I fought the law....and it made my head hurt

Ok, as promised, I'm going to touch on how to keep yourself legal while enjoying your foraging. So, take a deep breath and hold my hand....we're going in!

There are two main bits of legislation covering foraging in the UK.  These are the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (known as CROW).  The Crow act is mainly to do with opening up areas of the countryside to ramblers and such.  On such land, called 'access land' the permission of the landowner is required before any foraging can take place.  CROW makes it clear that any member of the public who enters access land must not pick any plant or part of one -irrespective of the Theft Act exception I have touched on.

The WCA is a complex piece of legislation, which touches upon common law rights in certain areas. In general a landowner owns all trees and plants growing upon his or her plot. An owner has the right to dig up such objects from the land (and to sell them), but WCA intervenes in the case of certain protected wild plants. In short if a plant species is protected under WCA, no one can pick, destroy or sell it (including the landowner). If a species does not enjoy WCA protection what about the forager who wants to take plants? An act of this nature would ordinarily be theft, but an exception in the Theft Act states that in the case of mushrooms or plants growing wild on land, a person may take away foliage, fruit or parts of the plant without committing an offence - unless it is done with the intention of selling them, or for other reward.

Although there is still some argument in law over what is a plant "growing wild", put simply, those plants which are obviously commercially grown cannot be taken (hence scrumping is theft.) whilst free-growing blackberry plants cannot have their fruits stolen unless for re-sale. It is worth noting though, that the above exception only protects the person who takes only part of a plant, if all the plant is taken away an act of theft arises, as against a landowner.  Oddly, this means that I can dig up a horseradish but I have to leave the foliage behind!

In general though, the observing the following rules should keep you on the right side of the law.

1.  It is illegal to uproot any wild plant without the prior permission of the landowner.

2.  It is illegal to disturb or collect plant material from any wild plant 'Protected' by the WCA

3.  Trespassers Beware!  Gain landowners permission before entering private land.

These laws can are complex and, in many respects, controversial.  Ramblers and foragers think they go too far and landowners don't think they go far enough.  Exercise common sense and abstain from 'strip foraging' and you should be ok though.....well, just as long as you don't sell the stuff!


Finally, can I say that I'm not a lawyer and that the above represents my understanding of the laws concerned!
(he added hastily!!)

Weekend Forage No.1 - Gorse!

When the gorse is out of blossom, Kissing's out of fashion.

Gather round folks, cos not a lot of people know this.

Round my way, gorse bushes are almost omnipresent.  They are very common on the local heathland and, due to their extra prickliness, are used by security minded folk as garden hedges.  Gorse thrives in very poor soil conditions and so is fairly common even in urban environs.

Gorse is an outstanding forage plant for three good reasons.  Firstly, it is very easy to identify.  The dense prickly bush is usually covered in bright yellow flowers, hence the old country phrase at the top of this post.  Secondly, because it is so prevalent, it's usually easy to find in spots that don't require permission to forage from.  Finally, and most oddly for those who've never tried, the flowers smell and taste of coconut! 

I wouldn't recommend eating any other part of a gorse but the flowers can be used to flavour things such as honey, ice cream or vinegar.  In addition, they can be used to make wine, or a gorse flower cordial.  Pick a few and experiment.....perhaps with the aid of some nice thick gloves.

I briefly touched on permissions above.  This is an important element in foraging.  In my next post I'll be covering the 'rules of the road' as applied to foraging, both from a legal and an etiquette perspective.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you with your gorse experiences! 

When I was a small boy, I enjoyed walking in the forests near my home on the west coast of Scotland.  When I think back on those walks, the most potent memories are of the great beauty and peace of the place but also of the aromas.  Wild garlic grew there amongst the beech trees and I loved its sweet, mellow smell.
Of course, at the time I had no conception that I should be digging the stuff up and taking it home, or even that it was garlic!  Nowadays though, I can't enter a forest without taking a hopefull sniff.....just in case.

I suspect that I'm like most folk now in that I do a little low-level foraging as a matter of course.  The handsome fellows above, for example, I retrieved from under a tree not an hour before writing this post.  I managed to recover almost a kilo in the space of fifteen minutes before dropping heavy hints to my wife about how nice marrons glace are, even if the making of them is a bit of an ordeal.

Given the opportunity, I'll quite happily pick brambles or anything else I can safely (and legally!) lay my hands on.  Despite being far from an expert, I'm a great believer in the principle of foraging and I suspect that I'm not alone in that.  The real trick is knowing what can be foraged, and from where.

The idea behind Forever Forage is to allow people to share their knowledge, using collaborative maps like the ones on the Foraging Maps page.  Anyone can add a placemark to a map or even start a new map for their own area.  In addition to listing locations, Forever Forage will be a resource for tips, recipes, guides and seasonal information about what can be foraged throughout the year.

I've a few novel ideas of my own too, such as pre-foraging and even reverse foraging!  I'll expand on these later but for now, keep 'em peeled!