Ffyona Campbell's Wild Food Walks, Devon UK
contact us: wildfoodwalks@btinternet.com
Hunting and gathering isn't about survival, it's about freedom. Freedom for all of us to eat the very best foods in our country and to use parts of our brain that have been blocked by 4,000 years of progress and development.
I learned from Australian Aborigines, African Bushmen and Pygmies, and North American Indians and when I got home, I applied the way they think to the landscape of Britain. After many years I realised I'd discovered the long forgotten path we took as hunter gatherers right here in south Devon.
This path fits us perfectly into Nature's rhythms, providing us with exactly what we want, when and where we want it. When you come on a wild food walk with me, you'll learn not only the plants that are good to eat and how to find them, but how this fits us into the bigger picture of the way Nature works.
Over the last 10 years I've taught over 1,000 people. My aim is to pass on this knowledge to as many people as I can because, as the Cherokee grandmother said in Forrest Carter's book The Education of Little Tree:
"When you come on something good, first thing to do is to share it with whosoever you can find, that way the good spreads out where there's no telling it'll end up."
I think of this knowledge as our human birthrite and quite possibly our future, for that reason I keep my prices affordable to all.
How to come on a wild food walk
I make some dates available for public walks - see the list below - and I can be booked for private groups: schools; environmental educators; corporate days out; private parties.
If you'd like me to show you the edible wild food you have in your area, there is a minimum of 10 adults, plus my travel costs. I'll also provide you with a booklet of what we have found as a memory prompt for future use. Just email to arrange it.
To be alerted to new walk dates
Email wildfoodwalks@btinternet.com
SPRING WILD FOOD WALKS 2013
This gentle walk along the River Dart teaches you how to identify the edible leaves and flowers of Spring to add to your everyday cooking. These wild foods give you incredible energy and a wonderful feeling of being positive, clear headed and glad to be alive.
People are often astounded by the fiery flavours that wake up the body and amazed to learn that each plant is contributing towards stripping the body of cholesterol, cleaning the blood and lymph and raising the metabolism. It's the natural way to have a really good Spring clean.
We also identify the poisonous lookalikes which grow in amongst the edible.
I'll show you how to prepare the plants as we make soup at the end of the walk, taking time to go over the name and properties of each one to really build your confidence.
There's so much to learn so, included in the price, is as illustrated booklet to help you remember what's what.
February and March are actually very good months of the year to start your learning because there aren't an overwhelming number of plants out. If you keep going out after the walk and going over what you've learned, you'll become familiar with them very quickly.
Then to add to what you know, come back in, say, late April or early May and learn a batch of new plants. You'll also learn the different stages of the plants - what they look like when just emerging, what they mature into, these are the things which guide books are notoriously bad at and which caused me to poison myself because I didn't know that Arum Lily (poisonous) and Sorrel (edible) look virtually identical when young.
WHERE
We meet in Staverton, near Totnes in South Devon at a place to be emailed to you once you have booked.
WHEN
Friday 15 March 10.30-1pm
Wednesday 20 March 10.30am-1pm
Saturday 23 March 10.30am-1pm
Good Friday 29 March 10.30am-1pm
Saturday 30 March 10.30am-1pm
Easter Monday 1 April 10.30-1pm
Thursday 11 April 10.30am -1pm
Friday 19 April 10.30am-1pm
Saturday 21 April 10.30am-1pm
Wednesday 1 May 10.30am-1pm
Bank holiday Monday 6 May 10.30am-1pm
Friday 10 May 10.30am-1pm
Saturday 18 May 10.30am-1pm
Wednesday 22 May 10.30am-1pm
COST
£30 for adults, children under 18 are free. Tokens from the launch of my new book:The Hunter-Gatherer Way will reduce the price to £7.50, please make this known when booking and bring along your token on the day. Please, can everyone bring the right money as I often don't have chnage for everyone, thanks.
WHAT TO BRING
A basket if you have one.
