Last weekend I drove to Exmoor for a gathering organised by Robin Harford, the best forager I know. (I’ll take every opportunity I can to learn from him.)
Robin is an intuitive forager. His method is to use all of your senses to get to know a plant: sight, touch, smell, and only when you’re 150% sure, to taste.To use all your senses like this when you forage you need to centre yourself, to quieten your mind and pay attention to what you experience, to what your body is telling you.
And to listen to your intuition.
Is it the plant you think it is? Is it good to eat? What does it remind you of? What could it go with?
Here’s 6 of the wild plants we gathered for our supper, you can find and eat all of them right now:
1. Ground Ivy
I love its smell. Grows in moist shady areas, it has hairy aromatic leaves, a distinctive taste, and a strong mint-like aroma.
2. Goosegrass
also known as sticky willy, cleavers or clivers, it makes a cleansing liver tonic. Pick the tips for salads or use like spinach. You can even squeeze the juice out with your hands.
3. Three Cornered Leek
we had them in a ferment (with salt). Looks like a grass, has an extraordinary taste.
4. Plantain Buds
pop the flower buds into your mouth, they’re firm, nutty and mushroomy, great sautéed.
5. Garlic Mustard
another favourite, it’s aromatic and garlicky, found in hedges and by paths. Good in salads.
6. Nettles: the UK’s superfood. Blanch to get rid of stings. Steam or sweat it like spinach, and keep the water to make tea.
To get to a point where you can experience your senses as Robin teaches, it helps to practice.
Wild Human 
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