One of the big things about moving over to forest gardening, is learning how to cook with plants that you might never have imagined were edible (let alone being tasty) before. Nevertheless, at lunchtime on our visit we feasted by the open fire, on a delicious soup of spring greenery, followed by a crumble made from the berries of all the fruit trees that grow in the food forest. Of course, it was amazing. I need the recipe because I’m still thinking about that crumble. The diversity of plants in that meal was huge and reminded me how narrow our choice of supermarket fruit and vegetables has become in our busy modern world.

​

There was a lot to learn about plants in the Food Forest too. I came home and acquired myself some linden blossom to make a tea with lemon balm that sounds fabulous (calming and euphoric apparently). I also learnt about a wild plant called alexanders (smyrnium olusatrum) that has a taste of celery. It used to be grown as a pt herb but is now one to forage- and not to be confused with hemlock. Since our visit I’ve been delighted to discover that it grows abundantly in the hedgerow near me. So many great plants growing under our noses that we can get to know.