9: Preparing for Autumn Foraging

Phil Lewis is a hedgelayer, market gardener, beekeeper, scyther and much more, who straddles the border of England and North Wales. As darkness fell in the woods, we sat around a campfire with mugs of tea and good spirits as we discussed the importance of hedges and hedgelaying for the health of trees and support of local ecosystems and wild food networks.Phil is also a beekeeper, or rather - he works in contract with bees. We talk about the pros and cons of Himalayan Balsam for pollinators and drift into the world of meadow management and why taking a hay cut is important for biodiverse grassland. Links- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Phil on Instagram @smithy_farm_- National Hedgelaying Society - https://www.hedgelaying.org.uk/- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors

At the end of September we met up with Jonathan McGowan and Tembo to try our luck at Truffle hunting in North Wales.Jonathan is in the truffle hunting business and last year he found the first known wild truffle in North Wales for over 70 years. We spent several hours with Jonathan, following Tembo around a couple of woodlands local to us which have the right sort of habitat for truffles and talking about everything related to truffles, fungi and the legalities of truffle hunting in the wild.We also learn about the iconic lagotto romagnolo dog breed and how he has been trained to sniff out the treasured truffles, the downside of using pigs for hunting truffles, and the cut throat business of truffle hunting in Italy.Links- Jonathan on Instagram @jonathanmcgowan- Richard's Scribehound Article - https://www.scribehound.com/countryside/lifestyle/s/lifestyle/the-long-lost-english-and-welsh-truffle?ref=share&sharer=4EfxDqNpkQd5EZSix&shareType=QizkKDME&channel=countryside- Section 13 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/69/part/I/crossheading/protection-of-plants- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors

We ventured over to the coast of North Wales to meet up with Gethin Jones, a Welshman who has been harvesting wild food from the coast since he was 4 years old.From digging up bait with his uncle, to selling pigeons to the local butcher and perfecting his flying duck impersonations, Gethin has led a life immersed in wild caught protein and we only manage to scratch the surface in this episode.We do eventually get onto the topic of how to start wildfowling and the most important things to consider if you want to get involved - from the importance of identification skills, to knowledge of the waters and safety whilst out on the shore below the high water mark. Gethin regales us with stories from his own and his friend's experiences and shares what he thinks are the best bits about hunting for your own food. If you are interested in wildfowling in the UK, you can find more information on the BASC website which Gethin references - https://basc.org.uk/wildfowling/Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Gethin on X / Twitter - https://x.com/GethinJones123- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors

This episode was recorded at the end of August with autumn just around the corner; Richard and Amy discuss the species highlights to look out for over the next few months.Wild fruits start appearing in summer with strawberries and raspberries being the first obvious candidates, Bilberries follow soon after and then as we edge to the end of summer and into autumn the different fruits available start to overlap. For us autumn means a season of collecting and preserving foraged fruits, from sweet and juicy plums to elusive fungi.Richard runs through his mental calendar of fruit and we discuss the merits of each in turn and the best ways to use them before turning to the wonderful world of mushrooms - the fruiting bodies of fungi.Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors- Richard's Article about Bilberries on Scribehound - https://www.scribehound.com/lifestyle/s/lifestyle/secrets-of-the-bilberry-from-hilltop-harvest-to-luxury-skincare- The Species Directory - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/species-directory/- Black Bryony - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_communis- Our Recipes - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/wild-food-recipes/

We welcomed Abi (aka Whitetail Abigail), creator and host of The Grit podcast, to our little corner of North Wales. We sourced some wild food, cooked over a fire and recorded this podcast episode.Abi is passionate about hunting and having more control over where her food has come from - and even more passionate about promoting women in wild food and fieldsports, giving a voice to what she sees as under-represented groups in this world. As we sat in the woods (accompanied by the sounds of rural life and Abi's dog wandering around) Richard and Abi discussed some of the lesser-acknowledged social and political aspects of sourcing wild food in the UK. We talk in detail about starting a podcast, generational differences between Boomers, Gen X, Millenials and Gen Z, the surprising statistics of firearm ownership in the UK, Abi's experiences getting started in hunting, the perceptions of hunting as a townie, whether the North American conservation/hunting model could work over here, and the visibility of women in shooting.We had a great time introducing Abi, Vic and Buck to Bilberries and taking Abi out to find some wild protein later on before cooking it all up and getting into some deep conversations.Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors-Abi on Instagram - @whitetailabigail-The Grit podcast - https://www.thegritpodcast.co.uk/

