Our Forager’s Journey programme is an immersive eight-part wild food adventure through seasons and habitats, based in beautiful locations around Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. The programme, now in its fourth year, is for those wishing to delve deeper into the fascinating worlds of wild food and medicines, fire and bushcraft skills, natural crafts, and plant lore.
Add your name to the 2025 Priority Booking List by contacting
info@livewild.org.uk
Programme dates for 2025 to be announced during October 2024.
Timings for each day 10.30am-5pm
The programme includes:
- A guided journey through the forager’s year across eight sessions, learning how to safely identify, harvest and prepare a wide range of wild plants and fungi throughout the seasons.
- NEW FOR 2025: An overnight campout during the summer in which you will set up camp using skills learned on the course, forage for wild food, cook an evening meal over the fire, and spend the night camping in woodland with your fellow foragers
- Understanding of what can be found in different habitats, including woodland, meadow and hedgerow. Your tutors will take you to some of their favourite secret locations in the Calder Valley, passing through stunning scenery on foot
- Practical sessions in processing the plants, nuts, seeds, berries and fungi we find, and using them to make foods, drinks and medicines
- Practical instruction in fire-craft, from using foraged materials to create fire from a spark to cooking over the fire, whatever the weather
- Practical in instruction in natural crafting including bark containers, cordage, and whittling
- Herbalism and plantlore: Using plants and herbs as medicines and items for a ‘wild first aid kit’, following in the footsteps of our ancestors and drawing on contemporary research
- Insight into the folklore & history of the wild foods we find
- A range of wild food tasters to try each session, from traditional preparations like ferments and vinegars to some of our more modern creations such as wild ketchup and chocolate truffles
- Reflective time in nature. We will encourage you to form deep connections with the plants and fungi through focused observation, drawing, and engaging all of your senses
- Rekindling community traditions around collecting and preparing wild foods
- A three-course wild feast to celebrate the end of the programme in October
- ‘Wild work’ assignments. These activities will encourage you to stay on the Forager’s Journey when you are back at home between sessions
- A ‘Forager’s Journey Kit’ containing a journal/ sketch pad, hand lens, stationary and more
Registration and Booking:
Bookings will open in October 2024.
You will be guided by:
Live Wild’s Leonie Morris –Leonie is co-founder and director of Live Wild and works with people of all ages to help them rediscover the ‘wild nature’ both inside and outside of us. She is a qualified Bushcraft Instructor & Wild Food Teacher, with many years of experience teaching a range of programmes including regular seasonal foraging courses in locations across the north of England. She also facilitates our Questing With Fire rite of passage programme, and various nature-connection programmes for children. Leonie is happiest when sharing foraging wisdom in a holistic context: using all of the senses, gathering respectfully and playfully with homemade baskets, building a fire to cook up finds – she is a strong believer that all food tastes best cooked together over a fire!
Live Wild’s Sophie Wren – Sophie’s foraging journey began during her years living on the inland waterways where, mooring up in different locations, she became fascinated by the different plants, trees and fungi that surrounded her. Foraging fit very well with an off grid and self-sufficient way of living, and soon she was hooked! The unexpected gift was a depth of connection to the wild world that has been life changing. It wasn’t long before fungi became a fascination, and Sophie studied mycology with the Field Studies Council as well as soaking up wisdom from various mentors and elders in the foraging community. She has been teaching regular seasonal foraging courses with Live Wild in West Yorkshire since 2018 and is a proud member of the Association of Foragers.
Access:
Please note that the course involves some adventurous walks around the valley, sometimes walking for four hours or so during a day, albeit at a steady pace. The ground will be steep and uneven in places. Please contact us if you are concerned that access may be an issue: info@livewild.org.uk
Travel:
Our meeting points will be close to public transport links, easily accessible from Hebden Bridge centre.
Cancellation policy:
Please ensure you can fully commit to this course and all of the sessions before booking. The deposit is nonrefundable under any circumstances. If a booking is cancelled more than three months before the start of the programme then all monies paid after the deposit will be refunded.
If the booking is cancelled within three months of the course date: monies paid after the deposit will only be refunded if Live Wild are able to fill the place on the programme. Should we be unable to fill the place, we cannot offer a refund.