Winter Foraging and Feasting

Winter foraging can be a real treat, at this time of year we can scour fields, shoreline and woodland to forage for greens, seeds, fungi and fruit and there’s a suprising haul of wild edibles out there. Join us to look back at our Forage and Feast in Dorset which took place in December, a time of year that many of us are conditioned to stay indoors to get warm and snug against the elements. We quite literally threw caution to the wind and got out there with some hardy folk to learn the art of foraging and wild food.

What can you forage in Winter we hear you cry? Well at this time of year between autumn and spring there’s still lots of wild foods to be found; from mushrooms, seaweed, nuts, berries and a handful of winter greens, there is still plenty out there. Lately we have found all sorts of wild foods such as edible seaweeds, ground ivy, young alexanders, rosehips, pine needles, jack by the hedge, three cornered leek, sweet chestnuts, wood sage, sorrel, plaintain, sea beet, gorse, wild rosemary and haw berries to name but a few.

The beauty of our Forage and Feast events is that you get to try some of the wild ingredients our forager will show you on the walk and find out how these wild foods can be used in making wild cocktails and recipes. Read our menu from the Winter Feast below.

The Forage and Feast starts at our hut on Studland beach with a foraging walk with founder Dan Scott our professional forager who walks guests through the hedgerows and onto the beach to seek out wild plants, throughout the walk Dan gives tips on harvesting sustainably, how to correctly identify plants and information on any possible look-alikes or poisonous plants.

Learn more about our Forage and feasts

The foraging walk ends at out lovely seaside pavillion in Studland, just a short walk away. It is a unique and beautiful building where guests are greeted to a wild cocktail designed around the foraged ingredients by Dans wife Jade, on this event they took part in a fire lighting workshop here, as chef Stewart cooked over flames and the light faded over the ocean beyond.

Wild cocktails are such a great way to use foraged ingredients and you can get really creative with turning berries and plants into syrups and shrubs. On this Forage and Feast we used our own Sloe Gin and Rosehip Syrup to create a warming and festive cocktail to kick start the feast.

We run seasonal Forage and Feasts in Studland, Dorset and a whole host of other monthly wild food events on and off the water from our location here, across Dorset and beyond. See our events page for more foraging events or purchase a gift voucher for a friend or loved one.