TO BOOK
Please email to book your place. You'll be able to pay by Paypal or you can pay on the day.
Seaweed Wild Food Walks
This amazing journey to the edge of the sea, takes us to the hunting ground for seaweeds that taste like smokey bacon, seaweeds that make energy-giving soups and delicious puddings, seaweeds that treat sunburn and one which makes your hair shiny and your skin gleam. There's also a treatment for eczema, psoriasis, cold sores, acne, shingles and all manner of dermatitis problems.
We will also hunt for the ancestors of our garden vegetables, found growing along the seashore, far richer in taste and nourishment than anything created by Man.
If you want to add seaweed to your diet but can't get to the beach, I recommend using Seagreens. Please visit their site: www.seagreens.co.uk
Where
We meet at the village green at East Prawle where parking is by donation.
When
Saturday 11 May meet at 12.30pm
Sunday 26 May meet at 12.30pm
Bank Holiday Monday 27 May meet at 1.30pm
Sunday 9 June meet at 12.00pm
Saturday 22 June meet at 10am
Saturday 6 July meet at 10.30am
Sunday 4 August meet at 10am
Sunday 25 August meet at 2pm
Cost
Each walk costs £30 for adults, children under 18 are free. An identification booklet is included in the price leaving you free to concentrate on what we find instead of making notes.
What to bring
Bring a pair of scissors to cut the seaweed and a basket to carry it. Footwear over the rocks isn't neccessary (unless you want to) because we walk barefoot - the skin on our feet is the most absorbant skin on the body and so the nutrition from the seaweed passes through the soles of our feet, into our bloodstream and up to our brain, as we walk.
Walking barefoot also means we walk more slowly, reducing damage and also taking in things we'd have missed while wearing shoes or boots.
A walking stick helps people balance over the rocks and acts as a rock-pool depth tester.
To book your place or for more information
email: wildfoodwalks@btinternet.com
Wild Fungi Walks
Fungi are neither plant nor animal, they exist in a kingdom of their own. For this reason their flavours uplift the spirit in a very special way which makes them well worth learning. This walk will begin to teach you how to hunt them, how to identify what you've found and how to tell them apart from the poisonous look-alikes. It could be the beginning of a life-long journey. We share what we find at the end of the walk so you can go home and cook up the day's treasures.
Where
The South Devon location will be emailed to you the evening before the walk.
When
New dates will be posted in the late summer of 2013.
Cost
£30 per adult, children are free.
What to bring
Just you and your senses.
To book your place or for more information
email: wildfoodwalks@btinternet.com
Berries, Nuts, Roots & Lichens
The identification of edible berries, nuts, roots and lichens and how to use them without sugar or the hassel of topping and tailing. Picking bright orange berries out of a cold blue sky fills the memory with a feast of zinging colour before the winter pastels set in. Knowing which roots to dig up to add nourishment to winter soups, which nuts to roast for richly comforting winter drinks and which lichens make dyes that are medicines against the winter damp, can help you melt into the woods this Autumn and become part of Nature instead of bracing oneself against it.
Where
At a location to be emailed to you the evening before.
When
New dates will be posted in the late summer of 2013.
Cost
£30 for adults, children free.
What to bring
A basket.
