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Hello! I really want to start foraging but I am so scared of picking the wrong things and ending up in hospital, or worse
I feel quite confident picking elderflower and rosehips - are there any poisonous things that I could mistake them for? Are there any good books on wild foods that I could try? If you've got any tips and advice for a newbie I'd love to hear from you. Also, does anyone know if samphire grows in Scotland?!

Oh gosh. Where to start. Number 1 - get yourself some GOOD identification guides, and get versions with drawings AND versions with photos - you'll really need both. Number 2 - try and fix it to go out a few times with someone who's done it all before and knows what it's all about. There's no substitute for experience. Number 3 - and most important of all - if you are not totally (TOTALLY) convinced that you know what something is, leave it well alone.

Warnings aside, foraging is fun and, if you take a reasonable amount of care, you'll thoroughly enjoy it.

Hiya,

As far as I'm aware, samphire is a coastal plant, growing on salt marsh land so it depends on the coastline. There's an old but good book worth investing in called 'food for free' and also the chapter in Andy and Daves new book, the selfsufficientish bible.

I haven't seen anything else that resembles elderflower or rosehips and you are always fairly safe with nettles. You also can't go wrong in the autumn with puffball mushrooms as they are highly distinctive so long as you go for ones that are melon sized or over (there is a similar variety that isn't good but I think that one gets as big as a tennis ball).

I think the best thing to do is hunt around the site and also use the sarch facility found at the top end of the page, along with your profile, FAQ's etc. Also get some good wild flower identification books as they give better pictures and descriptions than the books that tell you what's good to eat. Using the two together should help.

I'm experimenting more and more on this too so you're not on your own out there!

There a few decent books on the market at the moment, try looking in a big bookshop like Waterstones where you can browse properly and get a feel for the different types. Food for Free is the one that's most frequently mentioned but it isn't the only one (nor is it the best IMHO).

It all depends on how deeply you get (or want to get) into foraging. I have literally dozens of books on the subject and much of the footwork is actually research rather than out in the field (because it's always better to know what you're picking before you pick it!).

I'd recommend any of the Collins Gem field guides for portability and clarity, and once you've double checked your details you can always add colour coded annotations to give you an at a a glance guide for edibility/toxicity which is what I do.

Do loads of research and get into the habit of learning latin names too if you can, it's invaluable for checking identification especially where a name alters from region to region. Read everything you can lay your hands on, ask questions, use your eyes and learn to be observant whereever you are. Take notes if you want and pictures too, there are loads of websites where you can post pictures and details and get opinions on identification and advice.

The main rule with foraging is, if in doubt, don't. But once you've done your homework there should be less doubt and more do.

Good luck!

I think I've heard of samphire somewhere in Scotland - but as usual, can't remember where! I'll get back to you if I find out more.

Anyway - welcome to the Ishers! You've chosen a very ambitious name there...

That's great advice - thanks to all of you. I think the Food for Free book sounds good so I will get a hold of that. I also have just been reading a newspaper article about a book called Seaweed and Eat It. It's been written by two women based in Edinburgh so not far away from me and they have mentioned a couple of places that I know of where things like wild garlic is in abundance . Well, I shall let you know how I get on....

Wild garlic is one thing that's hard to mistake for anything else - unless you don't have a sense of smell.

Hee hee - just read your message, Ina, I chose the trufflehunter name because I used to run my own organic chocolate business and so it's a little play on words I did a search and there are two places that I think samphire could possibly be found one is Dumbarnie Links and the other Aberlady Bay...if you remember the place your thinking of do let me know.

We had a thread on samphire before (last year), but it's not on that - might have been a different forum.

Organic chocolate truffles - mmmhh - shame you gave that up!

Samphire is lovely. Our local patches are at about 3" high right now so in a week or two pickings will be really good.