Please can anyone recommend some good foraging videos on youtube?

[Stanleythecat]

Dear All!

As above...

Please can anyone recommend some good foraging videos on youtube? I have books but would be nice to see a human being confidently pointing out some edible plants!

Thanks in advance.

Leo

 

[Native Nathan]

Dave Canterbury has a few on his channel

"Wildernessoutfitersarchary"

And Eattheweeds is another very good one
Eat the weeds is by far the better of the 2 for wild edibles

 

[Stanleythecat]

Thanks Nathan

I had seen eattheweeds but was looking for something a little closer to home.

Leo

 

[Baaf]

how about: http://vimeo.com/32970448

From Nick Weston from http://huntergathercook.typepad.com/

maybe it helps

Cheers, Baaf

 

[winst0nsmith]

There is a very good reason that foraging videos are few and far between- Eg the carrot family: alexanders and cow parsley are lovely and usefull but would you like to confuse them with hemlock?

The basics can be shown on a vid but for detail you need at least a good FIELD GUIDE and a magnifying glass, but nothing substitutes going out and about with botanist or professional forager, you can always confuse the description.

Do not use FOOD FOR FREE (the most commonly touted "guide") as a foraging tool, leave it on the coffee table, use it for ideas/recipies, it's cheap and user freindly; well worth the five quid it costs, I don't knock it on that, it's great, just don't go out and forage with it as your only reference with its dodgy sketches and oblique descriptions as identifiers, PLEASE!

Please use a decent field guide if actually collecting, or better still, find a botanist/grandmother/Romany; you'll have more fun unless it's the botanist

 

[Stanleythecat]

I have plenty of field guides and some better books on foraging but unfortunately not the ability to have a professional forager at my beck and call!

I'm lucky enough to work in the 'countryside' sector and ecology etc forms a good part of my work so I'm confident that if I'm not 100% confident (!) I wouldn't even be tempted to try anything. I would however love to expand my knowledge of the usefulness of our everyday indigenous plants and be able to convey (the safe bits!) to people who use the countryside. I'm not looking to be a professional forager, just to awaken some interest. There's a huge void between the science of botany and the everyday user of the country parks I manage but if something is seen to be useful and the person can identify it amongst other plants it naturally posses a question, if that IS useful, what is that next to it? Could that be special too?

Leo

 

[winst0nsmith]

Foraging is increasing in popularity and there are more and more courses all over the place, have a search and you should find one near you. Sorry if my earlier post was a bit drastic but there's plenty of self proclaimed experts online who could easily get folk ill.

The best field guide I have found yet is: Collins Nature Guide - Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Nature-Guide-Flowers-Northern/dp/0002199963

It has very detailed discriptions (habitat as well as plant) along with colour photos which is suprisingly scarce in foraging guides considering how important correct ID is. It is very easy to use as it is colour-coded (by flower) and not alphabetically listed by latin name like most are which is a real pain. The name is slightly misleading as it packs in loads of trees and shrubs as well as info on culinary, medicinal and other uses (dyes, strewing etc); more importantly though- whether the plant is poisonous or protected.

There are better books out there for foraging receipies (and seashore foraging) but this is the best I have come across yet for a field guide as the ID is detailed, you get loads more info to boot and it fits in a pocket. You can still read it as a book due to all the extra info on top of ID, unlike..

Larousse Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Flower...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327959102&sr=1-1

Which has even more detailed discriptions, it does uses sketches but these are good and give loads of detail with the text. It offers no other information though and cannot really be read as a book in its own right. It also has the handy colour coding too.

I'm lucky enough to have found a retired botanist turned proffesional forager who is happy to take me on his wanders but I did help him build his house and give him a load of wild seeds I'd saved so he could cultivate alot of what he needed on his doorstep.

Happy hunting