After weeks of watching Ray Mears gorge himself on Mother Nature’s larder on TV, I decided to enrol on a foraging course, near the Great Ridge, on the Fonthill Estate, in Wiltshire.

I was slightly anxious about ending up with a Bear Grylls-style course leader who’d force me to suck fish eyeballs. Or worse, I didn't want to fall victim of a fatal lesson in foraging for the unwary, like the woman who died after eating what she thought were edible fungi three weeks ago in a botanical garden on the Isle of Wight. Deadly Nightshade, I was to learn, is known to grow among blackberry bushes.

My fears proved completely unfounded, when I was treated to a gourmet wild-food feast, courtesy of our course instructor, Joe O’Leary, a former soldier, carpenter, and now crêperie proprietor and Wilderness Survival Skills instructor.

"More people could dip into our wild larder but it needs to be done responsibly for people’s health and the plants' future," says O’Leary.

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BACKGROUND

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As autumn kicks in, the British countryside swells with wild foods – woods, fields and dunes can provide a tasty treat to those in the know. Wild foods are seasonal, and often organic, and provide something totally different to the processed, packaged and often pricey food in supermarkets. Not only is it free, but it's also fully traceable. "You know its origins and it costs nothing apart from the energy spent harvesting it," says O'Leary.

He adds: "I wish I could find a chocolate plant growing in the hedgerows - you can tell that from my 'hibernation layer' - but I'll settle for chestnuts cooked on the embers of a campfire.”

On The Menu.....

Friday night supper

Having waved goodbye to the car and its empty chocolate wrappers, my housemate, Tara, a lettings manager, and I ventured into the woods where we met our fellow foragers: a basket weaver, a blacksmith and an organic farmer. In fact, if it hadn't been for the presence of a project manager, we'd have felt decidedly too urban.

On the campfire were two rabbits, which Joe had sourced from his local game dealer, basted in olive oil and honey, roasting slowly over a roaring fire, with a pot of stewing vegetables bubbling away close by - smoked garlic gave them a little sweetness. They paired well, and were the perfect accompaniment to our earthy surroundings. As darkness set in, we listened to a fellow forager play the penny whistle, while drinking vodka infused with sweet woodruff, a grassy, hay-scented herb.

Saturday lunch

After a morning spent meandering through the woods, being taught the good, the bad and the ugly of the wild food world, for example, sloes might make a delicious gin, but they taste foul when eaten raw, we came back with our hands full.

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