Blessed with beautiful sunshine and a super friendly bunch of foragers, we celebrated the season with our Summer Forage and Feast 2023 on June 17th in sunny Studland. Here we’re sharing our highlights, what wild ingredients we foraged, the wild cocktail, feast menu and a few snaps of the day.

Summer Forage and Feast 2023 – The Foraging Walk

Kicking off our Summer Forage and Feast in June 2023, our adventurers met at Middle Beach, Studland, ready for a taste of Dorset. Our guests embarked on a foraging walk with co-founder of Fore, and head forager, Dan. He scoured the hedgerows and shoreline to show our group the wild ingredients growing in summer in Dorset. The foraging group came away learning a range of wild edibles, as well as those plants best avoided as they made their way around the coastline and meadows of Studland.

Dan continued to share his knowledge of foraging and wild plants as the group made their way towards our secluded feast location. Dan  likes to share his best guidebooks and other resourcesa aswell. This ensures the group can continue learning plant identification and uses for foraged goodies after the course is over. Down on the shoreline the foragers investigated edible species of seaweeds and other coastal treasures including razor clams.

Finally our intrepid foragers arrive at the feast location, greeted of course by our outdoor bar! The welcome cocktail was a Pineapple Weed Daiquiri. Though it’s made from an unassuming weed, it slips down just right on a sunny afternoon! Pineapple weed is in the chamomile family and grows in abundance this time of year. You will no doubt have walked past this plant unknowingly and not paid much attention to it. Once you have been shown this wild plant you will spot it everywhere. Pineapple weed is a versatile plant that can be made into foraged tinctures, teas and syrups. The flower of the plant smells of pineapple but the taste is more delicate with floral undertones. This wild plant is best known for its relaxing properties, Pineapple weed also helps you sleep and is a good digestive aid.

Summer Forage and Feast 2023 – The Feast

Gathering round our shared table, it’s time to serve the foraged starter. We served a beautiful beetroot carpaccio with goat’s cheese. The dish was garnished with rocket, foraged sorrel, wild yarrow with an elderflower vinaigrette and topped with walnuts. The foragers recognised many of the ingredients from their foraging walk. Although most of the group had tried elderflower cordial they hadn’t thought to use the elderflower in a salad dressing. It was a nice surprise and enjoyed by all, so much so that one lady asked if she could lick her plate!

Our Summer Forage and Feast 2023 main course was a real show stopper (though we say so ourselves!). Torched mackerel with a potato terrine, wild herb yoghurt, meadowsweet romesco and hogweed tenderstem. Our vegetarian friends didn’t’miss out, enjoying the same dish with halloumi replacing mackerel.

Finally finishing off our Summer Forage and Feast 2023 with a Raspberry and Rose Eton Mess, the feast is complete. Brains filled with knowledge and inspiration for getting outside. Stomachs filled with delicious foraged fare! It’s our favourite way to celebrate the seasons. Sharing our foraging knowledge and passion for the outdoors is a privilege. We are lucky to combine everything we love into these special foraging courses in Dorset. It brings us joy to see so many happy faces and spark a love for and interest into the subject of wild plants. We hope you feel that this comes across and even if you aren’t able to be at our wild food events you can learn about foraging through our blog too.

If you can join us and want to get involved, we run our seasonal Forage and Feast 4 times a year in Dorset (aswell as lots of other adventures), our Autumn event is coming up on 7th October. Last few spaces remain – Find Out More!