One of the most unusual we’ve discovered is sugar kelp, which is used, along with other botanicals, to flavour Harris Gin. It starts with wild garlic at the end of April, then comes meadowsweet and gorse flower, of which we use a huge amount.” After that, foragers switch to the shoreline for cockles, clams, mussels and seaweed. I love the Lizard (Poltesco was particularly beautiful), love walking the Mousehole to Lamorna circular walk (especially in Winter) and Dartmoor remains a magical place for me and is a favourite in Autumn when the leaves start to change colour and the berries appear.

WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR: Aimed at adults but children are welcome to join their parents. They have turned some of their 13 acres into apple orchards (with lovely old varieties like Crimson Queen and Devonshire Quarrenden) to produce juices and organic ciders. Why not add an eco accommodation experience to your trip? Celebrity chefs come thick on the ground here, and all encourage us to use locally-grown foods, from the fish in the sea to the nettles in the fields. What I like to pick and eat varies from week to week and season to season – that’s what keeps it exciting for me. Perhaps the soil in Nunhead Cemetery is particularly fertile – let’s not think too much about why – but it’s one of the best spots I know for picking three-cornered leek.

© 2020 VisitScotland. Anyone who has an interest in wild food, foraging or indigenous edibles. At Higher Brockhampton, Julian Bunkall of Jackson-Stops & Staff (01305 262123; jackson-stops.co.uk), is selling a five-bedroom house and paddock.

However one of my favourite places to find edible wild foods is by foraging at the coast. Food: Macerated strawberries with tarragon ice cream and almond crumb, Drink: Strawberry Shrub – Salon strawberry shrub, The Botanist gin, soda, A delicious coastal vegetable that is abundant on the coasts of Britain, sea purslane grows in low bushes in sand dunes and along the banks of sea-estuary inlets. Using them enhances their unique flavour and adds a real dash of local authenticity. It's important to take advice from locals and is often the best way to have the most authentic experience. These are a beautiful zingy garnish for fish dishes. “In the Highlands there is a great tradition of going off to pick brambles on Sundays and come home to make blackberry jam and apple crumble,” he adds. Cookies allow us to remember your choices, collect statistics and display content tailored to you. Welcome to our Coastal Foraging experiences hosted by Craig Evans.
The best time to harvest is spring, when the water is colder. As they are now in their 60s they would like to sell West Lake, with its land and huge barns. Just take care when you’re picking berries that you don’t damage the environment and make sure you leave plenty for local wildlife! You’ll need scissors.

Coastal Foraging – Summer . Who doesn’t love shrimp? Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has moved his River Cottage HQ to Axminster, just across the Devon border, but his presence is still felt. It’s a beautifully expansive space, with loads of foraging to be done year round. I adore the flavour of the flowers and challenge myself and my team to pick enough when in season to use for the remainder of the year. Food: Pea and broad-bean salad with elderflower vinaigrette, Drink: Peashooter – white wine, pea-pod-infused St Germain, herb syrup, soda with a splash of The Botanist gin. Take advice from the local tourist board. There may not be a greenwood tree, but any woodlander will feel at home. Wild, foraged foods, once a widely available, healthy and free means of seasonal sustenance, are featuring more in popular TV cookery programmes and across social media these days, and as a result are appearing in more of our produce, restaurant dishes and home cooking.
For him this wilderness was a great inviolate place which “had an ancient permanence which the sea cannot claim”. And their hens, which are the Old English Pheasant Fowl breed loved by smallholders, keep busily laying eggs. Aside from nettles, three-cornered leeks are probably the first wild ingredients that are available in abundance, and they always make it onto our menus at the restaurant. Not many people can resist tempting chocolate, but Charlotte Flower, the Loch Tay chocolatier, takes temptation up a notch!