Foraging, A Conversation With Liz Knight Author of 'Forage: Wild Plants to Gather, Cook, and Eat'

Photography, Styling and Interview by Alison Engstrom

Before we start talking about your beautiful book Forage: Wild Plants to Gather, Cook and Eat, I’d love to learn more about your background and when you first started to dabble in the world of foraging? 

I don’t know when I consciously started foraging, but what I do know is that my earliest memories involve blackberry seeds between my teeth, chewing on the sweet end of blades of grass, pounding rose petals into water to make into drinks, and inhaling freshly cut grass. In my late 20’s I ‘discovered’ foraging as a hobby and then a career as a wild food producer and foraging instructor rather than just what I did as part of childhood, and since then I’ve relived my childhood on a daily basis, pounding petals, chewing leaves and walking around with a stained mouth and seeds between my teeth.

One of the most fascinating facts about the book was actually the first line in the book that out of about 400,000 plants 200,000 are edible. What do you hope that people take away from the book?

If you only take one line away with you, that is probably the best one! I hope that line is enough to change the way we perceive the world around us. We live in such uncertain times, and there are rightly many reasons to be worried about the future, but once I realized the plants that I thought were weeds were often incredibly nutritious food or medicine, my perception of the world changed – we are surrounded by useful and beautiful food that makes eating a joy– and once you discover how good they can taste, and how sustainable eating wild food can be, even the most prickly, stingy thickets of ‘weeds’ makes the world look a lot more beautiful than before! 

I love talking about process. What was yours like for writing this book?

Ever since I started teaching foraging 10 years ago, I’ve been asked if I’d written a book – and I’d keep saying ‘ I’m doing one’ which in truth meant I would scribble in various note books as I stood by my children’s doorway waiting for them to finally fall asleep. Although I tried to make time to write a book, juggling my teaching, food business and little family meant I often nodded off before my children did and years went by without turning my notes into anything other than a pile of papers. Fortunately, long after my children started sleeping through the night, the wonderful publishers Laurence King asked if I’d like to write one for them & I jumped at the chance – partly to be able to answer the ‘have you written a book’ question with a new word - ‘yes’

Being given the commission to write Forage meant I could legitimately spend months ignoring the housework, researching– for the first time since I had started running my wild food business and foraging courses, I had time to stop and learn more, and with each plant the most incredible stories would emerge, sometimes about the chemicals within the plants, sometimes about the importance of the plants to other animals and more often than not, about how intrinsically linked people and plants have been through history, and even now.

Did you come across anything while researching that blew you away? 

Most evenings whilst I was writing Forage, I would bore my family senseless with the discovery I had made that day.  I think one of the most incredible things I discovered was how Clover was introduced in Andalucia 1000 years ago to improve the fertility of soil that had been farmed to the point that it was nutritionally depleted, and how its use spread,  transforming the fertility of farmed land across the world. It gives me real hope that nature provides the answers to contemporary soil health concerns.

The illustrations are so beautiful. How did you meet your illustrator Rachel Pedder-Smith? 

Rachel is so incredibly talented, I was so very privileged to be teamed with her. She was ‘found’ by our Commissioning Editor, and I think the pairing was inspired! We live on opposite sides of the country so spent the year communicating by phone, I’d carefully package up specimen plants to send her in the post for her to work on, and every few days my email would ping & yet another incredible image would arrive. We’re yet to meet in person; because of Covid Forage was one of those books which didn’t have a real-life launch, but when we do I’ll bring her a ginormous bouquet of as a thank you (I’ll sneak a few weeds in for old time’s sake!)

What are a few general guidelines when it comes to responsible foraging? 

Most importantly remember that whilst there are thousands of edible plants that grow across the world there are also many toxic plants. Take your time to learn to properly identify plants, only gathering from the plants you 100% know. Once you have identified that a plant that is edible, don’t eat lots of it straight away. You may be intolerant or allergic to a wild plant, so start by adding very small amounts to your diet and leave aside plants you have any kind of negative reaction to, just as you wouldn’t eat conventional food if you react to it. 

Approach eating wild plants with real care if you are on specific medications in case the plants react with your medication or affect your condition. Again, this is true of many conventional foods and medications; seek advice from your doctor but if you are unsure if a plant may affect you, don’t eat it. Finally, if you are pregnant or feeding your baby, exercise real caution with wild food. Use your pregnancy and hours of walking your baby to sleep to learn about the food you will be able to enjoy once your child is older.

If you want to go outside your garden to gather food, be aware that there are laws that control where and what you can gather If in doubt read up on your local regulations and follow your area's rules. 

Once you get the bug for foraging, make sure that even if you are picking in your own garden, that you gather your plants in a way that is sustainable, leaving plenty of habitat and food for other animals. A responsible forager only gathers as much as they need, and only from an area where a plant is not scarce. A good rule to follow is to gather in a way that when you look back at where you have been picking, it looks no different to before you went there.

As tempting as it is too laden yourself with a huge hoard of a crop, think about what are you going to do with your haul when you get back into the kitchen.  If you find that you have bags of harvested plants going mouldy before you use them, you probably have gathered too much.

I was so fascinated to learn that you can enjoy crab apple, acorns and spruce needles. What else surprised you in your research and which is the tastiest? 

Trees are a brilliant source of food that are often overlooked, from blossoms to leaves and nuts like acorns that most people think are poisonous. At the moment, Linden trees and Honeysuckle vines are in flower and every year the scent of Linden flowers and Honeysuckle fills my kitchen and never ceases to smell and taste like food that I imagine gods would eat.

After last year, I think so many people wanted to find a way to connect with nature in a more profound way and foraging is a wonderful way to do that. What are some beginners tips in doing so? 

I’d say start with plants you 100% know – if you have dandelions in abundance, use them, but to make them delicious take a look at how people use them across the world – all across the Mediterranean and right cross to China for example the bitterness of Dandelion leaves are tempered by sweetened onions, sour ingredients like lemon, and salt. Slowly growing your repertoire with delicious recipes is a great way to grow your knowledge. 

Alongside the desire to connect to nature, one thing this last year has shown people is that we were all too busy and needed time to do nothing. Foraging is a wonderful discovery, but take it slowly, don’t fall into the trap of feeling you have to gather every plant that is in season. Foraging should be pleasurable and as nourishing to our souls as much as our stomachs. Remember that there is a lifetime to discover the food that grows all around you. Sometimes it’s ok to head to the woods or a field and sit and do absolutely nothing but inhale the smell of the grass.

Over the years through foraging, have you seen your relationship to food or the way you consumer shift and evolve (being local, organic, whole foods based, etc)? 

Food is really important to me, I love feeding my family and friends and I think about it all the time! Because I enjoy cooking (and eating) I have always tended to make my own food and cook most meals from scratch, and I buy organic, seasonal ingredients as much as possible. But to be really honest, I’m not puritanical about food, we enjoy sweets and packets of crisps, just in moderation, with a sneaky portion of wild greens thrown in..

What are you foraging now? 

Right now I’m foraging flowers and my kitchen is currently full of trays of drying flowers from meadows, lanes and trees. today I’ve been out gathering elderflowers & meadowsweet – they’re never usually in flower at the same time, but the spring was so cold and long that plants like elderflower have only just opened. I’ll be making the elderflower into a salt with fennel seeds and the lime flowers will be dried for delicious teas and perhaps a liqueur or two..

How can readers learn more about you and your work? 

The best way to find out about what I’m up to is by looking at my Instagram feed @foragefinefoods – it’s not very polished and I often pop up with leaves in my hair, (I don’t think I’ve done a video with seeds in my teeth but I might be wrong.)