What Is A 'Wild Snack'?
Forage Box runs several workshops and events across the country, all of which vary in format and style, depending on who is running the session. However, there is one format that clearly stands out as our most popular which go by the cute name of ‘Forage & Nibble’ - these are 3 hour workshops where a large proportion of the experience is spent finding and learning about wild ingredients under the guidance of our expert foraging tutors. Each workshop is then neatly wrapped up by treating our guests to what we have dubbed a ‘wild snack’.
Foraging is full of vague terminology (think of throwaway phrases like ‘magic mushrooms’, ‘forage and feast’ or even ‘sustainable’) so we thought it best to clarify what we mean exactly when we refer to our ‘wild snacks’.
The criteria for a wild snack are simple. They must be a snack (enough to put off hunger to your next meal, but not something that will ruin your lunch) so we try to define the size to something around the volume of a deck of cards - imagine a slice of flapjack you might enjoy alongside your morning coffee. We also need it to be wild, so we encourage our tutors to include three to five wild ingredients in the mix, often increasing to nearly double figures! After that, it is very much down the individual forager as to what they prepare.
You may already be aware of how much of a free rein we give to our amazing foraging tutors - we’ve written about it in various places, including this Field Note article. We want them to teach in their own style, with their own knowledge and to their own strengths, including the preparation of food for their workshop guests. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a snapshot of vast array of wild snacks that our tutors have been serving at their recent events. These are taken from the ‘what we ate’ section of the follow-up email that each workshop guest receives after the event:
What We Ate:
Sourdough loaded with pan-fried trooping funnel, honey fungus, alexanders & three-cornered leek pesto, lacto-fermented wild garlic seed pods, fresh chickweed, dried sea lettuce.
What We Ate:
Wild yeast rye sourdough, wild oregano labneh, courgette ganoush, pickled blackberries, fermented wild mushroom salt, dill, alexander seed, chilli & garlic pickled cucumbers;
Birch polypore chai brownies, noble fir molasses, grand fir sherbert & a pickled blackberry on top.
What We Ate:
Wild dahl - three-cornered leek, common hogweed seed, fools watercress, honey fungus, nettle;
Fresh Alexanders;
Lacto-fermented wild garlic seed pods.
What We Ate:
Winter chanterelle, smoked hen of the woods and roasted fennel velouté;
Pickled winter chanterelles with fennel, garlic, chilli and ginger;
Ground elder and three cornered leek oil;
Wild and garden herbs and flowers - borage, fennel, nasturtium, roses, pine pollen and fermented wild greens powder;
What We Ate:
‘Foraged filo lasagne’ - Filo pastry, olive oil, spinach, leek, vegan cream, vegan cream cheese, nettle seed, hogweed, jack by the hedge, chanterelles, himalayan balsam seed, salt, pepper (feta in veggie version).
What We Ate:
Fresh pita, hummus, samphire & sea fennel kraut, wild fermented leaf chermoula (fermented wild garlic and nettles), pickled oyster mushrooms, elderberry & fire cider hot sauce, fermented mushroom salt.
What We Ate:
Wild mushroom sourdough focaccia - oyster mushroom, winter chanterelle, porcini;
Pickled hedgehog fungus, winter chanterelles, charcoal burner, saffron milk caps and girolle;
Rose hip and crabapple jelly.
What We Ate:
Hen of the woods, oyster mushroom and penny bun 'sausage' rolls with hawthorn ketchup;
Damson and bullace fruit leather.
What We Ate:
Bread made with pendulous sedge seeds; wild garlic pesto; pan-fried penny bun, amethyst deceiver and razor strop fungus; nettle glaze; beefsteak fungus jerky; sun-dried apple;
Nettle tea
What We Ate:
6x mushroom pate (in order of amounts: deceivers, amethyst deceivers, giant polypore, fried chicken mushroom and brown birch bolete);
Fresh amethyst deceiver caps salsa with pomegranate, flat leaf parsley, wild marjarom, calendula petals and sorrel;
Blackberry vinegar pickled sweet chestnuts with hedge mustard seed;
Haw and rowan berry gum drops;
Fresh beefsteak fungus carpaccio and wood sorrel garnish.
What We Ate:
Elderberry cordial;
Puff pastry tarts with dandelions, nettle seed, cheese, tomato passata and drizzled with blackberry vinegar;
Flapjack with acorn flour, common hogweed seed and honey.
What We Ate:
Pickled wild garlic focaccia, wild zata’ar topped hummus with fermented wild garlic, nettle seeds, plantain seeds, summer flowers;
Orange and meadowsweet polenta cake with elderflower orange syrup, firbert raspberries, rose petals and cream;
What We Ate:
Rye and hazelnut sourdough topped with a wild pesto (wild garlic, cow parsley, garlic mustard), italian-style pickled oakbug milkcap mushroom and fresh common sorrel leaf;
Pan-fried garlic mustard stems and rosebay willowherb stems.
What We Ate:
Mussel shell broth served with alexanders flower 'broccoli' in dryads saddle shoyu; fresh wild fennel; dried sea lettuce; stir-fried sea beet; fresh sea purslane, sea aster, scurvygrass, sea plantain and gorse flower.
That’s quite the menu selection, isn’t it?! You can enjoy wild snacks such as these by joining us on a ‘Forage & Nibble’ event happening near you. Simply head to our workshops page to find a date that suits!
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