The 5 tastiest foods you can forage in the UK
There are thousands of species of plants in the wild that are safe to eat, and many of the common ones can usually be found within a few minutes walk from your own home, but for the truly good stuff, you have to know where to look.
1) Burdock root
The burdock plant can be found growing around the edges of farm fields or in wild meadows. It lives in areas that are both partially sheltered and open, such as close to hedges or isolated trees in fields. The plant has to be carefully dug up because grabbing the main stem and pulling will cause the side-ways growing root to snap off, so bring a trowel if you’re going after this one. There isn’t anything similar out there that can hurt you, with thistles being the only other plant in the UK that looks close to the burdock, but has very different leaves and is easy to tell apart upon inspection. They taste like potatoes with a hint of nuttiness and should be cooked in the same way you would a potato.
2) Lady’s Smock
Also known as the cuckoo flower, this plant can be found growing openly across meadows as it likes plenty of light and rarely appears within woodland. It can be found most commonly in the spring, but the plant is present the whole year round, though it’s best to catch it when the leaves are fully grown. All of the above-ground parts of the plant are edible and there aren’t any poisonous flowers that look like this one, so it’s a safe bet to forage, but one for those who like hot mustard, as the leaves have a strong flavor that’s somewhere between mustard and wasabi.
3) Cockles
Out of all the wild foods you can find, the best of the 5 tastiest foods you can forage in the UK is definitely cockles. My favorite shellfish to gather by a long shot and one that doesn’t require anything more than a bag to put them in. They can be found on large, flat sandy beaches that have as few rocks as possible. The best places to look are around the small temporary streams that form on the beach, just dig a few inches below the sand to see if there’s any there, because they tend to live in large patches so where you find one, you’ll usually find lots. There are a number of things you can do with cockles, but for a couple of recipes and information on how to process them, have a look at our cockle gathering page.
4) Bilberries
(The short and bushy shrub of the bilberry plant, the berries themselves look almost the same as blueberries, but have a small cog-shaped pip at the bottom)
These small and wiry plants only grow in specific areas that have high acidity in the soil. The best places to look are moors that have nothing growing on them but small scrub bushes, as this indicates the soil is too acidic for regular plants but perfect for bilberries. They taste as if someone crossed a blackberry with a blueberry, and are excellent for pies or wine, but they can be a little tricky to gather as they don’t grow in clumps and are dotted around the whole plant.
5) Samphire
Probably my second favorite thing to gather after cockles, the samphire plant comes in two variations, which are rock and marsh. Rock samphire isn’t worth going after as it’s much less common and only grows on its own or in very small patches, and gathering a single plant can hurt populations. As for marsh samphire, it likes very damp ground with a much higher salt content than usual, which limits its location almost exclusively to estuaries. It can grow in huge patches but can be risky to gather as it likes to live in thick estuary mud, which can be extremely dangerous to get stuck in. A marsh samphire plant can survive if someone takes a stem or two, so if you find a large enough patch, you have a sustainable source between May and September when the plant grows quickly. It tastes like salty asparagus and should be cooked and served in the same way.
