2: Foraging on Clarkson’s Farm

Hosts Richard Prideaux and Amy Green start the show with a slightly odd question about woodpeckers, but swiftly move on to the definitely edible Morel; recently warnings have been issued in Montana by the state’s department for public health and human services to exercise extreme caution when identifying and preparing Morels. This appears to be a reaction to the seasonal appearance of these prized mushrooms following a poisoning incident last year. In Australia they are entering prime mushroom season and urging people to stick to buying mushrooms from shops rather than foraging for wild species; one source stated that deathcaps have been found only 2km from Melbourne’s central business district.

Back on home ground here in the UK, Marlborough Town Council has issued a warning backed by the Food Standards Agency which urges people not to forage wild garlic from Coopers Meadow as it may have been contaminated with floodwater and human waste earlier this year. Finally the main topic of the show – Jeremy Clarkson and his grand foraging ideas to supply the farm shop with extra produce as documented in season 3 of ‘Clarkson’s Farm’. We discuss the legality behind foraging for, making and selling hedgerow jams, wild botanical gins, and other seasonal, weather dependent and wild sourced products.

We round off the episode with three things to do this week:  Collect Elderflowers and make something with them; Try your hand at sea fishing by booking a place on a fishing charter; Read the fantastic book ‘The Wild Life: a year of living on wild food’ – by John Lewis-Stempel.

In Summary: You can’t eat Woodpeckers in the UK; The motives behind a recent Morel foraging warning issued by Montana State; Australian’s told to steer clear of wild mushrooms; Wild Garlic patch contaminated with sewage; Jeremy Clarkson’s unique approach to producing saleable products from wild sourced ingredients; and the real-life logistics of selling wild food.