Meet Lucy Buckle - the Nottingham Forager

Exploring Foraging: How to Get Started and Forming a Healthy Relationship with the Local Land

Interview with Lucy Buckle, Written by Andy Barrett

What is foraging?

For me foraging is the act of gathering food that's not been grown on purpose. I deliberately don’t say it’s about gathering wild food because it’s possible for food that isn’t wild to fit this description as well. Gathering cultivated plants that are underused can also be classed as foraging.

What are the rules around that? Where can you go and what can you take?

Most of the legal requirements around foraging are connected to the right to roam. If you have the right to be there, because it’s public land, then you also have the right to forage. The two go hand in hand.  You can’t dig plants up, or chop things down but you do have the right to forage those things that will not cause prolonged damage: leaves, seeds, nuts, fruits, mushrooms. You are within your legal rights to take those as long as whatever you take you keep for yourself. You can give it away, or enjoy it with your friends and family, but nobody should be foraging from public land to sell privately.

As long as you are foraging sustainably, your impact is negligible. And sometimes it's actually beneficial. So, when we cut back leaves in the spring, fresh growth starts coming back up again; it encourages that plant to produce more. You can't pick every cherry on a tree; plenty will get eaten by the birds, plenty will fall onto the ground. It's really difficult to over forage; you've got to be intentionally harmful to cause damage. As long as you just take what you need to fill up your basket and then go home, you're fine.

How did you start foraging?

It all began with my grandparents when I was a child. They lived in Derbyshire and it was just something we did of a Sunday afternoon. I didn't know there was a name for it and I didn't know anyone else was interested in it. To this day we still eat a blackberry and apple pie on Christmas Day that we've made from foraged fruits and frozen. I moved to Nottingham when I was eighteen and within about an hour of being here, I realised that my foraging didn't have to end because I didn’t live in the countryside anymore. Urban foraging is often better than countryside foraging, because we've got less ground to cover and more wild foods available. My foraging dramatically increased when I moved into the city, I was gathering all kinds of things: fruits, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, flowers, leaves. I started to buy books about it, and to really dig into what’s available out there.

It does seem to have become popular.

I think lockdown was a turning point. When people were forced to walk around their local park for six months a lot of them started to think more about what was there. Now when I put on my monthly public foraging walks, I sometimes have a hundred people turning up!

What really started me turning my hobby into something of a business was seeing the huge amounts of wild garlic at Bulwell Hall Park. I’d been doing my blog for about a year, posting pictures of what I'd found and I asked if anybody would like to join me at the park for a wild garlic walk. It was during lockdown restrictions, so I could only take six people and seven hundred contacted me to say they’d like to come! And at that point I thought I might be on to something. I’ve taken hundreds of people to Bulwell to pick wild garlic over the past five or six years.

How do you pick wild garlic?

You take the leaves or the flowers and leave everything else; you never take the bulb out of the ground; they can last for up to twenty years. You can pinch the leaves, or cut them, but leave the bit that's going to carry on growing intact. With any plant you leave the roots in the ground and only take the bits that will grow back. As a rule, we tend to take from the top of the plant or those bits that look the freshest; as long as you leave the base of the plant and the roots in the ground. I eat it in salads or I make pesto with it, and when the seed heads are out you can use those like a garlic caper. I'll gather a jar full, cover them with vinegar and stick it in the fridge for a week. They’re delicious.

Are there foraging support groups and networks?

Well, I have my blog, and run foraging walks, and there are lots of really good support groups on Facebook and online which I recommend joining. When I first got started that was really helpful, having that kind of sneak peek into what everyone else was looking for and finding, and then looking it for myself, whether it be raspberries or Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. There's also some really useful apps; iNaturalist is particularly good for plants, although I wouldn’t totally trust it with mushrooms and I’d always use a book or an online resource to check the identification of those things you’re not sure of.

And what happens on your foraging walks?

First of all, I'm very careful as to where we do them. I don't take a hundred people to a tiny little pocket with three bushes in it; we go to the big parks that everybody knows about and we just talk about the stuff that's growing there. We forage one or two things; we pick litter as we go and we learn the basic rules of starting out as a forager. Because once you've mastered the basic principles, you can then go on to forage anything you want. You just have to learn about it, to put it into practise. So having a having a go at doing that with somebody can be really helpful. You’ll find that when you're out, you are looking a bit more closely at what's growing on what tree, what plants are around you, what they might have on them.

Have you found that different cultures have different relationships with foraging?

Definitely. We’ve got such a diverse city and it's really interesting to see how people from different countries favour particular foods. I have a lot of Polish people come and join me who are very big on mushrooms. It’s something many of them know a lot about and they're often very interested in mushrooms they don't have in Poland. It’s nice be able to exchange that knowledge. Some of the Chinese people who I have taken on walks are very interested in chestnuts and wild garlic.

So, how should I start to forage?

To start with there’s no particular spot you need to go to, or any particular order in which you need to learn things. Just go to your local space and have a walk around and see what you can spot. If you've managed to identify a blackberry, then make a note of that. You now know where the blackberries are! I recommend looking at a seasonal foraging guide (such as this one from the Woodland Trust) as that will give you a list of things to look out for. If you walk around your local space armed with that list, looking for particular trees and mushrooms, rather than trying to identify everything that you see, you will find that is very helpful.

