Charity Wild food Walks / forays in Leeds

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Charity Wild food Walks / forays in Leeds
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Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 09 8:39 pm Post subject: Charity Wild food Walks / forays in Leeds

Hello everyone!

I run a number of Wild Food Walks and other events throughout the year to raise money for a charity that my aunt, sister and I run in Kenya. I am organising a Foraging Walk on the 28th of March that is aimed at beginners. I will be covering a variety of wild fungi and edible greens as well as teaching you how to identify fungi in a systematic manner to make it as safe as possible. As usual the walk will cost ï¿½10 per person but this time, there is the option of coming back to my house afterwards so we can cook up what we've found and have lunch together. The cook part of the walk will cost an extra ï¿½3 per person and due to the size of my living room, is limited to a maximum of 8 people. Those of you who want to come for the lunch will need to email me and let me know in advance.

We will be leaving from Leeds university campus at 10am on the Parkinson steps and ending up on campus again 3 hours later at 1pm. Walks of this type and length normally cost in excess of ï¿½40 per person but I do mine for just ï¿½10 so that more people can afford them and join in the fun!

For those of you who have never been on a wild food walk, Spring is my favourite time to do it. the sheer variety of food out there boggles the mind and is at its best in the spring. From salad greens, ingredients for pesto, soups, additions to omlettes......the list is endless!

For those of you who cannot make it to this one, there will be another one on the 4th of April organised together with the Oblong Resource Centre in Woodhouse.

Info about the Charity:

The Nuru Shelter and Education Centre is a charity that educates orphans and destitute children in the community for free, runs a dressmaking and craft school for local women and disabled people, and a shop where group members can sell what they make. The school currently only has 42 students due to space constraints ( we teach in a rented 3 bedroomed house) so we are building a school and boarding house so we can take more students and expand the range of services we offer the local community. The goal of it all is to become completely sustainable in the long run so we've raised enough money to buy a large plot of land with a well of sweet water in to build an orphanage/boarding house and school that has enough land to also have a small farm where we can grow our own food and space to run the other projects that we're hoping will fund this project in the long run (eg growing anthuriums and mushrooms) .

We also have a facebook page of the same name that is regularly updated with news and events at https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34548307757&ref=mf

All the money raised on these walks go to fund the work we do in Kenya. It will either be used to pay the teacher's salaries, rent on the school house, or for food and materials for the disabled people cooperative to work with.

I hope to see lots of friendly faces on Parky steps on either the 28th or the 4th!

xx

Mina

Last edited by Minamoo on Tue Sep 21, 10 10:01 pm; edited 2 times in total

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 09 8:41 pm Post subject:
Inspired idea. Good luck with this!

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 09 8:46 pm Post subject:
Can't make either but hope it goes well. Do you go along the Ridge? I've been told of a Chestnut tree up there but have never found it.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 09 8:56 pm Post subject:
Best of luck with this, and hope it goes well !

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 09 8:58 pm Post subject:

Behemoth wrote:

Can't make either but hope it goes well. Do you go along the Ridge? I've been told of a Chestnut tree up there but have never found it.

There are loads of horse chestnuts but I have yet to spot a sweet chestnut. Will keep my eyes peeled though so thanks for the tip!

I hope it goes well and I get more people than last time. I made the mistake of having it when there were LOADS of deadlines and it was a horribly grey, cold cold day. Unsurprisingly only 3 people came.

Ren

Joined: 27 Jan 2009
Posts: 1782
Location: southwesterly

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 09 9:38 pm Post subject:
Hi Do I have to book a place or just turn up? Would like to tag along next weekend (apr) if possible.

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 09 9:32 am Post subject:

Ren wrote:

Hi

Do I have to book a place or just turn up?

Would like to tag along next weekend (apr) if possible.

Hello! The April walk is being organised together with the Oblong Resource Centre in Meanwood. I have no idea how many people they will be able to get so if you are definitely coming I will book you a place. I don't really want to have more than 15 people in the group (and even that is pushing it) as I want to be able to cover everything in enough detail and if there are too many people then not everyone can see what is going on.

Thomas8

Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 82
Location: West country

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 09 9:56 am Post subject:
Hello minamoo how are you doing. I did pm you. I have a photo of you on my web site from the foray you came on last year. have a look in a few days when site back up. It is being re-designed.

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 09 10:24 am Post subject:
Hello Andrew. I'll check your website out at some point. PS: The foray was two years ago.

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 12:51 pm Post subject:

Hello Downsizers!

There has been quite a bit of interest in the April walk so it looks like there will be two walks on that day. One in the morning from 10am to 1pm and the second from 1:30pm to 4:30pm.The walk organised with Oblong is a fundraiser for both the Oblong Resource Centre and Nuru so the money is split up between the two organisations.

The amount of interest is really fabulous as if we get the maximum 15 people per walk, we will have raised almost enough money to pay for the disabled people cooperative to become Fair Trade Certified! (it costs a whopping ï¿½300!). This will mean that we can have access to markets we simply did not have before and opens up opportunities for linkages with other organisations in the UK who could not help us before we were FT certified. :clap: :clap: :clap:

I will let you know if this will go ahead when I have more confirmed bookings. If it does go well, then all the people who booked through the Oblong will go on the morning walk and those who have booked through me will go on the afternoon walk.

Ren

Joined: 27 Jan 2009
Posts: 1782
Location: southwesterly

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 09 4:45 pm Post subject: Thank you.......................
Mina Thank you very much for an enjoyable afternoon, it was good to meet you. We both found it very interesting and will have to think twice before pulling up the weeds!!! Ricky says the chilli choc brownies are to die for...... and he hopes his come out better!!!!!!!! Hopefully we will catch up with you again. Ren & Ricky x

mihto

Joined: 03 Feb 2008
Posts: 3273
Location: West coast of Norway

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 09 5:45 pm Post subject:

For those of us who are helplessly out of reach geographically: could you please post more about your trip? Details of what you found and how you cooked it? I'm probably 3-4 weeks behind you lot and only the faintest green is showing. Aegopodium podagraria is the only plant I have found this early. Nettles are not yet showing.

Good luck with your work in Kenya. Many more people should care the way you do!

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 09 7:14 pm Post subject:

Hello Mihto! We didn't do any cooking today but some of the things that we found were:

Sows thistle
Dandelion
Hairy Bittercress
Nettles
Hawthorn
Sorrel
Wild garlic
Jew's ears fungus
Birch Polypore (not edible - discussed other uses)
Cramp Balls/King Alfred's Cakes (same as above)
Wild Chives
Chickweed
Garlic Mustard
Quince blossom

There were quite a lot of other green things but these are the nicest ones I think.

Not everything is out yet here either but it does sound to be a lot further along than it is there! and thank you for the good wishes!

Between the walks today (I did 6 hours of walking today!!

) and the one person who came last week we've raised ï¿½180 through ticket prices, wild food cookup and selling my little wild food guide and chocolate and chilli brownies.

ï¿½130 will pay the three teachers' salaries and the ï¿½20 will go towards the rent for the school so a huge thank you to those who came along! I'll be having more walks in a few weeks time and there will be even more goodies out by then!

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 09 7:34 am Post subject:
Donkeys years ago I came across a chap on usenet who claimed to eat birch polypore (which you're correct to list as inedible, nearly everyone does) when very young and soft. I've never tried, but I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has come across this.

Minamoo

Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 1231

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 09 11:00 am Post subject:
Haha! Would the person be Fergus by any chance? He posted something about it on a forum I read (can't remember which now) and said it was edible. I can't say I've tried it though.

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