Introduction to Foraging Course, Manchester

Children under 12 come free. Well-behaved dogs on a lead are also more than welcome.

What to expect

This course will cover the best ways to start and progress through the early stages of your foraging journey. We will take a two-and-a-half-hour walk (covering one to two miles) around some woodland, grassland and riverside in Didsbury, stopping regularly to discuss (and where possible, eat!) the many edible goodies we find along the way, whether that be foliage, flowers, fruits, nuts or mushrooms! What we’ll find depends on the time of year. The route is mostly flat and we’ll go at a steady pace.

The main focus will be foraging for wild food, but we will also touch upon medicinal or "bushcraft" uses if relevant to what we find.

The course will include:

• A brief introduction to myself and foraging in general.
• Finding and discussing around 20 species common across the UK that have food uses.
• How to identify the species we come across.
• Information about toxic species to avoid.
• Foraging laws and principles to ensure you forage legally, safely and responsibly.
• Trying a couple of pre-prepared wild food-based samples!

I also follow up the course with an email to participants with a summary of the species we found and other useful information such as my recommended books for further reading.

Making foraging fun and safe

Foraging is fun and fascinating, with so many benefits it's unbelievable. It's as safe as anything when approached with the right level of caution, awareness, and knowledge. It’s important to realise however that foraging can be dangerous IF you approach it with a lack of caution (recklessness), and/or a lack of awareness of the risks and without the respect nature deserves. During the course, I will show you how to approach foraging in a way whereby you don't just minimise but eliminate all risks, so you are free to enjoy the many benefits that foraging brings into your life.

Log in to nature

Humans have been foraging as a way to survive for hundreds of thousands of years. Before farming, this was how we survived - finding what nature provided in harmony with the seasons and the land. This period before farming forms over 95 per cent of our existence as a species, so to our brains and bodies, foraging is incredibly natural - this is one of the reasons it feels so good!

Foraging is one of the best ways to disconnect from our busy modern lives of emails, social media and technology, and reconnect with nature and our ancestral roots. During this course we will log off from the modern world and log in to nature!

Meeting point and parking

We'll meet in the Parsonage Gardens just outside The Didsbury Parsonage Trust building. Please see the “dropped pin” Google Maps location below that will take you to the meeting and starting point:

Dropped pin: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iQHgyWWeUzPwJpgg6?g_st=ic

Off-road parking is sometimes available on Stenner Lane (M20 2RQ), but please allow enough time in case you have to park elsewhere. There are plenty of other places to park, such as Sandhurst Road, but such places may involve a short 5-minute walk to the meeting point.

I will be waiting at our meeting point from at least 9:55 AM.

I recommend you bring

• Comfortable, weather-appropriate clothing and footwear. The path and route we take is no more than two miles and is mainly flat and a mostly even path. However, parts may be muddy or involve walking on wet grass, so please ensure you have appropriate footwear if you want to avoid wet socks!
• Your phone but only for the camera function should you wish to take any photos/videos/notes. I will however send out an email at the end of the course with a list of the species we come across.
• Some water or other kind of hydrating drink if you wish.

About me

The Forager Within, founded by James Hill, runs public and private foraging courses across Yorkshire and Manchester. His love of foraging started on nature walks with his parents, where picking wild food was just a way of life. In adulthood, James hit a low point in 2015 which re-ignited a passion for foraging. By the Spring of 2016, foraging was a hobby, an obsession, and then in 2022, a business with a mission to connect people to nature and improve physical and mental health in the process.