Autumn Foraging and Preserving Weekend – Gift Voucher

On our Autumn Foraging and Preserving Weekend Course you’ll learn to identify correctly and forage for a range of wild foods found in our native woodlands and hedgerows. We will focus on the range of berries and fruits plentiful at this time of year, and how to preserve these for a later date.

This is the page to buy this event as a 24 month gift voucher – to select a specific date click here.

As standard you’ll receive a PDF voucher by email to print at home or forward to the lucky recipient — a simple, sustainable way to give the gift of skill and connection. Or upgrade to our gift pack for a more tactile gifting experience.

Timing: 9.30am day 1 to 5.00pm day 2

Age: 18 and above.

Location: South London Woods – near Caterham

With our baskets full of our wild autumn harvest, we will return to basecamp. Here we will take you through a range of methods to preserve the wild fruits and berries. This will include making chutney, jelly making, making fruit butters, fruit leather making as well as making cordials and syrups.

The ancient art of preserving allows us to make use of fruits well after they would have gone rotten naturally. We look at a range of preserving options, adding vinegars or sugars, boiling and drying. These all disrupt the pathogens that would otherwise cause the fruit to rot. Jellies and butters both use heating and sugar to halt the pathogens progress. They are also strained which removes seeds and skins. This significantly reduces the processing time required before the cooking can take place, which is especially helpful with smaller wild varieties of fruit.

Throughout the weekend we will be cooking up our foraged delights as part of our group meals, alongside the preserving of the wild foods for a later date. You’ll sleep in the woods, in your own sleep system or you can try out one of our debris shelters. Fall asleep looking at what a participant described as “cathedral like vaulted walls,” and wake listening to birdsong.

You’ll go home with a share of everything you’ve made and full stomachs from making use of the fresh autumnal produce you’ve foraged. As well as heads bursting with ideas and inspiration for recipes to try out with different fruits and various combinations.

No previous experience is required for this course, just a desire to learn. However, this does not mean it is an introductory course. We impart a huge depth of knowledge over the duration of this weekend foraging course and promise that you will never walk through the woods in the same way again.

We run a number of Foraging Courses throughout the year, allowing you to discover the range of resources available across the seasons. All have gift vouchers available.

Seasonal One Day Foraging Courses, and our Wild Alcohol and Foraging Workshop