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Fergus the Forager

 

 

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WILD FOOD YEAR
2008-9
BLOGS

One Planet Institute

The Bushcraft Magazine

 

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

 

a handful of winter chanterelles. Photograph by Jonathan Gregson

 


Fergus Drennan - forager

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  • 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.)

NEW 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 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)!


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.

 

  • 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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…..or, to be more inclusive, human beings cannot live by bread alone. True? Maybe. Certainly we need to be more inclusive in terms not only of gender or, of course, varied diet, but also in regard to our other needs for self expression – through music, poetry and art, as well as with respect to a whole plethora of other social, psychological and, no doubt, spiritual needs. However, the question that really interests me concerns wild food. Susan Campbell, in her paper, The Hunting and Gathering of Wild Foods: What’s the point? An Historical Survey  - a paper delivered at Oxford and reprinted in Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2004: Wild Food, poses the dilemma quite succinctly when she states, “….nor have I yet met anyone who could convince me that modern man could subsist on wild food alone, legally or illegally, the year round, in a northern climate.” The question and the challenge, then, stand: Can a person live by wild food alone? There is only one way to answer such a question and that is by actually attempting to do so. However, a further question presents itself: Why would anybody in his or her right mind wish to attempt such a thing?
      Having utilised wild foods in my diet for a considerable number of years, I know that the sheer variety and range of what is generally available is quite astonishing. Such a vast myriad of both familiar and more exotic flavours, textures, and unique nutritional dietary contributors means that, given sufficient availability, it would surely be theoretically possible to live on wild food alone. Well…… that remains to be proved by the possible sweat and tears of actual practice. Nevertheless, addressing the question, “why?” , is at one and the same time to address those less tangible needs which, at the outset, it was admitted that without which we could not live. This is because eating wild food is not just about nutritional sustenance; it’s a lifestyle choice. That choice is in part a personal and practical answer to various disagreements I have with the world, the way it is, or rather, the way it is as an outcome of our interaction with it; the way it is, the way we are, but don’t have to be – culturally, socially, economically and, of course, environmentally……………….

      I’ve been thinking for two weeks now about carrying out the practice: living from only wild food a whole month and have decided to begin on the 30th of June – just a few days away now. I’m even going to subject myself to a battery of medical tests tomorrow morning. However, as the day itself approaches the likelihood of success seems to do the opposite, retreating instead into the far distance. In the first place, I am so ludicrously busy at the moment that I barely have time to think about cooking a meal, let alone producing one from wild food. In the second place, I thought that although it’s mainly leaves and seaweeds that are available now, this wouldn’t be a problem because, no doubt, I could always top up any nutritional deficit with a choice piece of roadkill; that was, until I had lunch with a friend – the sparkling Aglaia, She claims to be able to sniff out meat eaters from across the room. Actually, her method is more visual. Apparently it’s the dull eyes - compared with the bright sparkling eyes of the vegetarian - that’s the tell tale give away sign. Is it the shadow of death that dulls the inner flame, a corrupting of the soul to its very core or merely the sluggish arterial flow of stupefying saturated fats that deadens the vital light? Who knows the answer to such an imponderable question? All I do know is that after a few months of poor health – I fell in the woods carrying birch sap and really put my back out, what could be better than to start sparkling again? So, meat of any sort is completely off the menu – for now.
     Of course, referring back to the quote from Susan Campbell, there is no doubt I can, as she says, “subsist”. Yet subsistence carries the implications of just getting by, of the bare necessities, of surviving, being alive, but alive only to a paltry kind of mere existence. Perhaps for a month such an existence – given no other commitments, could prove to be a liberating and nature-engaged escape from the day-to-day grind of work related toil. However, for me those commitments do exist (they’re not all toil fortunately). No, I want to live fully, to be nothing less than a whole man, to transcend the everyday, to feel the struggle of the impossible and know that it can be surpassed. A month of wild food will be hard. I will learn that I’m sure. However, to really rise to the challenge I must embrace the whole year and its generous seasons. Only then will I know if it is possible to live by wild food alone.

     The coming month will be a preliminary study for a wild food year – beginning later this year. I will be writing a daily blog about how things are going over the coming month. If you are interested please return to this page which I will be updating every day.
     Now, time to go for an invigorating walk in the glorious lightening, thunder and rain……..
 

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