Wild garlic, nettles and berries … how foraging went mainstream

Once it was the domain of upmarket chefs. Now thousands are collecting ingredients when out for a walk

Liz Knight once stopped short of sending her daughter to primary school with nettle omelette in her lunchbox, for fear of the reaction of the other children. Her husband told her: “Don’t you dare.” But Knight, who has been teaching courses on foraging in the wilds around her home in rural Herefordshire for the past 10 years, would not be so reticent today.

Attitudes towards foraging – heading out into nearby countryside or parks and collecting edible plants, mushrooms and fruits – have changed, and, she says, “there’s been a real shift with the pandemic”.