To book your place or for more information
email: wildfoodwalks@btinternet.com
Comments from previous participants
"You're full of information that is truly amazing and totally wonderful." Isabel, Devon
"It was phenominal to meet you. In layman's terms you've rocked my world with far more than just mushrooms." Tria, Devon
"Going on a wild food walk with Ffyona Campbell has completely changed my life and that of my family. We are all eating wild food every day and feel much better for it." Veronica, Devon
"Thank you a million times over for sharing your treasure chest/medicine chest and all it's secrets. I am so firmly on this path of discovery towards what it is to be truly human. Thank you from the bottom of my heart." Annie, Devon
"I just want to tell you how much I loved the seaweed walk and when we went camping I noticed my eyes were often scanning the plants for edibility without me consciously doing it. I feel this is touching and activating something very, very deep inside of me, having also to do with being a woman, but mostly with being a primal creature. I love it. My son also remembers mostly everything that you told us about!" Sylvia, Devon
"I had a wonderful time yesterday. Your seaweed walk was so inspiring and your stories of life and how we fit into it were totally amazing, thank you so much." Emily, Devon
"The children have done amazing work since the mushroom walk, they were so inspired by it and completely engrossed, especially the boys." Anna, Class teacher, Devon
"Thank you so much for the walk and talk, it was fascinating and inspiring and we will enjoy passing on what we learned to the children of Fort Apache." Theo, Devon
"I must say how lovely it was to be with you for the afternoon. Certainly it makes for an exciting life to live closer to Nature and to harmonise with her." Katrina, Devon
"I really enjoyed the walk yesterday, it was brilliant, thank you! I will definately be recommending it to my friends and hope to join you for future walks." Charlotte, Devon
NEW BOOK just out via the Facebook page of the same name
£9.99
THE HUNTER-GATHERER WAY
Ffyona Campbell
Whether you’re interested in wild food, sustainable living or just a new kind of philosophy, this book is for you.
The author returns from hunting with the Aborigines to learn how to become a hunter-gatherer in Britain.
As she learns how to find wild food, she discovers a forgotten path we once took which fits us perfectly into the eco-system. On this path we can have the highest quality of life imaginable but without destroying anything at all. "You can find it anywhere in Britain but in order to see it through 4,000 years of progress and development, you need to think in a different way."
She also explores through the unsolved mysteries of our past to find out what really happened to separate us from Nature and the way of life we loved most.
At a time when so many people are looking for alternatives, The Hunter-Gatherer Way is the only way of life which is proven to be sustainable on all levels and for all time.
REVIEWS FOR THE HUNTER-GATHERER WAY
"I am simply nourished to read this book. It feeds my soul." Laura Newman
"The best piece of female intuitive writing I have ever read. Nobody has written a book like this one." Phil Sheardown, CanoeAdventures, Totnes
"I loved every single page of this book. It was an enriching experience and felt like a privilege to read it. A pure glow is present in the writing." Tom Jones, photographer, London
"An absolute triumph and just what the world needs." Greg Meanwell, homeopath, Totnes
"An extraordinarily perceptive, intelligent and intuitive book," Miranda Day, teacher, Exeter
"A fantastic read! The writing is as fresh as a shower of rain." Simone Wilkie, artist, Totnes
"The images in Part 4: The Ring of the Wild Food Year, are so beautiful." Francis Deutsch, small-holder, Totnes
"I read this book several weeks ago when consigned to bed with the norovirus. It was such a pleasure to read that I forgot all about being ill!
Ffyona, your book is a little treasure, a refreshing gem of intuitive insight and reflection, a pleasure to read, and a wonderful contibution as we all tread our own individual and collectice wild journeys. Thank you for sharing."
Fergus Drennan (fellow forager and wild food experimentalist) Wild Man, Wild Food
"Full of original thought from beginning to end." Caroline Snow
"Fascinating." Penny Mackay, opera singer, Suffolk
"Packed with nuggets of wisdom and insight." Bill Fairbairn, retired Royal Naval Commodore
To buy a copy please go to the Facebook page:
The Hunter-Gatherer Way by Ffyona Campbell
or email
The book can also be purchased as an ebook on Amazon Kindle.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the following people for taking these wonderful photoghraphs on my walks over the last few years and their kind permission to use them: Simone Wilkie at www.shaktiart.co.uk, Craig Whyte and Rachel Rafiqi at www.rachelrafiqi.blogspot.com, and Dominic Rutt of www.streetmotion.co.uk.
And thank you to Marcos Alcolea of Art&Media for helping me to make this website http://www.artandmedia.es/index_en.html.