Where to Look

If you’re after a specific ingredient, it’s worth finding out what kind of environment best suits that particular plant before heading off into the wild. If you prefer to wander in a more aimless manner and leave your harvest to chance, then the edges of thoroughfares – particularly railways, rivers and abandoned paths – can be the most rewarding. The thin natural boundaries between routeway and cultivated land have often been left untouched for decades, meaning that any forageable goods will be well established. They’re also zones in which discarded fruit seeds (apple cores hurled from cars) lie undisturbed to germinate and grow, creating mini orchards ready to be plundered.