We were contacted by Highbury College to see if we could arrange a foraging and cooking course for their Level 3 Professional Cookery Students. At short notice, I took 9 students and two teachers for a foraging walk along the hedgerows to the Stansted orchard and then back through the woods.
We were very fortunate with the weather which was glorious. We found plenty of blackberries, hawthorn berries, acorns, beech mast, chestnuts and mushrooms which we took back to the farm shop to identify. We had gathered a couple of chanterelle, but not much else on the edible fungi front. In the orchard, we sampled a fantastic range of apples and learnt about the different flavours, textures and qualities as well as their uses.
On returning to the farm shop, we had the pizza oven blazing away. The students breasted partridge, which they pan fried in the oven and ate with 
blackberries – and rare venison rump steak was delicious with elderberry syrup. The roasted chestnuts and apples were washed down with a ripe Tunworth cheese and some Westbourne bakery bread.
Some of the students comments….
“Best trip ever!”
“I really enjoyed learning new things today and foraging”