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The beautiful local Dorset hedgerows, woodlands and fields are full of wild food secrets, easily shared when you know what you are looking for and where to find them. This course is the perfect introduction to edible wild plants and you will learn where to forage and how to successfully identify your finds.
For the forager, the seashore holds limitless culinary potential. In this authoritative, entertaining and rather adventurous course, John Wright takes us on a trip to the seaside. In this lesson John will introduce you to the various species to be harvested, you will learn the practicalities such as conservation and the ethics of foraging; the importance of habitat; how to forage safely on the seashore; landing sizes; seasons; and equipment such as nets and crab pots. In the lesson, John collects and describes the seashore species he finds on the day, complete with quite a few gratuitous but fascinating diversions. The species you will discover include some crustaceans (brown shrimp, common prawn and velvet swimming crab), plants (marsh samphire, shrubby seablite, sea purslane, sea rocket, spear-leaved orache); and seaweed (carragheen, dulse, gut weed, laver, sugar kelp, kelp).
With a passion for fungi spanning 50 years and a handful of books under his belt, John is one of the most experienced of all mushroom guides. During this lesson, in which he explores both pasture and woodland, John will introduce to you the fundamentals of mushroom identification, and explain where to look for various species and pass on numerous mushroom-hunting tips such has how to spot edible grassland species even when they are not yet there and the safest places to search. People are rightly concerned about collecting and eating wild fungi, so, in addition to the edible species he finds on the day, he will describe some of those that are poisonous so you can forage safely.
Although they are simply ingredients like any other, wild foods sometimes pose difficulties for the uninitiated: What can you possibly do with rosehips or hawthorn berries? How do you cook seaweeds? How can you preserve your wild mushrooms or four gallons of wild apple juice? John provides guidance in all these things and more, and will show you that a splendid meal can be made from the most unlikely of things.
COURSE TUTOR

John Wright

Portrait of John Wright

John Wright has foraged for food all his life. From cockle-hunting and blackberry picking in the 1960’s, via wild mushrooms and seaweeds many years, to collecting flying ants with a butterfly net today, he has seen and eaten most wild foods.

In 1992 he began sharing his knowledge, leading mushroom forays. This was soon to be followed by hedgerow and seashore forays. He has lead around 1,000 such events over the year.

He has written four books on foraging, one on home-brewing and two on natural history. His most recent book, The Forager’s Calendar, won the Guild of Food Writers award for ‘Food Book of the Year 2020’. John has written numerous magazine articles, most of them on the countryside or countryside pursuits.

He lives in rural West Dorset.

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Our online classroom is designed to help you learn from experts in a collaborative, social environment alongside a small group of learners.

Each lesson combines expert-led videos with optional assignments, giving you the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned and share your work with others. You can take part in ongoing discussions, ask questions, exchange feedback, and learn from a community of like-minded people from around the world.

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Courses are designed to fit around your schedule, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Each lesson video is typically 30–40 minutes, and we recommend around an hour for each assignment.

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