Late Winter Foraging Walk (4 hrs)

Organised by : Cowdray Estate

Connect with nature and understand your landscape on this foraging walk with Cowdray's Forager, George.

On this late winter guided walk you will be taken through some of West Sussex's beautiful countryside in search of wild foods covering a range of habitats to best showcase the new year's emerging growth. You will learn how to identify individual species, and learn about what is edible and what's not, to help you forage safely.

This walk is classed as intermediate and will be 4 hours long. It will touch on a wide range of subjects including mycelium and mushroom foraging, what's best to forage and how best to extract and preserve the fantastic flavours to be stored and used throughout the year. Identification and uses of wild vegetables and herbs that can be found just emerging from their winter states will be the focus of this walk. Generally late winter to early spring is considered the best time to forage for wild greens because the plants are full of the stored sugars used to kick-start their growing season.

Please note: These extended walks can still be attended by beginners as the content will cover all the basics. This walk will also cover a more advanced variety of subjects and species giving you a more in depth foraging experience that can help start or develop any budding forager.

Examples of species found: pig nuts, lime leaves, spruce tips, chervil, wild garlic, wood ear mushrooms, hawthorn leaves, scarlet elf cup mushroom.

Walks will be circular beginning and ending in the Cowdray Farm Shop overflow car park and will last approximately 4 hours.

Please wear footwear that is suitable for undulating terrain. Click here to find out more about Foraging at Cowdray.