I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but the fact that I took shower gel and a mobile phone charger probably gives a few clues away. Taste the Wild’s ‘wild food weekend’ was, well, a bit wilder than I thought. That’s not a bad thing though – I think the lack of a hot shower, a flushing loo (composting is better anyway), and electricity actually helps urbanites like me to get out of city-mode pretty instantly, which is the point really.

Taste the Wild is run by husband and wife team, Chris and Rose. Chris is a designer by training, and chef by passion, Rose a wood sculptor (with a chainsaw no less!). They own an 18 acre wood in Yorkshire, which Chris and Rose have nurtured like a newborn since taking it over 5 years ago – they’ve started to coppice, dig ponds, thin out dense areas (planted by the military), and encourage young broadleaf trees to develop the biodiversity that it once had. They’ve created a clearing where we spend much of the weekend, complete with tipi’s and an amazing bush kitchen, the centrepiece of which is a 15 foot handmade table for all the kitchen preparations (chef’s do like their space).

Friday evening was a laid back affair, a hearty beef stew, and chats round the camp fire with Chris and the other four foragers-in-training. Saturday morning begins at a respectable 9am (after porridge prepared over an open fire), and I discover that my instincts were correct, the mushrooms are out in force, and by 11am on our first wild food walk, we’d collected enough edibles for a filling starter. Mushrooms are enthralling, and despite Chris trying to teach us about wood avens, chickweed, and sheeps sorrel, not much of it sunk in as our eyes surveyed the forest floor for little humps of joy (Bay Bolete’s) and of pain (Fly Agaric). We paid much more attention on our second foray though as Chris tactfully ignored the mushrooms, and shared his impressive knowledge of well over 20 edible plants. I was like a kid in a sweet shop, excited by what culinary delights these weird green things could offer, and often trailing behind the group taking copious notes in my moleskine.

After lunch, and a brief lesson in skinning a rabbit, we were put to the test, and sent out with a woodland shopping list to find our dinner. We all had moderate success, but I think it’s the slowest i’ve ever walked in my life – eyes fixated to the ground, mind daring me to try things that looked vaguely like what we’d identified earlier. Still, at least I could find my way back by following the puddles of bitter-spit. As the night drew in, Chris expertly pulled together a wild food feast – wild mushrooms on a garlic crouton with sorrel salad, followed by pan-fried rabbit with mash and wilted wild greens. The wild berry compote had to be saved for breakfast we were so full.

On Sunday, Rose came into her own as we concentrated on pickling, processing, and preserving all that woodland goodness. We made delicious dandelion and burdock, tangy corn mint pickle, and surprisingly delightful rowan jelly (*must make this again, Birmingham is full of rowan trees*), and sampled many of Rose’s concoctions – fortunately many of them contained a good amount of tipple too! My personal favourite was beech leaf noyau, a mixture of young beech leaves, gin, sugar, and brandy – a pure taste of the woods, and a nice kick to boot. Sunday lunch, and the finale of the weekend, was smoked trout (which we’d ponassed ourselves) and flat breads (baked in the earth oven), followed by a beautiful meadowsweet panna cotta (made by yours truly).

I left the weekend with a fistful of herbs and a headful of ideas, and have already made my first wild bread, melilot sourdough, which tasted great, and have a meadowsweet brioche planned for later this week. This stuff can definitely be applied in the big city, I even stepped over a bunch of wood avens on my front step as I arrived home, so watch this space for more wild food and urban foraging action, right here in Birmingham.

Do check out Taste the Wild, as they run a plethora of other courses too – bushcraft, survival, mushroom days, coastal foraging etc, and next Spring they’ll be running a build-an-earth-oven weekend. Who knows, there might even be a loaf/taste wild-bread collaboration in the future – watch this space!

Tom.

Loaf is investigating the possibility of a food labelling scheme to help customers identify food produced locally to Birmingham. This might involve stickers on food packaging in independent shops and logo’s on menus, along with a comprehensive online directory linking up all the local food producers with the shops and restaurants where you can buy their produce. We’d love to hear what you think about it – please answer the poll below, and leave a comment if you have any other thoughts or ideas. Thanks!

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Packed and ready to go, with knife in one hand and field guide in the other, Loaf is leaving the city and heading to the woods for a weekend of wild food foraging in North Yorkshire. Fortunately, as a wild food novice, Loaf is not alone, and will be guided through the woods by the (hopefully) very knowledgeable guys at Taste The Wild. Left to my own devices I’d probably be blissfully munching on a hemlock and death cap salad, thinking I was the new Bear Grylls and dreaming of my first TV series! Hopefully I’ll more than just stay alive though – I’m hoping to be picking roasted squirrel out of my teeth, and have a belly-full of wood sorrel come Sunday lunch time (though too much of that stuff isn’t great for you either!). I’ve noticed a few mushrooms around recently, I’m wondering whether the changeable weather has brought an early start to the mushroom season again this year? Who knows, might get some fungi-action in too this weekend.

I’ve ticked off the kit list, and trying not to look too much of a teachers pet, have packed my foraging essentials (none of these on the kit list!): the foraging bag passed down the family-in-law (Used as a ‘scrumping’ bag by successive generations), my French Nontron knife, Richard Maybe’s pocket-size ‘Food for Free’, a ‘Field guide to mushrooms and other fungi’, and a moleskine notebook and pencil. I am leaving my Dordogne mushrooming-basket at home though, don’t want to seem too keen…

There’ll be a full review early next week, and if my battery lasts and signal-allowing, a few #wildfood tweets over the weekend. I’m hoping to bring a few skills back to apply in the woodlands around Birmingham (Sutton Park, Balaams Wood, the one at Earlswood lakes…), and who knows, maybe pick up some urban-foraging tips to use here in Brum – I did forage loads of Jack-by-the-Hedge and wild garlic earlier in the year, as well as nettles, blackberries, and plums so far.  More next week, but follow me on twitter for updates and photos over the weekend.

Tom.

Following a nice stroll around Kings Norton Farmers Market on Saturday chatting to the local producers about loaf online and the local food directory, we thought it’d be a good a time as any to get the directory going. So as you’ll see over in the directory, there are listings for some great local producers and places in Birmingham that sell their produce. It will be an ever-evolving directory, and there will be an accompanying interactive map coming soon. In the mean time, if you’re a food producer, retailer, or restaurant, or would like to recommend one for the directory please get in touch with us by sending us an email or leaving a comment below. Lisitings are free.

Months of anticipation and now only a few hours to go – The Big Lunch is nearly upon us! If you haven’t heard of the big lunch it’s basically an excuse to throw a good old-fashioned street party for the sake of it – For the sake of sitting down and breaking bread with the people that live around you. There seems to be thousands of these happening across the country tomorrow (Sunday July 19th), and looking at the interactive map, there seems to be a decent few in Birmingham – the biggest one will probably be the one in Ward End park thrown by Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust.

Loaf is gatecrashing a big lunch in Kings Heath as we haven’t got round to organising one ourselves (*hangs head in shame*). If you’re going to a big lunch, are organising one, or just end up at one by accident, send a photo and brief description to info@loafonline.co.uk, and we’ll get a gallery and roundup up on here next week!