We recorded this episode live at the 2024 Game Fair at Blenheim Palace, where Richard Prideaux wandered around holding a sign on a stick and invited the public, wild food celebrities and official representatives to be our guest for a few minutes. Over two days talked with dozens of people about wild food, the relevance of the Game Fair to British conservation and land management - and to ask them to put into words exactly what it is that they love so much about this celebration of the British countryside.In this selection of interviews you will hear from a gamekeeper, a cookery teacher, the owner of an iconic clothing brand, a celebrity hedge layer, a fieldsports photographer, shooting sports influencers and many more - each as passionate as the last.There is a longer version of this epiosde over on our Patreon - including some extra clips and bbehind-the-scenes content. You can find out more here: https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeopleWe went to the Game Fair expecting a broad spread of answers - but what we came away with was an unprompted consensus about the importance of wild sourced food and community.We had a fantastic time creating this episode - and it has been a mammoth undertaking with hours and hours of content to go through.Hopefully the finished product paints a picture of what the Game Fair is all about - even if it surprises you a little. If you would like to find out more about any of the interviewees or their brands/organisations we have included links below (in the order that you hear them on the show).Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors-Louisa Clutterbuck - Eat Wild - https://www.eatwild.co/-Mark Taylor - Three Valleys and Llanforda shoots - https://www.llanforda.co.uk/-Tom - Thomas Jacks - https://thomasjacks.co.uk/-Richard Negus - https://www.richardnegus.co.uk/-Becka – Hayles Fruit Farm - https://www.haylesfruitfarm.co.uk/-Oliver Massy-Birch – Fortis Clothing - https://fortisclothing.co.uk/-Andy Tarrant – Tarrant Refrigeration / Game Larder - https://gamelarder.com/-Geoff Garrod - https://www.geoffgarrod.co.uk/-Jonathan – Cheshire Gun Room - https://www.cheshiregunroom.com/-Sam Hargreaves – Tweedl - https://tweedl.com/-Joe Mann – Queen’s College Taunton - https://www.queenscollege.org.uk/-Nicole Moore - https://www.shootinggirlwithanafro.com/-Phil Bowes-Josh – Brandecosse - https://www.brandecosse.com/-Toby Christie – Gordon Castle Estate - https://www.gordoncastle.co.uk/-Dave – Founder of Tackling Minds - https://www.tacklingminds.org/-Callum McInerney-Riley - http://www.primecreative.io/-The Game Fair Website - https://thegamefair.org/

