DISCOVER YOUR INNER FORAGER
Around the world a new breed of food lover is inviting visitors to get a taste of local culture by hosting foraging walks and courses in wild food. Lorna Parkes goes in search of the edible landscape
FINDERS KEEPERS
PHOTOGRAPHS: LORNA PARKES, SACHA SPECKER. ILLUSTRATIONS: ISTOCK
Foraging guru Vaughn Perret at his wilderness lodge in Canada
The attraction of foraging is clear – it sits somewhere between pottering about in the garden, detective sleuthing and channelling a primitive hunter-gatherer instinct. Across the globe, restaurateurs and travel companies are finding tourists want to experience local cuisine in a more tactile way: hand-cutting noodles in Tokyo with a master, picking herbs with a top chef or scouring the seas for oysters with local fishermen.
“Food isn’t just about eating, it’s about conviviality,” says Erica Kritikides, culinary product manager at Intrepid Travel (intrepidtravel. com/uk), which runs its Real Food Adventures in more than 20 countries. “I think this is being driven by travellers’ desire to get genuine food tips. They want to get under the skin of a country’s food culture,” she says.