On our Autumn Foraging and Preserving Two Day 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 in a wide rage of different ways for a later date.
All of our courses are available as 24 month gift vouchers which can be purchased here.
Price: £195
Timings: 9.30am to 5pm the following day.
Food: From dinner day 1 included.
Ages: 18+
Locations: South London Woods – CR3
Course Size: 8 Maximum
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 course 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. Or head home in the evening and rejoin us for breakfast.
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 two day foraging course and promise that you will never walk through the woods in the same way again.
Chaldon Chutney made on our course
We run a range of Foraging Courses throughout the year, allowing you to discover the range of resources available across the seasons.
Spring Foraging Course, Late Spring Foraging Course, Autumn Foraging Course, Autumn Foraging and Preserving Two Days and Wild Alcohol & Foraging Workshop.
Rhia E. –
A professional, well developed course built to instruct, teach and provide you with information so you can start your journey in foraging and preserving… or if like me, build your confidence in knowledge you already possess but doubt in your own ability.
I now feel like I could step into a woodland and come out with a jar of jam, jelly, gin or cordial!
Thank you Lizzy!
Issey A. –
I went on the Autumn Foraging and Preserving Weekend just gone and it was absolutley amazing!! I learnt so much about foraging and got to make lovley jams and chutneys with everything we foraged over an open fire. I honestly had the best time and can’t stop talking about it!! Thanks so much Lizzy, I can’t wait to try out all my jams and chutneys!!
Rowan S. –
Having tried the spring foraging course, I booked onto the autumn foraging and preserving weekend and would highly reccomend it. Particularly enjoyed finding out what I could make with fruits and berries that I see around me all the time.
Enjoyed a great weekend in the Brecon Beacons on one of the spring foraging courses a few weeks ago! We foraged a few plants around the woods, as well as learning to identify some of the similar poisonous plants. Back at the camp we learnt a quick way to prepare a pigeon and enjoyed a variety of meals cooked with the plants we’d foraged.
It’s certainly true that you won’t be able to go on a walk afterwards without spotting the different plants!
Fraser L. –
Just attended the Autumn 2025 Foraging and preserving Course hosted by Lizzy.
Such a great weekend. Lizzy’s knowledge and devotion to her subject were wonderful to experience. We were skilfully guided through the process of hunting for edible plants to cook later on. Such a massive range. You really have to slow down and pay attention.
Lizzy was wonderfully patient and paced us well through the weekend. A real pleasure to be out in the woods for the weekend. A really beautiful venue in South Surrey.
Cooking everything over a camp fire took genuine skill and experience. Jams, chutneys, butters, jellies as well as oak smoked pigeon. A treat!
This is an important course which helps keep allive the ancient tradition of plant knowledge, preparation and cooking.
In three words … engaging, restorative and delicious.