Welcome to Forager.
Located on a beautiful estate, 'the unit' (as it is called) is the headquarters of this unique operation. The unit is complete with a kitchen, two walk in fridges, a packing room, office space, and a dry store, as well as a lovely lush green yard. Each morning the 10 employees and myself would arrive at 8am (7am on Mondays), receive our daily tasks and foraging list, and divide up into teams. We would then hop in the refrigerator vans and drive off on our mission. Often there would be around 100 kilos of plants to harvest and maybe 2, 3 or even 4 different picking spots to visit.You never knew when you would be done for the day- could be 5pm or it could be 9pm- a fun adventure all the same. Mondays were a bit different. Up until noon, restaurant orders are taken
and any last minute foraging is done. Then all
afternoon it is pretty much all hands on deck to get the orders filled and the boxes packed and ready to be delivered.
It was exhilarating and exhausting but a wonderful experience none the less.
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| The Unit |
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| Sheep grazing land in front of the Unit |
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| gear |
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| more gear |
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| Packing room- boxes waiting to be filled. |
During my time with Forager, I went out picking in all sorts of habitats all over Kent. From the sea, to the marsh, to the white cliffs of Dover, under bridges, on the side of the highway and in neighborhoods alike.
On my first day of foraging I went out with Ed and Carl- two pretty great guys and excellent teachers. After driving for about 40 minutes, we pulled off the highway and into an industrial construction site; I became a bit concerned about what we were about to embark on. But after wandering down a path (in the opposite direction of the construction) we arrived at our first picking spot- a marshy bank with a rich diversity of vegetation. I think we collected 6 to 8 different plants at this locations alone.
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| Ed inspecting the garlic mustard growing under the overpass. |
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| Ed and Carl harvest Purple Purslane. |
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| Sea Beet Leaves |
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| Pea Family |
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| Wild Fennel |
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| Knee deep in plants. |
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| A small sampling of all that we harvested. |
The next day I went out foraging with John and Ali. It was a bit more of a wild adventure with these two.
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| Topless and pant-less foraging in thick, sticky mud. |
On Wednesday evening I was asking if I wanted to join Carl and Ed on a seaweed foraging adventure the next day- the one catch, we would be starting at 4 in the morning. How could I turn down and offer like that! The next morning my alarm went off at 3:30am, I rolled out of bed and put all of my warmest layers on and was ready to face the day. It was seaweed foraging time!
You may be wondering why we had to start so early, well unlike conventional farmers who manipulate the environment to meet their needs, we had to work with the environment to meet ours. We had to get out and collect all of the seaweeds (over 50 kilos) before the tide came in and it was a close call. We were fighting back the tide as we were collecting the last of the days harvest.
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| Harvesting sea kale before sunrise. |
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| Sea Kale |
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| Sea Kale Broccoli |
We arrived at our next location just after 7:20am and were working hard until about 10:40 when the tide came and swallowed up the rocky coast.
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| The tide is coming! The tide is coming! |
After and eventful morning of
seaweed foraging, we refueled our bodies and then went out for some more wild
land plants including wild celery, sea celery, elder flowers, and sea beet. We arrived back at The Unit around 4pm that evening, at 5pm I
went to Mile's house for dinner and by 8:30pm I was sound asleep in my
bed. I slept like a baby straight through until 6:45 the next morning.
Nothing like a day of hard manual labor and the chilly damp sea air to
knock you out.
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| Back at the unit the seaweeds were hung to dry. |
Sunday afternoon we had a lovely Forager lunch at Miles house.
Lots of wild plant salads, wood fired pizzas, whole grilled fish, wild herb ice creams, and a raw apple tart. What a feast it was.
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| Plants, plants everywhere. |
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| Plant prep- separating leaves and stalks. |
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| Men working the pizza oven. From left to right- Ross, Carl, Ben. |
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| Ed and Fudge (the dog) |
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| Ross's homemade Egg Tofu with Picked Fennel and Ramson Buds. |
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| Grilled Fish Stuffed with Nettles and Cow Peas. |
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| Raw Apple and Elderflower Tart. |
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| Dessert Pizza- Raspberry Amaretto Whole Milk Yogurt, Picked Damson Plums, and Wild Fennel. |
What an amazing experience it was. I returned home totally inspired and eager to get my hands into the tick of things and actually be more of a doer.
I am hoping to return for a month next time towards the end of the summer. There is so much more to learn, see, and do, I have only just scratched the surface. Not to mention the work environment is great and its a fun bunch of guys to hang out with and learn from.
