Wild food with groups as an instructor

[Bluefrog]

Hi guys,

I've been working as an outdoor instructor for a number of years now. I mostly lead groups into the mountains and really enjoy weaving Buhscraft in and out of my courses.

A lot of the time wild food really inspires my students, a number of companies have different takes on this. I have worked with some that have said absolutely no to wild food whatsoever, in case of misidentification, and I have also worked with many that give me free reign over this. I can understand both arguments and the frustration of instructors that have been trained in basic identification in courses like the Mountain Leader Award, Forest Schools or hold a Bushcraft NGB.

I have always used the '100% certain' approach to foraging- however, an instructor recently asked me if there is a list out there containing wild food that is considered to be easier to identify and therefore safer to use as an instructor. Is anyone aware of such a thing. Or is anyone aware of some guidance produced by a leading authority or a government organisation on the matter? This could be a good place to share for those people that enjoy sharing Bushcraft with others.

Thanks,

 

[baggins]

A very interesting question. Me and my good lady have been looking into this ourselves for a while. Because of the litigious nature of the world we live in, we didn't want to just go out there and tell folk what they could and couldn't eat.
Of all the courses we have been on, not one of our instructors is 'qualified' in wild food foraging. Yes, they all have qualifications in related subjects, such as botany or ecology and i would never question their knowledge.
As far as we can tell, anyone can call themselves a foraging expert and i guess the ones who are still alive are doing something right, but there are no formal tickets out there.
We are going to go down the ecology route to get qualifications as several businesses we know want us to run courses but only when we can prove we have some form of certification.
Be interested to see what others on here have to say.

 

[Toddy]

There's always the 'family' approach to it. Roses, mints, goosefoots…that kind of thing.

M