John Wright - Hedgerow

For my girls Diane, Flossie and Lily

Bloomsbury Publishing
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This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2010

Text and photography copyright 2010 by John Wright

John Wright has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for.

ISBN: 978-1-4088-0185-7 (HB)

ISBN: 978-1-4088-9635-8 (eBook)

Project editor: Janet Illsley

Designer: willwebb.co.uk

The publishers would also like to thank Sam Carlisle for his assistance.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book, in no circumstances can the publisher or the author accept any legal responsibility or liability for any loss or damage (including damage to property and/or personal injury) arising from any error in or omission from the information contained in this book, or from the failure of the reader to properly and accurately follow any instructions contained in the book. The recipes supplied in the book are for personal use only. No recipe may be used for commercial purposes without the express permission of the author.

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Contents

This is not the first time Ive taken up my pen to introduce a book written by John Wright. I did so back in 2007, when John produced the very first River Cottage Handbook, Mushrooms, and I did it again a couple of years later when he wrote another, Edible Seashore. So to find myself musing on his work is not a novel experience, although it is one filled with pleasure and admiration. Its clear to me that there really is no limit to this mans enthusiasm and excitement about the great outdoors the edible bits of it in particular. And this compact manual is just like its forerunners: erudite, authoritative, confidence-building, witty. It will tell you all you need to know to turn any little walk or ramble into a foraging expedition, and it will inspire and entertain you at the same time.

Foraging is, and has long been, a great timeless, life-enhancing pursuit. It is deeply satisfying, deeply grounding. It gets us out into the fresh air and brings us closer to the natural environment from which we can so easily become estranged. Its a lovely thing to do on your own and often even more fun if you get your family or a group of friends to join in. There are, of course, a few serious foraging dangers in the form of poisonous plants, but most perils are fairly minor the odd nettle sting and the occasional muddy trousers, perhaps.

However, for me there is a certain risk attached to foraging when it is performed deux especially when I am one part of the deux and John is the other. Because, while foraging really shouldnt be a competitive sport, with John around, it becomes so at times. The pair of us dont seem to be able to resist seeing who can gather the greatest number of nuts, the hardest-to-reach damsons, or the rarest bit of edible greenery. For me, I suppose its a chance to prove myself, to enhance my foraging street-cred. For John well, I think its just showing off.

But dont let our rivalries deter you from engaging in your own foraging adventure. Antler-locking is absolutely not an essential part of wild food gathering. It should be neither a race nor a contest, but simply a highly enjoyable, very productive pastime. Whats more, foraging is something that can be done by almost anyone, almost anywhere. You dont need a four-wheel-drive vehicle, waders, orienteering skills or a plethora of specially shaped sticks to be able to gather some of your own wild food. As John has said on many previous occasions, Youre never more than five minutes from a patch of nettles, a phrase I think he poached from A Cook on the Wild Side. The strength of this book is that it brings home this accessibility.

What John also celebrates so marvellously is the sheer joy of the hunt. Finding ones own food is such a fundamental drive, he says, it is unsurprising that it is so much fun nature has a delightful tendency to reward us for doing things that are essential for life, but which are hard work, complex or even absurd. I couldnt have put it better myself (though that wont stop me from trying).

Johns approach is egalitarian and inclusive and he makes the point that we are all hunter-gatherers at heart. It may be the case that most of us dont do much hunting or gathering any more, but that doesnt mean we cant. His view and mine too is that instincts do not disappear just because we do not use them. Whats more, freed from any urgent necessity to find food for ourselves in the wild, we can now enjoy the search all the more. The hedgerow is perhaps the most accessible and least daunting type of wild food environment. Few of us are very far from some kind of woodland, field edge, heathland, allotment or, indeed, garden, and these habitats are all included in Johns hedgerow bracket. And, just to encourage you a little more, plant identification in these areas is generally more straightforward and less nerve-racking than in the world of, say, fungi.

One of the many things I love about John is the sheer relish he displays for consuming his wild harvest. He never loses sight of the fact that, at the end of the day, once youve filled your lungs with fresh air and put roses in your cheeks, foraging is about getting something good to eat. What you do with your booty once you get it home is very important and John is no less an expert on this than he is on finding it in the first place. He shares my view that simple dishes are, almost without exception, the best ones for wild food. From a simple Nettle Soup to a stunningly refreshing Watermint Sorbet and excellent Chestnut Florentines (a personal favourite of mine), the recipes alone will have you itching to don your wellies and start hunting.

However, should the weather, minor illness or some other misfortune curtail your foraging efforts at any point, you neednt be too disappointed. For this book, like all Johns work, is so beautifully and entertainingly written that theres as much enjoyment to be had from reading it curled up on the sofa as under a tree or beside a stream. Its a book that I know will stay on my shelf well beyond the day when I have to hang up my boots and confine myself to armchair foraging permanently. I take every opportunity to rib John about the fact that this point of retirement is considerably further off for me than it is for him. But I sometimes wonder about that. As this piece of work testifies, wild food finding is in Johns very blood and I imagine hell be tramping his way along the hedgerows, basket at the ready and stick in hand, for many, many years to come. I certainly hope so.