FORAGING

TAKE YOUR PICKAnne Armstrong and her family take a walk on the wild side with expert forager

Mark Williams to discover the delicious free treats nature has to offer

86 DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY LIFE October 2011

Fungi feast: a selection of edible mushrooms

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Would you know your ceps fromyour chanterelles? Yourblaeberries from your

brambles? What would you do with woodsorrel? Ever encountered hemlock water-dropwort?

Spend a couple of hours in the companyof wild food expert Mark Williams and theanswers to these questions – and manymore – are enthusiastically revealed. Andit’s guaranteed that a walk in thecountryside or along the shore will neverbe quite the same again.

I wasn’t sure what to expect onaccepting an invitation from Mark, ofGalloway Wild Foods, to go foraging withmy children in the beautiful location ofCardoness Estate near Gatehouse of Fleet.It’s safe to say that the closest all of us hadbeen to foraging for food before had beenin the family veg patch or the kitchencupboards. So on a beautifully sunnySaturday morning Jen, Kit and I set off ona new adventure.

We were in safe hands. Mark has beenan avid forager since stumbling on his firstpatch of chanterelle mushrooms when hewas 16. His fascination with wild foodshas made him an expert in the field,helping shape his career and his spare time.He led a fungi foray for Savour theFlavours’ Flavour Fortnight last year andwas amazed when 100 people turned up,prompting him to set up his own foragingwebsite.

He says: “The success of that eventreflects a huge upsurge of interest in wildfood foraging in recent years. Not onlydoes it reduce food miles and allow peopleto truly ‘eat local’, but it is great fun for allages and provides delicious gourmet food –for free!

“We are fortunate that our corner ofScotland is one of the finest areas in the UK– and quite possibly the world – forforaging. The mild, sheltered climate andhuge range of habitats means we boast astunning range of delicious free food.”

After a refreshing glass of Mark’selderflower Champagne – made fromlocally sourced elderflowers of course –and a fortifying sip of sloe gin for theadults, we set off. We were hardly out ofthe car park when Mark spotted some cepsgrowing in a patch of grass by the roadside.

“Mushrooms are the star of the show,”he says. “A lot of people get into foragingthrough mushrooms. Ceps are the king ofthe edible mushrooms; a perfect cep is thetastiest mushroom of all.

“But insects like ceps as much as peopledo, so you have to check them for holes – ifyou find them full of holes, they’re no goodfor you. These mushrooms are verypopular in continental Europe – the Italianscall them porcini – and you don’t have togo deep into the forest to find them.”

A few steps further on and there’s ablaeberry patch, unfortunately with few

Mark collects chanterelles; below: Anne tries common sorrel

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berries for us on this trip. Eagle-eyed Jenwas already hooked by this point, havingbeen tasked with carrying the basket for theday’s finds, and managed to find one of thefew berries available, with great delight.

It soon became clear as we meanderedalong the woodland walk that free food isin abundance, if you know what you’relooking for. As Mark says: “We aresurrounded by delicious foods. But the ruleof thumb is never to eat anything unlessyou are absolutely sure of what it is.”

Aguided walk like this one is idealfor getting an insight into what tolook out for and what to avoid –

especially when poisonous plants like thedeadly hemlock water-dropwort growhappily alongside edible species.

Mark’s top tips for would-be foragersinclude taking a good guide book withyou, and not being too ambitious; pick afew species which don’t have sinisterlookalikes – like wood sorrel, wild garlicand chanterelles – to help build yourconfidence.

In terms of where you can and can’tsearch for wild foods, Mark says mostforaging is fine if exercised with care,research and respect for other land usersand landowners, with our ‘right to roam’enshrined in the Land Reform (Scotland)Act 2003.

He says: “The really interesting thingabout foraging in this country is that allpeople really forage for is brambles,whereas on the continent it’s part of the

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Mark shows Jen and Kit how to locate and collect safe-to-eat mushrooms such as this cep, the ‘king of edible mushrooms’

‘Foraging is addictiveand you can do it allyear round. It’s usingall your senses andtotally tunes you in

with your environment’

The children enjoy non-alcoholic Champagnemade with elderflower, below

culture. It’s like we’ve had this disconnectionwith foraging and what I’m trying to do isget people connected with it again.

“One of the reasons for an upsurge ininterest recently is that celebrity chefs areusing a lot of wild foods, and people arestarting to wake up to it here.”

Now living with his wife Cara inGatehouse of Fleet, Mark grew up mostlyon the Isle of Arran, where he discoveredhis love of foraging, and has worked as arestaurant manager, chef, and full-timeforager. His day job now is as a salesmanager for regional dairy companyRowan Glen. With Galloway Wild Foods,Mark is also now spreading the wordabout foraging through his website andorganises a number of wild food events,from fundraising forays to child-friendlywoodland rambles and full weekendgourmet extravaganzas.

For this year’s Flavour Fortnight, he leda group of artists on a foray to provideinspiration for them to create works of artfor an exhibition at Devorgilla Gallery inDumfries, running from September 3-17 .

On our walk, Mark’s interest in thegourmet side of foraging wasevident from the many tasty

recipes he suggested for the plants wediscovered in the woodland and down onthe shore. As well as ceps and blaeberries,we came across brambles, chanterelles,wood sorrel (looks like clover and is greatfor sprinkling on mushroom dishes), searadish, a lush patch of sorrel leaves,

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reedmace and meadowsweet, to name afew. Although the tide was in, we wereassured cockles and razor clams, or‘spoots’, are well worth the hunt in morefavourable conditions.

With a healthy appetite built up fromwalking, we settled down in a beautifulsandy cove next to Cardoness Chapel for adelicious picnic lunch, which includedMark’s spinach, watercress and sea beetquiche and his Mile High Wild Pie, packedfull of ingredients such as chanterelles,ceps, sea beet, eggs and locally grownspinach and potatoes.

Mark says: “I’ve always enjoyedcooking and I’m really into the gourmetside of foraging, rather than the survivalaspect. If you’re a gourmet, all theingredients are out there.

“Foraging is addictive and you can do it all year round. It’s using all yoursenses and totally tunes you in with yourenvironment.”

As we headed back home, Jen and Kitreflected on a fun day out. At seven andfive, they are at the younger end of thegroups Mark caters for, but theythoroughly enjoyed the experience, albeitwith a detour to the adventure playgroundhalf way round. Jen even concluded it wasone of her “best times ever”. And familywalks at home have taken on a whole newdimension, with extra care always beingtaken to look out for tasty treats lurking inthe undergrowth.

n For lots more information aboutforaging and wild foods, see Mark’swebsite: www.gallowaywildfoods.com.

Picnic time: Jen, Kit, Anne and Mark enjoy a piece of Mark’s famous Mile High Wild Pie (below) on the beach at Cardoness

The pie is made with chanterelles, ceps, sea beet, eggs and locally grown spinach and potatoes

Kit spots one of nature’s finest fruits, the bramble

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