My kids have a book that is a regular on the bedtime circuit called ‘The Squirrels Who Squabbled” that has not only offers licence to go mad with fun voices but also has a wholesome message about (spoiler alert!) sharing with friends. The entire narrative is built around two squirrels who are at opposite ends of the scale when it comes to preparing for winter - one with a full store of nuts, fruit and mushrooms and one with nothing at all. These two furry chaps are the perfect characterisation of my former failed attempt at living on wild food alone that I touched on in my last Wilbiome Project diary entry and how I am tackling it this time around.

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In order for April to June’s diet to be a success, I will need to prepare, preserve and plan accordingly. There are jars, tubs and freezer bags loaded with ingredients that are strictly for this project and have been set aside until then. I have also used the power of the wider community, with several messages containing a ‘wild shopping list’ being distributed to friends and family, in the hope they might shove a handful of acorns, chestnuts or wild fruit into their pockets when they next go for a wander in the woods.

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Speaking of acorns, it has been a pretty bad year for tree nuts. As such an important source of carbohydrates, especially when spring comes around and a reliance on roots becomes the likeliest option for energy, this is a real pain the proverbial. Imagine my joy, therefore, when I stumbled upon a woodland floor covered in the beautiful ovoids when scoping out a new workshop venue in Cumbria. In the same way I can feel how our ancestors may have done when sat staring into the embers of a fire with the safe embrace it offers a circle of friends, I feel I can now relate to the primal joy - perhaps even relief, given the measly harvest found elsewhere - of discovering a rich source of calories in the wild. I was giddy and may have even punched the air. A few kilograms of acorns are now drying in the corner of the room I write this in, ready to then be peeled, leached and frozen (I could powder and store them dry, but the risk of spoilage is quite high, so it is best to freeze them).

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Freezing food really is an important preservation method for me this winter. Having invested in a new freezer for this project and beyond, it is already full. A rummage through a typical family freezer will see you moving pizzas, fish fingers and maybe a tub of icecream out of the way in order to reach that sad, aging ready-meal at the back of the drawer. In my Wildbiome freezer, among other things, you will find:

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- Wild apple pulp

- Roasted mushrooms of various types

- Lots of venison: minced, diced or filletted

- 13 Canada and greylag geese

- The odd wild mallard

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You’ll notice the strong autumnal theme to these ingredients. This is food that just won’t be available in springtime so it needed to be gathered in advance. The apple pulp will be vital for fruit consumption; the mushrooms are easily stored when the water content has been cooked away and will enhance the mountains of green foliage that will be consumed across the project; and the venison is the vast majority of a 60kg red stag that was prepared on one of our wild butchery workshops in October. 

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And then we have the geese. Old goose can be tough and not very appealing as a meat, however these were primarily young ones, dispatched as pests at a nearby farm (they would eat all the grain and seed were their numbers not controlled) who, due to UK law, is unable to then sell them. So what tends to happen is that species like these are shot to protect the crops and then sadly just left to rot, often in a rather unpleasant ditch somewhere discreet. I am not really on board with the idea of shooting creatures for fun, but pest control is an important part of agriculture and these geese, and indeed the deer, would have been shot for that purpose regardless. All I do when dealing with wild meat is to make sure as little goes to waste as possible. You know what - I’ll probably write another article on the value, ethics and practice of eating wild meat at some point in the near future.

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In order to prepare the geese for the freezer, some butchery had to happen. The practicality of this in my current house is that it needs to be done in the garden, as the feathery mess would have been too much for our little kitchen to cope with. We live in suburbia, so it must have look like a pillowfight had taken place. My dog, Nelly, also loves butchery days - she sits with her big eyes making her desires well known - and is treated to the occasional bone (deer only), foot or stray sinew as I sit diligently plucking, gutting and sometimes filleting. It has actually become a bit of a mindfulness exercise for me and I can be found outside, no doubt weirding out the neighbours, for hours on end.

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Once the messy preparations were over, these birds have been given different paths. Many have been frozen ‘oven ready’, but I have also experimented with goose bacon, confit and even salami. Due to the limitations on using regular sausage casings from the butchers, I have had to improvise and a decision was made, understandably, to go with the front end rather than the back end. By that, I mean that I have my limits and cleaning out each goose’s intestine to then use as a sausage skin (that’s perhaps a harsh reality for many who might not have given much thought to what goes into their regular sausage butties!) felt like one step too far. Instead, I opted for the much easier and cleaner oesophagus of each creature, which only required a quick clearout of a final meal and then a decent rinse. It’s a strange thing to be writing down here, but they have worked really well - they are actually hanging on the curtain rail next to where I write this, having found a decent level of humidity and temperature here, and they look like real salami and smell great too. I cannot wait to try them.

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I could leave that there as a final image, but also thought it worth noting that I have juiced many apples (10 gallons of pasteurised juice and counting), roasted many mushrooms, frozen a lot of berries and fruit, plus I have even more fermenting away, dried and preserved elsewhere. My stores are well-stocked and I am actually feeling pretty ready for spring to arrive and the project to get underway.

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‍You can donate to the funding of this exciting project by either donating a few quid at https://chuffed.org/project/114196-wildbiome-project-2025-jim-parums . I will also be running a special ‘Wildbiome’ event in the middle of the project, aimed at showcasing some of the ingredients and recipes that have featured so far.