How do I make forager's tea?

[Lasjholl]

Hi,
I'm outdoor learning leader at my primary school and am planning some fun outdoor tasks for my colleagues for an upcoming training day. I thought I might ask them to try to make themselves a cup of tea using only foraged ingredients.
We have a small woodland of varied trees and shrubs, from pine to silver birch, oak, hawthorn, plum... so I know it can be done, but I need some suggestions for what works best, and also, what should be avoided. I have done a bit of reading of my own, but wisdom based on actual experience is always best!
Thanks!

 

[British Red]

I thought I might ask them to try to make themselves a cup of tea using only foraged ingredients.

I think that would be extremely foolish. To encourage people to prepare (and presumably ingest) an infusion based on guesswork would be very dangerous. Some plants if prepared in this way would be invariably fatal. Others would cause anything form vomiting to lifelong disability.

Foraging needs to be taught (or learned) with care - even "safe" plants can cause allergic reactions.

I know this is your first post - so welcome aboard and please don't take the above to heart - but also please do not issue "challenges" to people when foraging, work through proper, safe, verified identification. This is not a "challenge", mistakes can kill even the most experienced forager.

 

[Toddy]

Hello and welcome to the forum

I think I would advise that maybe you, being absolutely certain of what you have found, make a range of teas/tisanes and let people try them (making sure that all allergies are understood beforehand). You could then challenge them to find the original plants ? give a great deal more information about them, suggest alternative uses and ask what they already know of the plants. It sometimes surprises me (and to be honest, it's a great pleasure to meet someone who knows more about the kind of things that interest us) when someone gives me information that I don't have

Known allergies...the daisy family for instance.
Those who know that some plants, like flowering currant, set off hayfever.
Those who are aspirin intolerant (there goes the meadowsweet and the willow)
......and those are just a few examples.

I know we blithely say, "Oh you can eat that. Drink that, use that", but sometimes it's very much individual specific.

Sorry to sound so discouraging, but in a group of unknowns, please be careful.

I hope however you decide to proceed that the day is a good one

cheers,
Toddy

 

[sunndog]

to be fair, the fella is asking for suggestions on what to and what not to use.

op, i'd suggest giving out some species I.D/recipe sheets, so that you can send your charges off to forage for ingredients which can then be brought back for positive I.D before being prepared and tested

anything you cant positively I.D should be discarded. i would also go to the planned area beforhand to check for yourself that any plants/trees are actually there and you yourself are familier with them

.....adam

 

[John Fenna]

With the above warnings in place I have found Nettle Tea (a loose mug full of nettle tips in a mug, fill with boiling water, remove leaves, drink) and Blackberry leaf Tea (same methods but half a mug of leaves) have proved hard to miss identify and seem to have few folk who react badly to them. Nettle Tea poses problems for harvesting if you don't like the stings but I like the drink

 

[Toddy]

Depends when too though. The elderflowers will be out soon, and they're lovely in tea So is heartsease, and rosepetals, lime, red clover.....it's not really an easy answer.

atb,
M

 

[xylaria]

For primary school children teach identification skills first. I teach foraging as one of my occasional jobs. It is really important that any student doesn't become more dangerous by half knowing something.

Flowers are out at the moment. Spot the differance and simerlarities between dandilions and daisies or blackberries and roses. Blackberry leaf tea is the least problematic I think of if still wish to do foraged tea, but would makesure there is no raspberry leaves . Although raspberry is fine tea it can cause period pain in pubescent girls. Elderflower recipes are delicious but a bucket of the flowers will set off asthmatic hayfever.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

In foraging there are a couple of items that I am willing to teach to even the most clueless of person as I feel that they are near impossible to misidentify. They are:

• The stinging nettle - if in doubt, touch it and if it stings, it's the stinging nettle.
• Blackberries - Is there anything poisonous that you can confuse with them ?
• Chestnuts - There is enough difference between a conker and a chestnut that they are easy to tell apart.
• Wild garlic - for a couple of weeks a year you can just follow your nose. I'm not aware of anything you could possibly confuse it with (please correct me if I am wrong

With these, you can't really go wrong. Once you get onto all the other plants out there, things can get really messy. Wild carrot or hemlock?

Taking the above, and answering the original question: Nettle tea is pretty much fool proof (I await someone to present me with a bigger fool).

You are best off teaching plant ID, rather than challenging them to make X. You can also then teach the basics of testing safety - rub a bit on your wrist, etc...

What ever you do, good luck! and welcome to the forum.

Julia

 

[Kong]

I led a wild life walk a few wek ends ago with adults & kids
Showed them what plants to put in a tea and they all had cups
We had
Nettle TIPS not old leafs
Bramble TIPS not any old leaf
Arkangel
Gorse flower
Water mint
Goose grass young shoots
Primrose flower
Silver weed
Ground ivy

All easy to id and even 5 year olds were very good at spotting iding and picking by the end of it
I checked all of there cups be fore adding hot water and leaving for 15 mins. they loved it
Stop with all the danger danger thing where exactly does some one start if there put off with scare stories
It is not a dark art

 

[Toddy]

"Showed them what plants to put in a tea and they all had cups"

That's the bit that we're encouraging Kong, not the, "I thought I might ask them to try to make themselves a cup of tea using only foraged ingredients", without any elaboration of what might be in that woodland.
Lords and Ladies for instance, yew, laburnum.....

I don't know the archangel; is it this one ?
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/variegated_yellow_archangel

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Kong]

"Showed them what plants to put in a tea and they all had cups"

That's the bit that we're encouraging Kong, not the, "I thought I might ask them to try to make themselves a cup of tea using only foraged ingredients", without any elaboration of what might be in that woodland.
Lords and Ladies for instance, yew, laburnum.....

I don't know the archangel; is it this one ?
http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/variegated_yellow_archangel

cheers,
Toddy

Yes it is
It is a good plant and nice flavour. Spreading out a bit in the wild now

 

[Toddy]

So much so that it's got a Section 9 out on it

Rapid Risk Assessment
***** Critical Risk

This species is listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in England and Wales therefore, it is also an offence to plant or otherwise cause to grow these species in the wild.

Sounds like they think it'll be a problem like the Japanese knotweed and the Himalayan Balsam.

There's always something, isn't there ?

M

 

[AussieVic]

Perhaps a pre-visit to identify some known, safe plants (and un-safe plants) would be in order ?

(Can I suggest pine needle tea too, since that was mentione din the op).

An alternative is to simply have a plant ID session, then pull out some tea (from home - perhaps even a commercial "wild tea") and cook that up on your trip ?