Foraging is such a wonderful and valuable outdoor pastime, with strong links to folklore, tradition and sustainable living.
Our little boy, Arthur-Felix, is three, and has become quite the little forager! He has been coming out with us every day since he was just a baby, and after his first foraging experience of Bilberries at eighteen months old, he can now identify lots of edible plants and fungi, like sorrel, wood sorrel, red clover, heal-all, water mint, thyme, rosebay willowherb, elderflower, bilberry, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, wood hedgehogs, ceps, chanterelles, stinkhorn, and cauliflower fungus, among other things!
Utilising foraged produce
We often bring home our finds and cook and eat them together as a meal, make desserts, syrups or teas, or do other activities, such as create art with mushroom spore prints. This really does make the whole experience really engaging and family orientated. We also teach him about toxic plants, such as foxglove, yew, and nightshade, and have a strong emphasis on safety, always iterating to him that he’s not to put anything into his mouth unless we say it’s okay, and we’ll do exactly the same with his little sister, Sybbie, who’s five months old.
Learnings from foraging
Foraging is such a wonderful and valuable outdoor pastime, with strong links to folklore, tradition and sustainable living. We love that Arthur is learning about the bounty of nature, the life cycles of plants and animals (including death) and the changing seasons, but also having so much fun out in the wilds, as well. My wife (who’s a clinical psychologist) and I are firm believers that having a hands-on connection to nature and the outdoors creates good health and positive mental well-being in people of all ages, and foraging with kids is a magical way of connecting with the land as well as with each other, learning and experiencing new things together.
Foraging with children
Every year in September, we head out to the Highlands for a two-week foraging holiday. The woods and forests are just brimming with wild edibles and the whole family really enjoys being surrounded by nature in amongst the beautiful green spaces that Scotland possesses. Arthur especially has the most amazing time!
Being so deep in nature encourages good health and wellbeing for us all by producing dedicated family time for us to share, and creates a natural and stimulating learning environment for him that is sustainable, informative and most of all, fun! When we are out on a forage, we do far more than just collect free food; we stimulate his enjoyment of nature and the outdoors, provide him with an understanding of the natural world, create mindful learning experiences that he enjoys, and hopefully create very happy memories of a wonderful childhood. The youth of today will one day be the custodians of our green spaces, so we feel that generating love and respect for nature within Arthur is so very important for all our futures.
Foraging and your inner child
Foraging with Arthur, in Scotland and beyond, has really brought out the inner-child in us, too. We love being the “teachers” and showing him the wonders of the wilds, but we also now enjoy and do things we wouldn’t normally do if we were ever out foraging on our own – like tree climbing, playing pooh-sticks or chase, doing rolly-pollies in the leaves, jumping off logs, and telling stories under beautiful trees. If we’re honest, we’d certainly miss his ability to make us laugh and entice us into having some fun if he were ever not there with us, despite the peace and tranquillity that we’d no doubt experience without him!
Foraging has certainly been the most amazing thing we’ve ever done with Arthur – we’ve built beautiful bonds, developed shared interests, learned so much together, and had so much fun along the way, too. As a boost to our physical and mental wellbeing, there is nothing quite like it and we certainly wouldn’t exchange it for anything else in the world!
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