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Fergus the Forager

 

 

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WILD FOOD YEAR
2008-9
BLOGS

One Planet Institute

The Bushcraft Magazine

 


Collecting rosehips - Isobelle thinks I look a right plonker in that hat!

Sea lettuce drying

a handful of winter chanterelles. Photograph by Jonathan Gregson

Birch Polypore - great for making fine paper!


Fergus Drennan - forager

Blanched and stuffed garlic mustard leaves

A giant pair of breasts, arse, or just a huge mushroom?


Boiled sandhoppers

Shafts of autumn sunlight pierce the feathery branches of tall conifers and cast burnished reflections onto stands of sweet chestnut trees and silver birches. The stillness of the ancient woodland is broken only by the crunching of leaves and bracken as Fergus Drennan, basket and knife in hand, steals through the landscape, eyes peeled in search of his prey. This is The Blean in Kent . 11 square miles of mushroom-hunters' paradise, its acid soils and open canopy providing the perfect habitat for a range of edible fungi, particularly the winter chanterelle whose brown caps are camouflaged by the forest's thick, leafy carpet. "In November I lie awake dreaming of mushrooms. I just have to get out there and start the chase," he says. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIAN BAHNETT

Early July Blackberries

random forage

Sea buckthorn berries

Collecting sea buckthorn berry juice - a wonderfully messy business!

Don't let sea buckthorn juice get in your eyes, it stings like hell!

Pressing elderberries

Wild apples
plants
courses
mushrooms
  • Welcome to the website of the Wild Man of food, Fergus Drennan; forager extraordinaire!
  • Forage:
  • The act of looking or searching for food or provisions.
  • To wander in search of food or provisions.
  • To conduct a search; rummage.

    (Middle English, from Old French fourrage, from forrer, to forage,
    from feurre, fodder, of Germanic origin.)


Gift anxieties solved!

There is a wonderful gift you can give to some one. It doesn't involve useless packaging or a heart attack induicing last minute shopping frenzy. Instead, it's both educational and great fun: a foraging course. Gift vouchers available not just for Christmas but for any occasion.



EAT THE CHANGE

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.

 

It's time to stop dressing up in silly costumes....

Marching on the stones Summer solstice at Stonehenge

....... and sort out this website. So, coming (not)very soon: links that don't loop back to saved and copyright breaching material on my site i.e. live links. Apologies to Sunny Savage of wildfoodplants.com and John Kallas of wild food adventures - the only truly wild people who noticed the error - of those who give a damn. ALSO downloadable handy wild food identification cards courtesy of Judy of the Woods - they're really good! ALSO, lists of all edible native plants with recipes and other info. And, finally, regular blogs about my year living entirely on wild and foraged food (not always the same things)!

Living entirely on 100% wild and foraged food - is it possible? Could it be sustained for a whole year? Yes, probably. Here are details of my attempts to just that:

A trial run of one month on wild food

A year of wild food April 08 - March 09. The first attempt

A year of wild food March 09- April 10. The second attempt...

 

  • NEW Harvest it!.....a festival of autumn delights.

    PHOTOGRAPHS

    Sunday 23 September, 2pm-5pm.

    Questions to a Forager II. Answers to questions for Insight Magazine (Sept 07)

  • What's been your biggest mistake while foraging?
  • Can anyone forage?
  • Why is foraging so popular right now?
  • How did you get into it?
  • Who couldn't you have done this without?
  • Best thing you've ever foraged?
  • What can you / will you never forage?
  • What's the funniest myth you've ever heard about foraging?
  • How do people react when you tell them what you do?
  • What are you thankful for?
  • What do you think about when you're in the forest?
  • What is the most unusual thing you've ever seen in the forest?
  • What's your tastiest bit of roadkill?
  • Is it annoying having to forage in Winter?
  • What should Joe Public do to start foraging?

  • Eating nothing but wild food month (July 07):

    Day 31 -1 + the day after - newest entry first

  • Day 1-31 + the day after - in consecutive order
    last updated on August the 19th
    Man cannot live by bread alone.......

  • A brief explanation of my reasons for deciding to eat nothing but wild food for the duration of July

  • "I'm a vegetarian but I eat Roadkill!"; "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?" and other Chan/Zen koans.

