BBC: Foraging for wild food

Nowadays we are so used to getting food whenever we want that we've almost forgotten how we managed in the past. But for thousands of years before supermarkets, humans found food through foraging- moving from place to place looking for wild food to eat. 

Since the Covid pandemic, foraging for wild food has become popular again. Why go to the shops when you can walk into nearbby countryside and parks to collect edible plants, mushrooms, and fruit for free?

Of course, you can't eat everything you find growing outside- some poisonous plants can make you very ill. But there's something exciting about setting off on a culinary treasure hunt to find new edible plants for dinner. 

In this programme, we'll be hearing about a new foraging project taking place across the UK, and as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. 

But first I have a question for you, Neil, 2019 was a good year for the group. Wild Food UK, with the lauch of thier foraging pocket guide, a handbook aimed at helping foragers fidn and identiy safe wild food to eat. So, according to the group's website, what is the most popular food foraged in the UK? Is it:

a) seaweed    b) berries    or   c) mushrooms?

There's so much coastline in Britan, I reckon it must be a)seaweed. 

OK. I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Monica Wilde, known as Mo, is the author of the Wilderness Cure, a book charting her year of eating only wild food. Mo is one of a group of 26 experienced foragers taking part in the 'Wild Blome Project', a three month experiment into the health benefits of introducing wild food into your diet. 

Microbiome are tiny organisms including  bacteria and fungi which live in the human digestive system, help break down food, and strengthen immune defence. The idea is that natural unprocessed foods found in the wild support our microbiome, leading to a range of health benefits from weight loss to increased energy levels. The foragers' microbiome is measured and monitored before, during and after the experiment. Here's Mo Wilde chatting with one of the foragers, Rob Gould, for BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme. 

Even if you don't buy into the whole idea of fully encompassing a wild diet- because for most poeple it's fairly much unattainable- but for people just incorporating a small amount of wild food into their diet, you're increasing massively the amount of nutrients, the micronutrients and the vitamin that you're getting, a lot of which aren't even available regularly in your commonly bought foods.

Sometimes people say. 'Oh well, you know, if everybody foraged, they wouldn't be enough', but I've never noticed a shortage of netties, and if netties didn't grow in this country, we'd probably be flying them in as a superfood because there's so nutritious, and above all they're free. 

With the high levels of nutrients and vitamins found in wild plants like netties, Rob has bought into the idea of foraging. If you buy inot an idea, you completely believe it. 

Did you say stinging netties- the wild plants growing everywhere which have leaves covered in hairs that sting when you touch them?

Yes, it turns out that netties are packed full of nutrients and vitamins which are great for human health. In fact, they're even considered a superfood- food that contains many vitamins and other nutrients known to be very good for human health. 

The Wild Blome Project hasn't finished yet, but it already seems that the foragers are feeling happier as well as healthier. They all report greater appreciation for the smell and taste of their food, and say foraging has given them increased self-worth, a natural treatment for depression and anxiety. Here's one forager describing her feelings to BBC Radio 4's, The Food Programme.