Taste of the Land

We had to go to Wales to get the facts.

“We drive on the left-hand side of the road, because in the old days, that made it easier to draw your sword with your right hand—to have it ready for approaching enemies,” says Welsh bushcraft expert Andrew Price, with a straight face.

Fair enough.

But while we wandered the roadsides of Wales’ southwestern Gower Peninsula, our eyes were on the ditches and surrounding woods, not oncoming trouble. An afternoon of foraging for edible plants and seaside sustenance brought more than a few surprises and some fresh ideas for the kitchen.

“What most people call weeds, we call food,” Price says. “Wild plants have higher levels of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals than other plants, because they need to be extra-healthy to survive on their own.” Survival is the name of the game, and the driving force behind Price’s business venture of the past six years, Dryad Bushcraft. As a survival instructor, he takes groups big and small on treks around the wild side of Wales, showing them what to eat, what to avoid, and how to make shelters, use knives, light fires, purify water, fish and forage the shore, even trap supper—all the tricks of the “practical archaeology” that the self-taught local boy learned growing up in the area, eyes open and ears to the ground. “I’ve been passionate about bushcraft and wilderness living skills since I was about seven years old,” he says. “I’ve worked for about 18 years teaching rock climbing, mountaineering and other outdoor pursuits, too.”

The company’s focus of late includes mostly school kids and corporate executives on team-building retreats, with courses running from one to 10 days. Groups of young offenders also find themselves in Price’s field classroom. “Outdoor experiences and learning survival skills can be very beneficial to young people with challenging behaviour, because it gives them an opportunity to become entirely separated from the environment in which they live and many of the influences that have led them to become involved with criminal behaviour and drugs,” Price says. “It also encourages self-reliance, building self esteem, developing skills and teamwork.”

Price also participated in Sky Channel’s The Wedding Show, creating a boot camp for six brides-to-be. “The winner got an all-expenses-paid honeymoon, so they were right into it,” he says. He was also happy to escort chef Michael Smith of Prince Edward Island, Canada, around the Gower area in 2008, bringing him up to speed on the secret bounty of the woodland. They scoured the forest and fished the coastline, regrouping nearby at a 12th-century manor house, Woebley Castle, at the end of the day to pool ingredients, create a menu and cook a feast on an open fire on the castle lawn.

Our tour started at Rhossili Beach, home to the fabled geographic “serpent,” Worms Head, and playground to bikers, hikers, surfers and campers. We then moved into the wooded territory of Parc le Breos near a 4,000-year-old burial site, and carried on to Langland Bay near the seaside village of Mumbles. Here, we foraged for seaweed and shellfish, periwinkles, limpets, welks and slugs (no taste-testing, thankfully). The bay has its own bounty of mussels, bass, mackerel, lobster and crab, but we had to leave that for another day.

A quick swing into Catherine Zeta-Jones’s parents’ driveway (locked up tight) and past Bonnie Tyler’s house (only managed to see the roof), and we were done for the day, with nary an unfriendly sword in sight.


A FEAST OF FORAGING
These handy plants can liven up a salad—or save your life, in a pinch.

Alexanders
Tastes like anise; shake in a cocktail or add to a salad

Wall Penny Wort
Tastes like a peashoot; add to a salad

Marsh Samphire
Pleasant and crunchy; add to a salad

Stinging Nettle
Very good for you; steep to make tea;

Gorse, a ubiquitous hillside yellow bush
Tastes like coconut; add to a salad

Wild Garlic (Ramsons, a wild chive relative)
Tastes like chive or spring onion; use it to stuff a fish, make pesto or add to a salad

Meadowsweet
Smells like root beer or Jaegermeister; was used as a stewing herb in medieval times; has antiseptic qualities

Hogweed
Steam or boil young shoots and mix with butter

Wild Strawberry
Roots are a natural abrasive; perfect for cleaning teeth

Lesser Celandine
Tubers are toxic raw, but a good source of carbohydrates when boiled

Burdock
Roots are a good source of carbohydrates; slice thin and fry with sesame oil to make great gourmet chips

Hawthorn Tree
You can eat the leaves, flowers and fruit (an oily flesh like an avocado); strip a whole tree for one meal; suppresses appetite; thorns make a great fishing lure

Bluebells
Can be used to make glue

Wood Sorrel
Tastes like crabapple; stems quite bitter; use as a garnish

Bramblebush
Black berries in the fall; make tea with the young leaves; flexible stems make great rabbit snares

Balsam Fir Trees
Sap excellent for treating burns

Ladies Smock
Strong peppery taste, like hot mustard