• Plants for a Future - A brilliant database of 7,000 plants that are not commonly used as food but could be!
  
  "Plants For A Future is a resource centre for rare and unusual plants, particularly those which have edible, medicinal or other uses. We practise vegan-organic permaculture with emphasis on creating an ecologically sustainable environment based largely on perennial plants." - quoted from site.www.pfaf.org
  
  
• Ecological Flora of the British Isles
  This is a superb site with excellent photos - ideal when used in conjunction with the above site.
  From the Ecological Flora site:
  
  "The Ecological Database of the British Isles has been constructed from a wide variety of sources by Dr Helen Peat and Professor Alastair Fitter at the University of York, with financial support from the British Ecological Society and the Natural Environment Research Council. It consists of data on over 2200 species of higher plants that occur in the British Isles, together with the bibliography of sources. This version has been produced by Dr Henry Ford.

  The data comprises information on taxonomy (family, genus, specific name, authority, and vernacular name, together with a synonomy), a suite of over 130 ecological and morphological characteristics, vice-county distribution in Britain, European distribution by country, mycorrhizal associations, phytophagous insects and fungal diseases. The data are obtained from the literature and therefore coverage varies greatly between species. Some data sets are incomplete at this stage."

  
  Botanical Society of the British Isles
  
  Identify a plant (find this option by entering the main site above)
  

  As this page says:
  
  " You can find interesting plants everywhere in Britain and Ireland. This site is intended to help you identify them.

  On the following pages you will be presented with a questionnaire on the characteristics of the plant you are trying to identify. Fill in the form and press search, the computer will then try and identify the plant you have found.

  You may also like to use the system to obtain a check-list of plants from a particular habitat or perhaps find flowers of a particular colour to grow in your garden. Feel free to experiment, there are many uses for the system."

  Plant distribution maps from the National Biodiversity Network. (To find these enter the main site by following the link below, scroll half way down the page and click on the link on the left that reads: 'NBN Gateway' Click for biodiversity data.

  The National Biodiversity Network allows you to view distribution maps and download UK wildlife data by using a variety of interactive tools. One can search for wild food plants and, best of all, it is possible to browse for species (plants, animals and insects) of conservation concern. Through foraging, the last thing I would want to encourage is for anybody to deplete our natural environment. One thing to bear in mind is that although a wild food source may seem freely and abundantly available it is possible that some of the insect species it supports are themselves threatened or in decline.
  
  Click here to go to the main site:NBN
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  

…..or, to be more inclusive, human beings cannot live by bread alone. True? Maybe. Certainly we need to be more inclusive in terms not only of gender or, of course, varied diet, but also in regard to our other needs for self expression – through music, poetry and art, as well as with respect to a whole plethora of other social, psychological and, no doubt, spiritual needs. However, the question that really interests me concerns wild food. Susan Campbell, in her paper, The Hunting and Gathering of Wild Foods: What’s the point? An Historical Survey  - a paper delivered at Oxford and reprinted in Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2004: Wild Food, poses the dilemma quite succinctly when she states, “….nor have I yet met anyone who could convince me that modern man could subsist on wild food alone, legally or illegally, the year round, in a northern climate.” The question and the challenge, then, stand: Can a person live by wild food alone? There is only one way to answer such a question and that is by actually attempting to do so. However, a further question presents itself: Why would anybody in his or her right mind wish to attempt such a thing?
      Having utilised wild foods in my diet for a considerable number of years, I know that the sheer variety and range of what is generally available is quite astonishing. Such a vast myriad of both familiar and more exotic flavours, textures, and unique nutritional dietary contributors means that, given sufficient availability, it would surely be theoretically possible to live on wild food alone. Well…… that remains to be proved by the possible sweat and tears of actual practice. Nevertheless, addressing the question, “why?” , is at one and the same time to address those less tangible needs which, at the outset, it was admitted that without which we could not live. This is because eating wild food is not just about nutritional sustenance; it’s a lifestyle choice. That choice is in part a personal and practical answer to various disagreements I have with the world, the way it is, or rather, the way it is as an outcome of our interaction with it; the way it is, the way we are, but don’t have to be – culturally, socially, economically and, of course, environmentally……………….

      I’ve been thinking for two weeks now about carrying out the practice: living from only wild food a whole month and have decided to begin on the 30th of June – just a few days away now. I’m even going to subject myself to a battery of medical tests tomorrow morning. However, as the day itself approaches the likelihood of success seems to do the opposite, retreating instead into the far distance. In the first place, I am so ludicrously busy at the moment that I barely have time to think about cooking a meal, let alone producing one from wild food. In the second place, I thought that although it’s mainly leaves and seaweeds that are available now, this wouldn’t be a problem because, no doubt, I could always top up any nutritional deficit with a choice piece of roadkill; that was, until I had lunch with a friend – the sparkling Aglaia, She claims to be able to sniff out meat eaters from across the room. Actually, her method is more visual. Apparently it’s the dull eyes - compared with the bright sparkling eyes of the vegetarian - that’s the tell tale give away sign. Is it the shadow of death that dulls the inner flame, a corrupting of the soul to its very core or merely the sluggish arterial flow of stupefying saturated fats that deadens the vital light? Who knows the answer to such an imponderable question? All I do know is that after a few months of poor health – I fell in the woods carrying birch sap and really put my back out, what could be better than to start sparkling again? So, meat of any sort is completely off the menu – for now.
     Of course, referring back to the quote from Susan Campbell, there is no doubt I can, as she says, “subsist”. Yet subsistence carries the implications of just getting by, of the bare necessities, of surviving, being alive, but alive only to a paltry kind of mere existence. Perhaps for a month such an existence – given no other commitments, could prove to be a liberating and nature-engaged escape from the day-to-day grind of work related toil. However, for me those commitments do exist (they’re not all toil fortunately). No, I want to live fully, to be nothing less than a whole man, to transcend the everyday, to feel the struggle of the impossible and know that it can be surpassed. A month of wild food will be hard. I will learn that I’m sure. However, to really rise to the challenge I must embrace the whole year and its generous seasons. Only then will I know if it is possible to live by wild food alone.

     The coming month will be a preliminary study for a wild food year – beginning later this year. I will be writing a daily blog about how things are going over the coming month. If you are interested please return to this page which I will be updating every day.
     Now, time to go for an invigorating walk in the glorious lightening, thunder and rain……..