim with love and kindness then the departing gift was the cherry on cake as goody bags were handed around containing Nocino (green walnut liqueur), wild flower balm (for dry skin bites and bruises) and Haw Sin hot sauce (made from hawthorn berries).
My only criticism was that I was not ready to leave! I could have talked to the lovely ladies from Wild Food Wisdom for longer. Please can you make the next one a foraging weekend? THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR WILD FOOD WISDOM. I will be back.
Wild Food Wisdom have one date left in 2024 - Sunday 20th October. If you would like to co-ordinate you stay at Seafern Cottage with this event please get in touch ASAP because spaces are limited.
