Last night we went on a foraging trip up to a farm in Hertfordshire, just outside St Albans. We had taken the half hour train ride from St Pancras to St Alban City to be driven to the farm by George, one of our foraging guides.

The inside of his car was suitably scattered with bits of nature. You know, grass and stuff. At the farm we were greeted by Richard. His health & safety advice was ‘don’t eat anything until I’ve said so or you might die.’

Richard’s academic knowledge of mushrooms, plants and berries complemented George’s restless enthusiasm. Every once in a while one of them popped into the shrubbery to fetch a bottle of some sort of home made syrup or alcohol; a secret stash of sloe gin hidden in a sloe bush, syrup made from something that looked like goosegrass and some kind of obscure herb infused rum. It all tasted pretty good and it was clear these guys knew what they were doing and having a lot of fun doing it as well.

Back at the pub George told us his room above the restaurant was filled mostly with distillers containing all kinds of experiments; his latest being nettle vodka.

Share this Story