‘Tis now the season for the parasol on the West Cornish coastline… perched just above the rough unimproved coastal grassland, they are there for the picking… ‘Twas luck for me they were sitting pretty the day before Valentine Warner came to forage and cook with me for a new tv series on UKTV’s Good Food Channel, Coast to Coast (’twill…
7.15am on Monday 31st August I left home to set off on the longest cycle of my lifetime. Being a bit of an anorack when it comes to wild food, I couldn't imagine cycling to Bristol without somehow recording or collecting all the wild food I saw on the way. Since I was travelling alone with 2 panier bags…
I spent Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May foraging West Cornwall's finest Wild Edibles to take up to Bristol to Flinty Red on Tuesday 4th. Matt Williamson and his wife Claire, friends of mine, and also Fat Hen's chefs on our Gourmet Wild Food Weekends have recently opened this fabulous little restaurant in Cotham, Bristol. It's a collaboration between Dom…
What a weekend we had at the Porthleven Food Fair 24th/25th April. I set up the Fat Hen stall with Lauren and Jon who came to stay for 10 days to help me forage, cook and sell wild food to the public. It was such a buzz and the home smoked mackerel and dulse seaweed quiches flew off the stall. …
I was just sent a link from the BBC online news: https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8162775.stm Jams and pie ‘solution’ for weed Only plants not controlled by herbicides should be used Harvesting and eating Japanese Knotweed could be the best biological way to control the “nightmare” weed, a woman in Cornwall has said. Caroline Davey from St Buryan said the shoots of the plant,…
Having never been given processed food as a child, by a mother who grew up in rural Wales during the war, I have always been interested in food. I spent a colourful childhood in Hongkong and Botswana and had a real understanding of where food came from. As a 6 year old I saw decapitated chickens running around the food…
This is simply the best elderflower cordial recipe ever! There’s nothing more evocative of dreamy sunny summer days than elderflower cordial. Lounging around in the garden, eating al fresco and having to cool off under the hose pipe….We really have just had a whole week of sun, a glimpse into the world of the Meditterranean, where life is slow, lunchbreaks…
Gorgeous refreshing nettle and ginger beer stacked up in the workshop ready to drink but far too fizzy… oh damn the bottles are starting to explode. This is as dangerous as a bomb going off if you happen to be in the vicinity of the bottles. I recall a story by my in-laws whose ginger beer exploded and a piece…
Wow! we were totally blessed with perfect weather for Fat Hen’s gourmet wild food weekend last weekend 23/24th May. blazing hot sunshine all weekend….We also had a great gang of people on our weekend including two lovely writers and three hilarious lads from Surrey. We foraged for rock samphire, laver seaweed, sea beet, mallow flowers, hedge bedstraw, wood sorrel, pink…