I am fortunate to have lived most of my life in the country, so for me, there is nothing new in eating wild plants!

Years ago, walking around the fields and woodlands in Monmouthshire with my father who was a great naturalist and also the local country doctor, we used to forage for bits and pieces of plants to snack on. Sorrel leaves with their sharp lemony taste were a favourite of mine, and I remember he told me how these leaves used to be chewed by farm workers during the hay-making season to quench their thirst. These easy to find leaves are available all year round and particularly good as a sauce with fish or made into a soup with potatoes and onions. For the curious but lazy they are wonderful in salads!

Even when my friends and I charged around on plump ponies, like escapees from a Thelwell illustration, with pieces of bracken or preferably elder stuck like circus horse feathers in the bridle brow bands to deter flies, we would eat young hawthorn leaves which we called “bread and cheese”, and grab blackberries as we sped past. We would suck the sweetness out of honeysuckle flowers and search under beech trees in a good season for beech mast. Mast is the name for the mahogany-coloured, three-sided sharp edged nuts, but they do not appear every year.

We, as youngsters, were not in those days sophisticated enough to appreciate the strong smell of ramsons (wild garlic), but now it is such a welcome sight in the spring. It grows alongside streams and in damp woodland and can be smelt a great distance away! It has broad spear-shaped leaves and the flowers are white and star-like. The leaves can be put in salads, sauces and casseroles and the flowers make an attractive addition sprinkled over the top of dishes.

If I accompanied my father on his visits to patients we would nearly always return home with something for the kitchen. We would stop near woods where we could pick bullaces (wild plums), or collect fat sweet chestnuts and he always knew where there were fields bursting with mushrooms. When I was about eight years old, I remember him taking me down to the banks of the River Usk which ran past our house. He crouched down low over the edge; his hands disappeared into the water and emerged clasping small wriggling levers (baby eels) which he put into a bucket. To my mother’s horror they were washed in the butler’s sink, and my father scrambled them with egg in an old frying pan.

Even when we used to spend our holidays here in West Wales, we would collect cockles and eat them outdoors, cooked over a small fire.

As a family we would go out with baskets and walk around the field hedgerows collecting blackberries, pulling the brambles closer to us with old walking sticks so that by standing on tiptoe we might gather the fruit that would otherwise be out of reach. Blackberries, I always thought, would be the most easily recognised free wild food, and just picked at when passing by. Obviously, it appears not to be the case. On the favourite footpaths here in Pembrokeshire, popular with locals and visitors alike, there are always blackberries left hanging un-gathered during the season.

Last autumn I was amazed to see brambles loaded with berries right next to a gate that had to be opened by holidaymakers to gain access to their rented holiday cottage in the middle of nowhere. It seems strange to me that whilst some visitors choose to live for a couple of weeks far from civilisation in a cottage with basic amenities, they don’t include in their romantic country experience the gathering of wild food. I can understand how people might be nervous about foraging from the wild but blackberries are the most recognisable of all. They are such a treat, cooked or fresh, I simply cannot understand why they are ignored. Perhaps it’s laziness, perhaps its lack of information, or maybe it is the way so many of us live today.

We don’t even have to prepare some pre-packaged fruit and vegetables from the supermarket, so perhaps searching, picking, rinsing, and preparing food from the wild is just too much hard work, despite the fact that it costs nothing. The excitement and anticipation of seasonal choice has disappeared. We are now used to eating the same fruit and vegetables at any time of the year, often tasteless, imported, and usually treated with chemicals. Even much of the organic food sold in supermarkets has travelled thousands of miles by air, the least environmentally friendly way to travel.

We should remember that all the vegetables and fruit that we enjoy today are descended from their wild ancestors so there is nothing wrong with collecting bits and pieces from the wild to provide a salad or zap up a meal. If only people would buy locally and support producers in their own area, and get out in the fresh air exploring the countryside and coast, gathering things to pep up their menu, we would all be somewhat healthier. Even the increase in freezer-owning families has not encouraged the gathering and preserving of available wild foods for use at a later date.

Our laziness and apathy has also allowed ancient customs and skills to disappear. The uses of plants for medicine, nourishment and household use has been overtaken by “quick fixes” of tins and packets, chemicals and plastics. Historically, wild plants were the chief raw materials in the household economy and they played a central part in the lives of generations before us. Almost every part of a plant had a use; building materials, utensils, clothing, tools, medicines and furniture. We can still make the most of wild plants in the same way that our ancestors did, both as food and craft, but with some contemporary slants.

There appears at last to be a revival of interest in things rural and historic trades are once again starting to contribute to the local economy, culture and heritage. These traditional crafts are playing an increasing role in the leisure, recreation, construction and tourism industries.

Of course there are a few things to remember before charging off into the fields and byways with baskets and scissors. Landowners will not be happy to have people climbing gates onto their land to forage about, so do ask permission, and whilst most won’t have a problem with you collecting sorrel or elderberries, for example, some may object to you pinching the mushrooms that they have been saving for themselves. Remember that there is a lot of pollution from cars along busy roads, so it is better to spend time wandering along quieter lanes, and it is also a good idea to pick from either above or beyond dog-pee verges! If you are near the coast make sure you find out whether the sea is clean enough to harvest mussels or cockles, and if everything is ok then don’t forget to sample the seaweed too!

There are two main things to be aware of are these:

• Only harvest plants or parts of plants where they are growing in profusion, and never pick one area bare.
• All plants are protected under the law in the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) 1981. You may not uproot or dig up ANY plant unless you have the permission of the landowner.

Furthermore there is a list of 62 plants that may not be picked at all. There is an up to date list available on The Botanical Society of the British Isles web site at www.bsbi.org.uk. and finally...

Do invest in one or two good reference books. You will soon learn to recognise plants with the help of excellent illustrations, or even better, photographs. You will also find additional information about habitat, folk lore, and medicinal uses and so on.

Whether you walk off into the countryside with your thumb stick and basket, or wander along the shoreline with a net and bucket, enjoy yourself. Experience nature’s harvest, sample what she has produced and with your new knowledge you will discover that no walk will ever be quite the same again!