It is my job to reconnect people with their natural surroundings and the ever-changing seasons, including the microseasons that come and go in as little as a day in some cases. Noticing the seasons ticking over is something I no longer have a choice in, with my brain both actively and subconsciously sensing that some species are just getting going or that others have hidden themselves away until next year – this ongoing cycle makes me feel incredibly privileged that I can extract joy and food from my time spent outside, knowing that every day may be different from the previous.
However, being more in tune with the seasons than most, I do find the commercial fetishising of autumn and the ‘Winter equals Christmas’ messaging at this time of the year annoying, patronising and discomforting. I am not the first to comment on the over-commercialisation of traditional religious occasions, but having just seen the back of the festival of tat that is Halloween (just six days later we have my favourite night of the year, which to my mind is so much more wholesome and pure) it wouldn’t be unreasonable to want a break from the relentless retailer advertising, online promotions and grotesque capitalism.
Let’s be completely clear at this point: I too have a company that relies on Christmas sales of our vouchers, products and tickets. It might make me slightly hypocritical to moan about sales drives, but I try to minimise our spam marketing, I resist kowtowing to the pressure to drop our prices for Black Friday and I ensure that what we offer supports small, independent businesses with little to no wastage. At this juncture, I would earnestly ask you to buy your gifts from local, independent and artisan producers as much as possible – every sale you give them will matter so much more. Whatever you do, please don’t send another billionaire into space.
So how can we rewild Christmas then? I am not an outlier by admitting that I am partial to spending the day eating and drinking to excess with family. A box of chocolates will do the rounds, we will inexplicably consume mountains of cheese after the biggest meal of the year, and I do quite like that this main meal is essentially a classic Sunday roast but with everything wrapped in pork. Christmas dinner must be an absolute nightmare for vegans.
These festivities are part of the day for many, but in our house we try to think about how we can liven up the blander elements of the meal and reduce our dependency on the major supermarkets (not to mention reducing our food waste – more on that shortly) through what we might be able to grow and forage for ourselves. We hosted Christmas last year and I made a point to source what vegetables we couldn’t grow ourselves from our local farm shop and I thought it might be a nice opportunity to use wild ingredients in place of our shop-bought ones.
For example, I served roasted greylag goose with all the trimmings, including deep-fried confit canada goose bonbons which were particularly delicious. Wild goose gets a bad reputation for being tough but I find that to only be the case with older birds and a younger one is tastier and more succulent than anything you can buy.
When trying to talk about the merits of eating wild meat, a few elements have to be considered first. Religious reasons aside, if you have chosen to not have meat in your diet, it is probable that you have done so on either environmental grounds or for animal welfare reasons. Both perfectly understandable and I’m not here to change your mind. However, both of these concerns are dealt with when it comes to wild game, especially when compared to farmed livestock. Sourcing your meat from the wild means that there are no intensive farming practices, there are no welfare issues (when done responsibly, I should add) and in most instances you are not creating a demand but instead solving a wastage problem.
What do I mean by that, exactly? Well, wild animals are shot for a number of reasons – they might be considered a pest, there might be some sport involved or there might be a cull requirement (with no apex predators for deer or larger game in this country, we would soon be overrun with them and that would be a major problem for agriculture). Whatever the reason, I hate the idea that a creature would be killed and then the meat go to waste. Millions of non-native game birds are released every year with the sole intention of then being shot out of the sky, and whilst that’s not really my bag, it is a huge industry and sadly so many pheasants,
grouse and partridge will be killed and then not eaten. My solution to that, therefore, is to get hold of as much surplus from local shoots as I can and ensure my family has free, healthy and guilt-free meat for the entire year. I do not ask for creatures to be shot on my behalf, I simply make sure that the ones that are do not go to waste. By learning how to properly prepare birds in feather or animals in fur, I now source almost all of our household’s meat intake through this means and my kids are regularly blessed with venison spaghetti bolognese or pheasant ramen.
Oh, and did I mention it is always free? UK law means that wild game meat cannot be sold without a licence so no money ever changes hands. This means that my freezer is chocked full of free, healthy, sustainable, guilt-free meat. For those of you interested in also doing this, please do reach out to me and I can help you source your own and I might even point you in the direction of our Wild Butchery classes!
Maybe you aren’t quite ready to go fully in with butchering your own meat – understandable, given our society’s disconnect from where it gets its food from – but there are still several ways to introduce wilder elements into your Christmas dinner. Here are just a handful of suggestions:
- Wild garlic roast potatoes. Shred up the first baby shoots of wild garlic and toss them into the tray of cooked roasties once they come out of the oven. The residual heat will cook it enough and you will benefit from all that lovely vitamin C and fresh green flavour.
- Cranberry sauce. You can find cranberries and even lingonberries in certain parts of the country, but never in such abundance that you might be able to fill a jar with sauce. Instead, consider throwing in some hawthorn or guelder rose berries (toxic raw but
perfectly safe and delicious when cooked) and you will add a depth and dimension that goes particularly well with richer game. - Stuffing. Where to start! There is nothing sadder than a packet of dehydrated sage and onion stuffing, so treat yourself to something homemade! Local sweet chestnuts, foraged mushrooms, or even a handful of wild winter herbs can transform a simple recipe into something special.
