Forage & Feast: from the wild to the table

With autumn beginning to wrap itself around us (and with the welcome return of a bit of rain), the Forage & Feast session on Saturday 3 October is shaping up to be a fascinating morning of discovery, tasting and sharing.

Gerard Harris will lead us on a guided walk exploring the local landscape around Turlin Moor and Lytchett Bay, to discover some of the edible plants, herbs and fungi growing right on our doorstep. But the walk is only the beginning.

Back at the Community Hub (170 Blandford Road), we’ll gather around Gerard’s Wild Food Larder for a closer look, and taste, of what foraging can become in the kitchen. Using visual examples alongside food he has prepared from recent forages, Gerard will introduce everything from wild jams and ketchups to herbs, preserves and even elderberry capers (I kid you not!)

This won’t be a formal cooking demonstration, instead think of it more as a relaxed forage-to-table session: a chance to look, taste, ask questions, even swap ideas and discover practical ways of preparing and preserving what can be found locally. We’ll explore the right and the wrong ways to forage, your safety and how we can ensure there’s plenty for anyone else interested in this hobby.

We’ll finish by sharing a freshly cooked soup, prepared in the Hub using foraged ingredients gathered by Gerard the previous day, bringing our journey from landscape to plate full circle.

We still have a few places available, so if you’re curious about wild food, want to learn more about what is growing around us, or simply fancy spending a morning (and early afternoon) outdoors followed by good food and likeminded company, come and join us.

Forage & Feast is free to attend, but booking is essential. You can add your name to the list by completing the form which we’ve linked here: Forage & Feast