Free food . . . sounds good, but the catch is you’ll have to gather it yourself. Dandelion tea, nettle soup, wild garlic salad – it’s all there for the taking. Foraging could be the answer to reducing your food bill, as long as you can recognise what’s safe and good to eat, and what’s not.
Marcus Harrison, a UK expert on wild food, is visiting west Cork next weekend to conduct two days of instruction and practical advice on how to identify and prepare the delicacies growing wild all around us. “One of the things that Marcus teaches is how to survey a landscape in order to assess where to look for particular foods,” says Anne Crossey, who is organising the event. “Anyone interested in taking part can phone me on 086-2320188 for directions. It’s happening in the Lough Ine area, between Skibbereen and Baltimore, starting in my garden in Munnig – so I can ignore the weeds, guilt-free, until next weekend,” she says. The cost is €65 per day, including lunch. mcdigby@irishtimes.com