  • Questions to a Forager. Answers to questions for Plenty Magazine.
  • Roadkill: Germans have the last wordThis is an automatic page translation from German to English. Boy oh boy did I laugh! more>>

    Hunting For Dead Tasty Meals
    From foxes to pheasants, seaweed to slugs, everything's fair game for The Roadkill Chef. Guy Adams joins him scavenging for supper.more>>

  • I win a PETA award!
    I thought this was a joke. But no it really is true! And I am very happy to accept this award. Details will appear on the PETA website later. NB PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals     more
    One From The Road
    Fergus Drennan is a forager on a mission, but there's more to his craft than cooking........     more>> This will take you to the Kent on Sunday piece. In the blue left hand box highlight 'review', then click on 'click to read'. This will take you to the latest edition. Click on the arrow on the drop down bar second from the left at the top of the page. Go to the Sunday 21/01/2007 edition .Even if you don't like the article it's well worth checking out just for the page turning sound effects!! If you can remember all this info then your memory is much better than mine!
  • The Ecologist. Roadkill Chef
    - stupid title but...,hey....what can you do?
    • ‘OK then,’ I say to Fergus, with a challenge in my voice, ‘what about............... more>>
  • Roadkill Café - the aftermath
    18th Jan.(Should put most of this stuff in my blog, but having trouble using it.) ‘Aftermath’ usually implies dire consequences. In this case the term simply pays reference... more>
  • Roadkill Café Dilemma
    (15th Jan) Imagine this situation: Firstly, you have recently made a programme for the BBC, however, for the most part.... more>>
  • Seabuckthorn Cheese cake
    - I have been using this wonderful plant for a number of years now, and have found several great ways of using it. more>>

  • Foraging your Christmas pud
    Putting all thoughts of convenience food aside and, in a challenging seasonal celebration of the slow, fantastically inconvenient, absurd and impractical, here is my recipe for a completely foraged Christmas pudding
  • Hats Off to Chris Evans xx
    I forage with Chris and friends around his home... more>>
  • Foraging and the law
    - read it and weep! more>>
  • Country Living Magazine
    Nov 06 -     Fergus the forager - His taste for the wild began early: as a boy he enjoyed nettle soups and dandelion salads, while at University he feasted on snails. Now Fergus Drennan is a hunter-gatherer by profession. more>>


    This is The Blean in Kent . 11 square miles of mushroom-hunters' paradise, its acid soils and open canopy providing the perfect habitat for a range of edible fungi, particularly the winter chanterelle whose brown caps are camouflaged by the forest's thick, leafy carpet. "In November I lie awake dreaming of mushrooms. I just have to get out there and start the chase," he says.

  • Conde Nast Traveller Magazine - Oct 06 - Finders keepers - Fergus Drennan lives off the land, foraging for wild food which
    he takes to market and sells to restaurants. more>>

    wild mushroom risotto at the pub
    wild mushroom risotto at the George & Dragon

  • Blog - Roadkill - Lately, quite a few people have been asking me about roadkill. So I’m going to say a few words about it. Not that I eat it that much. At most it constitutes 1-5% of my diet throughout the year. Also, I would rarely if ever actively go out searching for it. more>>
  • A one-day course run by Fergus.
    Now taking bookings for 2007!!!

    Energy. In a complex and challenging world we need copious amounts of it

    Wild plants are nutritionally rich - uniquely so.
    Unlike cultivated vegetables, salad leaves and herbs for which - even if grown organically, many of the essential nutrients - in the form of manure or chemical fertilizer - have to be transported to the artificially set aside growing site, a wild plant germinates and flourishes where it is because the perfect balance of water, sunshine and nutrients come together in that unique location.
    more>>
  • Rustling up the roadkill
    www.telegraph.co.uk


    As we drive through the Kentish countryside to our first destination, Fergus explains his passion to me. "We're so cut off now," he says. "Very few people understand the land. But once you do, you start to appreciate the place you live in, and feel part of it. So many of my friends are constantly criticising this country - 'I've got to get out, it's all going to the dogs,' etc - but for me, this is what I do. I feel such a part of the English countryside through this that I could never leave."
    Fergus Drennan harvesting seaweed in Kent


    Wild food is tasty and hip.
    Professional forager Paul Kingsnorth heads for the woods -
    'Before we do anything else," says Fergus Drennan, "guess what this is made of." He reaches into a wicker basket and pulls out what looks like a fruit tart. I bite into it.
    "Rhubarb?" I say, suspecting correctly that this would be far too obvious.
    more>>
  • Ask Mario - www.askmario.co.uk
    TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
    seabeet
  • Fergus Drennan makes a living as a forager ­ but it is also a way of life. For him, foraging for wild food is about connecting and finding balance, living a life fully engaged with, and responsive to, the natural world. He explains his philosophy.
    more>>
  • Seasonal Recipe: Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup
    (serves 10 ish)

 

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