Foraged Foods
Foraging for wild food in the UK
A website that aims to encourage more people to go out and forage for wild food in the UK. We try and safely encourage people to learn more about foraging for wild foods, to explore the natural habitat in which they live, to enjoy exercise and fresh air – and to connect with other, like-minded, foragers.
If you’re just getting started as a budding forager, you might first like to check if there’s somebody in your area who’s willing to take you out foraging. You might find someone to go foraging with at the Forager’s Directory. Here you’ll find a breakdown of (hopefully) towns or cities that are close by, where someone can take you out foraging for mushrooms or some other form of wild edible foods.
Otherwise, you can explore (or forage!) other areas of the site to find out more about wild foods, and the art of foraging.
I’m always excited to hear from other foraging addicts – feel free to reach out if you wanted to chat about anything!
Find foragers in Aberdare, a town in the Cynon Valley area of Wales.
Find foragers in Eastbourne, a small coastal town in the South-East of the UK
Foragers in Macclesfield
Find foragers in Macclesfield, a market-town in Cheshire, surrounded by beautiful rolling hills.
Find foragers in Southampton, a fairly small city based on the south coast of the UK
About Foraged Foods – and the Man behind it (aka Matt)
Foraged Foods started out as a blog about wild food, predominantly found within Britain. It’s all about the enjoyment of going foraging in the wild, identifying edible foods and then finding some great things to do with them!
My name’s Matt and I’m an amateur forager based in the New Forest, in the south of England. There’s nothing I love more than going out to the local forest to have a look for some interesting (sometimes rare!) fungi, or wild edibles. I’m very lucky to have such an ancient forest on my doorstep, even despite some of the issues with fungi over picking and various bylaws. Of course I’m also not far from some very nice coastal areas, ideal for exploring for other wildlife and wild plants.
I decided to try and expand this blog into a comprehensive place where you can hopefully find out more about the wild plants and fungi that grow around us – and to see if I can persuade more people to go out there and give it a go!
Meet some of the Foragers we’ve featured
I like to think of this website as a place to celebrate wild plants, fungi – and of course, other foragers and people who enjoy foraging! So below you can find a bit of information on some other experts on the topic.
You can find a more comprehensive list of foragers over at our directory.
James Wood is an experimental wild food forager who specialises in creating exciting, innovative and extremely tasty recipes utilising wild foods. He’s the creator of “The Foraged Book Project” a 158 page wild food guide made entirely from wild and foraged materials – mushroom paper, oak gall ink, flower based paints, seaweed glues and nettle thread. Having a background in Forest School and qualifications in teaching his courses are deeply engaging, allow participants to have as active, hands on and fun experiences as possible.
— James Wood (Totally Wild UK)
I am a professional foraging teacher who runs both private and public events foraging for fungi, plants and seaweeds in various locations, mainly in south-east England. I’m an ex software engineer, who went off to study philosophy in my late 30s and now work full time teaching and writing about wild food.
— Geoff Dann (GeoffDann.co.uk)
Based in Kent, East Sussex, and anywhere else you’ like him to be, wild food experimentalist, course facilitator, forager, the ever-curious Fergus Drennan, aka Fergus The Forager, has been gathering and learning about wild plants, seaweeds, and fungi for over 40 years, beginning on Wimbledon Common, aged 3 years, collecting dandelions for the family’s pet tortoise
— Fergus Drennan (FergustheForager.co.uk)
Mark Williams from gallowaywildfoods.com is a foraging tutor/guide. He provides private tuition and public walks, courses and events covering edible plants, fungi, seaweed and shellfish; their food, drink, medicinal and utilitarian uses. He does coastal foraging, fungi walks, wild booze walks, foraged cocktails and is also a wild food chef. He does wild food consultation for chefs, food producers, distillers, brewers etc. and writes about foraging.
— Mark Williams (gallowaywildfoods.com)