15/52

Difficulty:

This is a really easy adventure in terms of physicality, in fact on the course that we took part in there several people over the age of 60 and a couple of younguns as well. A good one for all the family.

Time:

The beginners course, which is the most popular, and one we did takes 6 hours 10-4. We found this to be a good amount of time, firstly you feel like you have enough time to really get stuck in and learn some skills, secondly it’s finished early enough to head off and find a nice spot for sunset. Double thumbs up on that front.

The Adventure:

“You’ll never look at the beach in the same way again” was the promise Craig Evans made us when we met him in a small forest on the Pembrokeshire coast. A bold claim, but one that, over the course of the next 6 hours, he set about proving.

Craig is the founder of Coastal Foraging and along with his golden retriever, Llew, takes groups out along the southern Welsh coast to show them just how incredibly diverse and rich in edible ingredients that environment is. In the forest Craig was kicking off the adventure by showing us how to find big juicy Welsh Oyster mushrooms and in doing so immediately smashing our preconceptions of what was possible.

Once we had picked our fair share of mushrooms we drove a short way along the coast, parked up and hiked a down through further forests to the main arena… the beach.

This is where Craig really came into his own as he set about educating us on the riches that lie hidden beneath the sand, under rocks and across the coast in places you may never have looked before. Like all good teachers, Craig's enthusiasm is infectious and coupled with expertise and humour made for a really engaging experience.

The adventure of starting with nothing as we set foot on the beach to slowly amassing bucket loads of fresh ingredients as we went was extremely satisfying. Soft Shell clams and cockles pulled up from beneath the sand, crab and prawns from under the rocks, wild Samphire picked from the cliff face, Craig left no stone unturned… literally.

With our buckets full of fresh Welsh finds we hiked back along the beach, hugging the cliff line to a small spot where Craig set about starting a fire to whip up a foraged feast. This was, as I'm sure you can imagine, the most satisfying part of the adventure. With Llew watching on longingly, Craig began to frying up some wild garlic with the Oyster mushroom on a small wood beach fire and from that moment on the delicious smells did not stop as he added all our foraged finds eventually amounting to a deliciously fresh seafood broth.

We sat on some rocks overlooking the sea, eating our broth, it was a surprisingly rewarding moment. There is something very cool about a food based process that is end to end entirely natural; fresh ingredients, open wood fire and an extraordinary outdoor natural restaurant on the beach.

Craig in many ways encapsulated the unique nature of the adventure by saying that you can never predict the menu, you never know exactly what you will find. Foraging is all about what nature has for you that day and for us that is what made this experience different, it was a dive into the unknown, unpredictable and that’s where the excitement lies.

Conclusion:

If you have always found the concept of foraging intriguing or even if you have been before, an afternoon spent with Craig will teach you a lot. The value of this adventure is in the connection with nature, the discovery of a different way of doing things but most of all it is in getting the opportunity to spend time with someone so knowledgeable.

Foraging is a craft, one that takes years of experience to get to his level of expertise, but is also one that requires a real passion and spending time on the coast with Craig this passion rubs off on you. Although this was our first time foraging, it won’t be the last.

The Numbers:

/ 6 Hrs

/ £80 per person (Beginners Course)

/ 1 Forest

/ 1 Beach

/ 10 Edible ingredients foraged 

/ 2 Deliciously fresh seafood broth feasts.