Foraging on Telegraph Hill

Some photos from the food foraging session I led for Grow Wild, as part of the Telegraph Hill festival.

Despite bitterly cold weather, we had a huge turnout of 30+ local residents all keen to forage for wild greens. 

Touring around St Catherine's Church and the two parks, we gathered lots of three-cornered leek, nettles, and chickweed. We also identified plantain and hawthorne, and we took note of plums, cherries and sloes for harvesting later in the year.  

After foraging, we took our findings back to the Common Growth garden where Louise from Grow Wild cooked up some wild nettle soup (amongst other things!) to share with the group.

Nettle is really traditional at this time of year, it's a great tonic for the blood which helps to clear out all the toxins that build up during the winter months when we tend to eat more animal fats (meat, dairy) and exercise less. It's also packed with vitamins and minerals! 

The soup was delicious. It was a really rewarding day all round, and I'd love to do it again later in the year! 

Lunch at the Cowley Club

...I cooked at the Cowley Club for the first time today, which was fun. Thanks go to Ryan and Rob for their practical help, and Sammy for her moral support.

The cook went well, we had a fairly tasty(!) vegan korma with rice and salads. Turnout wasn't brilliant, but a few friends turned up on top of the usual Cowley lunchtime crowd.

I'm hoping to do it again in future, with help from some more Faerie friends - and probably on a Friday (which should draw out a few more punters!)