...and that was week one of Ground up Cookery School!

We started last Saturday 27th April with an introduction to fermented food and drinks course and today we held our first wild

food foraging and cookery course. One of the advantages of where we are situated is that we are on an organic farm www.drakesfarm.net. They allow us access and encourage us to forage on the land surrounding the school which is rich in biodiversity of plant species giving us a great range of plants to choose from.

Today’s course was such fun! We met at 9:30, had a coffee and some chocolate brownie and headed off to forage. We had a plan of what we wanted to find and once we had collected sufficient ingredients for our recipes we walked around the hedges and lanes discussing and tasting various edible plants.

When we arrived back at the school we prepared our foraged haul. I provided tasters for the hungry foragers whilst they created a board detailing the edibles we had found on our walk.

After a few demonstrations the cooking began, everyone made a nettle focaccia to take home,  adding any number of foraged items to the base recipe. Wild garlic flowers, wild garlic, Jack by the hedge and ground ivy flowers all proving popular.

Following the bread making our guests proceeded to cook some fabulous dishes as listed in the menu, a particular favourite being the dandelion and onion bhajis!

We then rounded the day off by sitting down together and sharing what we had cooked. It was a proud moment when everyone shared their dishes with such passion and pride.

It was deeply satisfying for me to sit and share the meal, it gave me a tremendous sense of achievement to see it come to life and to see people really enjoying the experience that we had all worked so hard to achieve.

Here’s to the next one!