This episode sees the brief return of Wild Food News, brought to you by the 'silly season' of UK press.We talk about the study that suggests that deer carcasses should be left behind on the hills to keep nutrients in the soil, and why you can no longer trap the invasive Signal crayfish for food.https://wildfoodpeople.co.ukRecent research conducted by the University of Edinburgh and Yale University suggests that by taking culled deer carcasses off the landscape we are removing vital nutrients from that ecosystem. The research has been conducted by calculating the average amount of nutrients in a deer carcass and combining that with data on the number of deer culled in Scotland over a 12 year stretch. Richard Prideaux talks through the implications of both leaving or removing deer carcasses from the landscape for local habitats but also the impact that it could have of outdoor access and the ability of landowners to meet cull targets. Deer management in Scotland is hugely important to maintain a balance within delicate ecosystems and is often funded through paid stalks and the sale of the venison as a result of culling, leaving carcasses where they fall could push landowners towards less desirable methods of deer management. It's also difficult to condone leaving healthy and ethical meat in the landscape to rot.The American signal crayfish was deliberately brought over to the UK in the 1970s in order to farm them for food, however they quickly made their way into the wild and have been very successful at spreading around the country's waterways ever since.These voracious predators are a threat to our native white clawed crayfish as well as anything else that they can tackle. Amy Green explains how they also cause riverbank erosion and in some cases have been moved around the country by people who would like a local source of these tasty freshwater crustaceans. Until recently conservation groups and government bodies were encouraging the trapping of signal crayfish for food, as a means of ridding our rivers and ponds of them. However they have recently changed the licencing rules and banned the sale of live signal crayfish, essentially changing the way in which they can be sold as food in the UK and exported overseas.Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors-Why culled deer carcasses in Scotland should be left to rot, according to experts - https://www.scotsman.com/hays-way/why-culled-deer-carcasses-in-scotland-should-be-left-to-rot-according-to-experts-4715814-Experts advocate for consuming invasive crustacean species threatening local ecosystems: 'They taste absolutely fantastic'- https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/signal-crayfish-invasive-species-uk-rivers/

Next weekend (26th -28th July 2024) will see The Game Fair return to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.Dubbed 'Glastonbury for the green welly brigade' it is a festival of the British countryside and has been running since 1958.If you want to know more about wild food and increase your access to it then you need to understand the factors that affect the habitat it lives in - conservation, farming, land management, policy, economics. If you did not grow up in that 'world' then it can be difficult to connect with those factors - but, weirdly enough, a visit to a centralised event like The Game Fair is a great way to do it.In this episode Richard Prideaux and Amy Green talk about the Fair itself and why they think it is a useful experience for anyone who wants to eat wild food. They also discuss some of the unfair preconceptions people might have about the attendees of events like this - as well as the completely fair accusations about the quality of fleece waistcoats worn.The episode ends with an interview with James Gower, MD of Stable Events and Event Director of The Game Fair.Links-The Game Fair Website - https://www.thegamefair.org- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors

A short podcast episode about how to not poison yourself through foraging - the link to the video version of this podcast is available below.Being wary of foraging is fairly sensible as there is a real risk of poisoning yourself or others if you don't know what you are eating. Identification guides are brilliant to help you learn how to read the packaging of plants, trees and mushrooms and is the first step to take when moving into identification of species that you don't know.Pairing a solid identification with knowledge from a foraging guide or another reliable source is the next step and will give you more detailed information about the edibility of what you have found.Remember - no taste sensation is worth the risk of death if you aren't really sure!Links-The video version - https://youtu.be/NTdqTr4I7Ag- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors

Huw Foulkes is a 4th generation dairy farmer in the Vale of Clwyd in North Wales. Since bringing the farm back into their own management, he has been developing the family's acres into a regenerative, organic, nature friendly, calf-at-foot dairy farm for the past 4 years. We are well aware of Huw and his fantastic land stewardship, as he lives only a few miles away and is a source of both milk and beef for our family. It was great to have a proper chat with him about his story so far and how the practices which he and his family employ are helping local wildlife populations to thrive - meaning more wild food opportunities as well as a healthier local environment.Even if farming isn't your 'thing', it is difficult to separate it from wild food. Much of the British landscape is managed for food production in one form or another; and the methods used are having a massive impact on our ecosystems as a whole, whether that's negatively through run-off into rivers or positively through the creation of field margins, hedgerows and healthy soils.Links- Wild Food People on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook - @wildfoodpeople- Support the Wild Food People podcast on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wildfoodpeople- About Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/about/- About Pentrefelin - https://www.pentrefelin.com/- Attend a course with Wild Food People - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/courses- Get in touch with us - https://wildfoodpeople.co.uk/contact-us/- Richard on Instagram and Twitter - @richprideaux- Amy on Instagram and Twitter - @agreenoutdoors-Pentrefelin on Instagram - @pentrefelin_