There are so many physical and mental benefits to walking in nature, but our land can nourish us in an even more direct way, thanks to its plentiful natural ingredients. Foraging is a great outdoor family activity, with plenty of rewards in store once you get home.
Foraging is also one of the most rewarding and wholesome ways to connect with the land around us. After all, there’s nothing quite like coming home from a nice long walk with a big bag of hand-picked blackberries for your crumble.
And the fact so many of us can experience that feeling is thanks to the Ramblers’ continued fight to ensure we all have access to walk in green spaces. The charity is committed to helping as many of us as possible enjoy the benefits of nature on foot.
Not only that, but thanks to the walk finder on the Ramblers website, you can search from a vast library of thousands of routes across the country. So if you’re planning a foodie getaway and want to get your hands on some delicious ingredients to cook with, it certainly pays to be a member of the Ramblers.
Here are five tips to help you upgrade your next meal with some tasty local produce, and interact even more closely with the land around you whilst out walking...
From late winter to early spring, you can pick wild garlic from woodland and riverbanks across the country. Its edible flowers and leaves carry a mellow flavour, despite the strong scent, and are perfect tossed into a salad or even blitzed into a homemade pesto. In fact, you can add it to virtually any savoury dish to lend it a wild, deep warmth and tang that will have the whole family coming back for seconds and even thirds.
You may associate them more readily with the urge to scratch as you search for an antidotal dock leaf, but stinging nettles are also edible. They can be picked at this time of year and make a fresh addition to a creamy soup or a refreshing tea. Just make sure you pick them with gloves to protect your hands, and avoid areas near roadsides or fields farmed with pesticides, and you’ll have a wonderfully versatile ingredient.
Pick wild elderflowers at the height of the British summer and use them to make your own cordial – you’ll find the results are much tastier than any supermarket equivalents. The delicate, creamy flavours work perfectly in a refreshing cold drink, or as a welcome floral note in a gin or a sparkling wine-based cocktail. But it doesn’t just have to be drinks, why not jazz up a jelly or add some elderflower to a syrup for a cake?
Despite their strong, distinctive sweet but sharp flavour, blackberries are a wonderfully adaptable ingredient. Found on bramble bushes in late July, August and September, blackberries grow best in areas with plenty of direct sunlight, and you’ll know they’re ready when they’re jet-black in colour and they pull easily off the branch. They make a wonderfully fresh addition to a rich, red wine-based sauce, and go perfectly with game meats such as venison. But nothing compares to the oozy, sticky decadence of pairing blackberries with apples underneath a crusty, buttery layer of crumble.
There are a few steps you can take to make sure foraging remains an activity available for everyone. A good rule of thumb whenever you’re picking is to only take up to a quarter of the plant or fruit available, which will allow them to continue to thrive. Whenever you forage, it’s also a good idea to check online if your chosen ingredient is safe to pick – if you’re not able to identify a plant with complete confidence, don’t pick it. It’s also essential to check that the land you’re foraging on is public land, and that you’re not picking someone’s home-grown produce!
As a member of the Ramblers, for just £3.05 per month, you’ll get unlimited access to the Ramblers’ library of tried and tested walking routes, plus its 50,000 fun and friendly group walks. But that’s far from all there is to the Ramblers. Your membership will help increase access to green spaces, open up more places to walk and boost Britain’s wellbeing one step at a time. After all, there’s plenty to do.
With its members’ support, the Ramblers...
• Helps thousands more people every year broaden their horizons on foot because walking in nature makes us happier and healthier.
• Maintains paths to prevent them being blocked or becoming overgrown, provides advice to walkers, and helps individuals overcome more personal obstacles, like a lack of confidence to explore or knowledge of where they can walk, because the Ramblers is committed to removing all barriers to walking.
• Helps protect walking access rights. As a result of over 85 years of hard work by the Ramblers, we are now free to roam across millions of acres of land, including national parks and national trails.
Find out more about the vital work the Ramblers does and pledge your walking miles in 2022 for the chance to win some amazing prizes.
The Ramblers is generously supported by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, as part of the lottery’s Climate Challenge initiative. People’s Postcode Lottery manages lotteries on behalf of 20 Postcode Trusts.
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