- A wild tipple. There are many ways to add a wild twist to whatever it is you plan on drinking on the day. For those who avoid alcohol, mulled wild apple juice with wild spices is a favourite in our house. For something a bit more grown up, you can’t go wrong with a Sea Bucks Fizz – a classic forager’s take replacing orange juice with lively sea buckthorn juice, which has a nearly-grapefruit-and-not-quite passionfruit citrus zing to it.
Finally, a word on food waste. Foraging by its nature reduces food demand and subsequent wastage, which is just one of the many reasons why I advocate it so much. However, at this time of year there is such a spike in food waste and it breaks my heart. The bigger corporations tend to be the problem, but as a consumer you also should think carefully about how much you load into your fridge in the run up to the big day. Away from a domestic setting, there are many charities and organisations that do their best to tackle this. It would be remiss of me to not mention a charity local to me called Waste Into Wellbeing based in Kendal, Cumbria. These wonderful people take donations of food from local companies and even allotments that would otherwise be going to waste and turn it into cheap, hearty food for everyone to benefit from.
Back to Christmas Day and to the early evening. You’ve eaten your body weight in sprouts, granny has fallen asleep in front of the telly and the kids are playing with their new toys. Perhaps it’s time to bring out something special to go with a nice cup of tea…
What to forage this month
Taken from the Forage Box Foraging Calendar 2026 – now available to order.
Alexanders – a coastal umbellifer with a rich, parsley flavour that goes perfectly with tomatoes and crab Meadow Waxcaps – the best of this genus for eating and found on beautiful, untouched hillsides
Field Blewit – I’ve picked these on Christmas Day in the past, enjoying them as part of my festive breakfast
Periwinkle – sea snails that can be found in huge numbers fairly high up the beach. Gently steam and serve with salt and vinegar.
Rosehips – finally ready after the heavy frosts! Jam, juice and syrups are all perfect.
Sea Radish – crunchy coastal vegetable that packs a hot, peppery punch. Perfect for sushi, kimchi and stir fries.
This month’s species in focus: Jelly Ear Fungus
Habitat: predominantly on old elder trees but occasionally beech, sycamore and other broadleaf trees
Description: little ears! The form is undeniably ear-like, so confusion with another species highly unlikely.
Lookalikes: None, unless you’re being really careless. I often describe this species as the best wild mushroom for beginners to find.
Picking guide: These are short-lived fruiting bodies, so pick fresh when you can. I only pick mine when they are in their prime, which is when the texture is as much like an ear lobe as possible!
Cooking tips: If bought commercially from Asian supermarkets, these are often sold dried as ‘black fungus’ and are more prized for their texture than flavour. When fresh, they do add something interesting to stir fries and asian salads, but you are best capturing their natural ability to dehydrate and rehydrate by creating something slightly weird but magically wonderful with them to serve as an after dinner treat…
Recipe: Jelly Ear Turkish Delight
These are a perfect way to show that playing with your food is sometimes the right thing to do. Chocolate coated mushrooms that genuinely take on the texture of jelly sweets. There’s no gelatine, no mad chemicals and, being naturally loaded with vitamins and minerals, there’s an argument to say that they are healthy (I think the chocolate might balance that out, mind you).
This recipe calls for dried jelly ear fungus, which is simply a case of picking them fresh and popping them in an oven at 50C for a couple of hours or through any device with a dehydrator setting, like an air fryer. This recipe is so adaptable – simply substitute in any delicious syrup, drink or juice.
Ingredients:
- A big handful of dried jelly ear fungus
- A tasty cold liquid of your choice. I like using a fruity liqueur but this could be anything runny and delicious. Whatever you use is what they will end up tasting of, of course.
- Chocolate (milk or dark work best)
Equipment:
- A bowl
- A sieve
- Tongs
- Greaseproof paper
- A pan and glass bowl (set up as a bain marie)
Method:
- In a bowl, cover your dried jelly ears with your fruit liqueur. Leave this to stand for a few
hours or overnight. - Using a sieve, strain off the liquid (I put mine back in the bottle!) to leave your now rehydrated jelly ears. Leave them to air dry a little so there is no excess liquid to contend with.
- Partly fill your bain marie pan and place your glass bowl over the top, the right way up, filled with the chocolate broken up into chunks. Put this over a low heat. The heat from the steam will be enough to melt the chocolate through the bowl but not burn it Once melted, some people might put a small knob of butter or cooking oil in to loosen the chocolate further, but I often don’t bother if I plan on saving these treats for another day (it will affect the setting properties slightly)
- Using the tongs, carefully cover your jelly ears with melted chocolate and place gently on the greaseproof paper to solidify. This needs to be done in stages as the chocolate in the bowl will need to be brought back up to temperature each time a cold mushroom gets dunked into it.
- Once the chocolate-covered mushrooms have solidified, enjoy immediately as part of your after dinner drinks or pop them in a tub and consume them within a week or so (shorter if using fresh juice for the flavouring)