Foraging is a political issue

My sister and I have always wanted to find out more about foraging so when she emailed me about a walk on Hampstead Heath with a published foraging type, I jumped at the chance.
So Saturday morning we traipse up the hill in the unusually hot sun to The Gaia Foundation in the back streets of Hampstead village.

Feeling a tad shy we take a bench across the road and watch the rest if the group arrive. A strange mix of serious types with suitable footwear and leather knapsacks, hampstead mums with offspring, flowing skirts and an intimate knowledge of all the Eithiopian restaurants in a 5 mile radius, and youngish lasses in shorts and flip flops. And us. 2 middle aged slightly tubby women in jeans, trainers and plenty of sunscreen.

Our hosts were two far too attractive young ladies and the chief forager. He definitely looked the part: he had a hat and everything. We were introduced to the chief when he loudly declaimed the the Hampstead Heath Corporation were ridiculous monsters for preventing the group from gathering our foraged bounty. "What's next? Telling people to stop mowing their lawns!" Sis took my hand at this point and gave me the "don't respond" look - she knows me so well...

Off we went into the undergrowth. Well up the pavement anyway. We had only gone a few yards when chief stopped and plucked a small weed from the edge of the road. This was chickweed. A delicious salad ingredient apparently. We all took pictures obediently. The earnest chap next to us piped up "It's delicious sautéed in olive oil" and I knew we were definitely in NW3.

As we strolled through the Heath, chief forager pointed out an abundance of edible flora and the occasional poisonous option for those planning a murder... Unfortunately his spiel was peppered with rants on how we all should return to being hunter gatherers and that the African grasses were providing grains across that continent and we could all benefit from that lifestyle. This would be discussed further over lunch...

We'd had an hour and a half of ranting by now under the hot sun and a follow up rant with foraged salad did not sound like fun so sis n I made excuses and skipped happily down the hill to forage for a frappucino.

Sis has since claimed that she did indeed learn something: she learned that foraging is Not For Her.

For those of you interested here is a list of the edible yummies available in your local park or pavement:
Chickweed, lesser celandine, linden, ground elder, dock, cleaver, elderflower, nettle, cow parsley, mustard garlic, alexander, herb bennett, sheep's sorrel, common sorrel, moor sorrel, grass, dandelion and cats ear dandelion.

Note from the author: Some of these plants look suspiciously like others which are poisonous. If you're not sure, Don't Put It In Your Mouth (surely good advice for any situation!)

Now if you'll excuse me I've got cleavers infusing in a jug of cold water.

Addendum: cleavers taste like grass. And cleaver infused water tastes like watery grass. S'quite nice actually.

Addendum 2: Out on Urmston meadows spotted cow parsley, mustard garlic, nettles of course, sorrel & elder. Hey! I learned something!