In terms of foraging tools, I’d say the less the better. I tend to have a mushroom knife with me, which is just a folding pocket knife with a small brush attached to it to wipe the mud off, because if you put muddy mushrooms in a basket you’ll regret it. But you can use any kind of safety knife that folds away nicely, and a little paintbrush will do the job. And then a basket or a bag to put stuff in. If you use a wicker basket or a mesh bag, it means that any bugs or bees that have made their way in with your forage can escape by themselves, and it allows mushroom spores to carry on their journey.

Are there any times of the year that are better for foraging?  

I forage on Christmas Day, in the height of summer, and everywhere in between. Spring and autumn are particularly good as there's a lot of variety, but even winter foraging can be good, especially if you're a new forager because there's not as much around, so you tend to be less overwhelmed with all the plants and mushrooms that might otherwise be available. You can forage at any time of the year, wherever you are.

What do you need to be careful of?

There are plants and mushrooms in England that can kill you, and there's no way of getting around that. It does make people panic, but you should be a little bit cautious. But just as if a supermarket had all of the signs removed and you were still able to find the carrots, once you've got to know a plant or a mushroom in the wild then you can feel comfortable with it. ‘Don't munch on a hunch’ is one of my favourite sayings, it’s not worth poisoning yourself for a free lunch.

Is foraging really financially helpful, or is it mainly about creating a different connection to nature?

I’d say it’s both. It definitely saves me money; I don't buy herbal tea; I very rarely buy salad or mushrooms; and I don't buy any fruit over the summer. I would say it certainly adds up over the course of a year. Then there's the added bonus of eating seasonally because if it's not ready I don't eat it, and that tends to give me a much bigger variety in my diet. I don't really do much in the way of preserving because I'm out foraging all the time so I don't feel the need to. But there's a whole world of pickling and fermenting available, and if you like your booze, there's a million and one things you can do with foraged plants and a bottle of vodka or gin. So, you don't have to be out foraging three times a week; you can just go twice a year and still have plenty to be getting on with. As long as you only pick what you're going to use.

And then you've got the waste reduction because nothing outside of nature’s processes has gone into growing that food. No water has gone into growing it, no manual labour has gone into growing it, no fields have been decimated to grow it for me, no plastic has been used to wrap it for me. And because I'm picking it and I'm eating it I'm only ever going to pick the exact amount I need; I'm never chucking any of it in the bin.

I think a lot of people have lost their connection with food. You can go to the supermarket and, for instance, buy a punnet of mushrooms for a pound and you don’t need any knowledge at all to do that. You don't have to learn anything about mushrooms; and you don't have to put any effort in. But there are so many different types of mushrooms out there and it’s fun to be outside and to find them for yourself.

On top of all of that, even if you don't find anything you still had a nice walk. It gets me out in the fresh air, it encourages me to stay out a little bit longer, to walk a little bit further, to walk a little bit slower, to find moments to stop. That's usually when I spot the best mushrooms, when I’ve sat down for a moment for a cup of tea from my flask.

I don't think that anybody should be trying to live entirely off of foraged foods in England. There's a reason we started farming as a civilization, because otherwise you’d be spending all your day finding your calories. But as a hobby, I think it's really beneficial and it can save you money, and boost your mental and physical health. And if you can combine that with a little bit of litter picking, or feeding the birds, or even just reporting a broken gate to the council that you've seen on your travels, it’s a nice way to develop a relationship with your local wild space.

So where should people forage in the Meadows?

The whole Embankment section is really good for foraging. There are lots of mushrooms growing in the grasses around there: Field Mushrooms, Fairy Ring mushrooms, Champignon mushrooms, Shaggy Inkcaps, which are all really good mushrooms for beginners. There are also lots of trees, some of which are hanging over from people’s gardens (and if they’re on a public footpath then their fruits or flowers can be taken); Elderflower, Cherry and Magnolia.  The Magnolia flowers are so big because they were here before bees and had to be pollinated by beetles. I know they’re beautiful but they bloom very quickly and in abundance so you can take a few. You can eat them raw, or cook with them; they’ve got quite a gingery taste. You can take a nice stroll up and down the Trent and fill your basket as you go.

Are there other rules that you have made for yourself around what you eat?

I still have a takeaway every now and again, but I do try and eat seasonally and mindfully and locally. Through foraging I’ve really started thinking about how far your food can travel. That doesn’t mean I don't have a banana occasionally, but when the summer fruits are here I won't buy fruits that have been shipped in from across the other side of the world. There’s a particular mushroom, the Jelly mushroom, that Chinese supermarkets sell dried in big bags. They're quite expensive, and have been shipped from China and yet they're growing on almost every elder tree in England; I’ll probably see some on my way home today.

I've been really fortunate in that I’ve worked with some wonderful projects over the last few years, like making fruit crumbles for food banks and community groups. People have messaged me saying ‘I’ve got a tree full of plums’, or have dropped vast quantities of rhubarb outside my door. But who doesn’t like a crumble? It’s about not wasting food, not wasting what’s available, or what is just going to potentially lie there and rot.

What would be your final words of encouragement to anyone thinking of entering the world of foraging?

My big tip would be to get out and look at your local space; have a look at some seasonal guides and see what you can find; download some apps and get started! Don't munch on a hunch but don't be discouraged from having a go, whether that's with a friend, by yourself, or going on a foraging walk with myself or another forager. I would really encourage people just to get out and have a go at it. It can be a daunting task to begin with, but start small and work your way up. There is so much out there to find.

You can contact Lucy or find out what she is up to here.

Article written by Andy Barrett