Description
Set in our new bush kitchen we will look at the various practices of food preservation – using acids to make pickles and chutneys, fermentation for brewing and preservation of fruits and greens, utilising sugars to make chutneys, dehydration for smoking and drying, employing salt to brine and dry cure and finally using temperature extremes to freeze and bottle our produce. This is going to be a busy workshop of alchemy, with a mix of theory, practical activities, to eating the rewards of your labour!
Probably our strongest food-based legacy is the tradition of preserving hedgerow and orchard ingredients. Learning the myriad of techniques involved in this ancient craft, to preserve your foraged harvest, is as rewarding today as it was for our ancestors.
The atmosphere of this course will be a relaxed ‘foodie’ fiesta, with the evenings to kickback, write up notes, sample food and socialise, we recommend you bring a bottle or two of something nice to share.
The further we stray from the tropics the more important food preservation becomes, as the climatic variations between the cycle of the seasons become more extreme, creating periods of abundance and periods of shortage. As well as giving a rounded overview of all preservation techniques, we will be particularly focusing on the ones that are most relevant to our own heritage and environments.
The preservation of food is an act almost as old as mankind itself. The art of food preservation is common throughout every era, environment and culture on the planet. Simply put, this is the art and science of stopping or inhibiting the development of microorganisms.
The course leader for this event is Greg Ford, from a linage of traditional butchers, Greg has been smoking and curing his own hams for years and is a passionate cook. Ben and the team will also be there to lend a hand, leading short wild food forages and helping you eat all the delicious food.
We’re anticipating this new concept course to fill fast – so if you fancy joining us for a crisp glass of chilled hedgerow wine whilst indulging in a slice of salmon gravlax, or enjoying a hot smoked game sausage literally dripping with flavour with a ruby-red berry wine – you better reserve your place soon!
Days: Sun PM – Thur PM (4 Nights)
Location: Lyth Valley, Lake District, England
Food & Accommodation: Fully catered and includes camping fees
Activity: Smoking, Pickling, Preserving, Fermenting & Brewing
Group Size: 6-14
Physical Rating: Easy
2022 Dates: 22-26 May
Highlights
- Hot smoking
- Cold smoking
- Chutneys
- Yeasts
- Brewing
- Fermenting
- Baking
- Preserving by drying
- Preserving by heating
- Preserving by smoking
- Preserving by lactic fermentation
- Preserving in oil / fat
- Preserving in acid
- Preserving in alkali
- Preserving with sugar
- Preserving in alcohol
Inclusions
- This course is fully catered throughout – we do our best to source food that is wild, local, organic, seasonal and nutritious. (This negates the need to buy food and bring stoves, fuel and cooking gear – it also maximises your learning time with us).
- The free loan of specialist bushcraft camping equipment – hammocks, tarps, laplander saws, fire-steels, billy cans, etc.
- Camping fees are included.
- We offer a complimentary pick-up and drop-off service from and to the nearest railway station at set times.
jadux65 (verified owner) –
A cracking week learning from highly skilled, knowledgeable and fun instructors in a COVID safe environment.
I learnt a lot of new skills and fun facts during the week long course, which had a perfect learning pace of great demos, followed by hands on sessions getting stuck into what we’d just been shown.
The course was mainly about food and preserving it, which was amazing, such as learning how to make Salmon jerky, prepare it and then of course eating it, the stuff dreams are made of!
The Highlights for me were learning new foraging techniques, methods of preserving food and then eating it (I’m sure it would last a long time if it had to, but!) that and the campfire discussions after the days work was done!
If you are thinking about doing this course, I’d say do it, being outdoors with the Wild Human Team was amazing enough on it’s own, but to then make dishes with origins from around the world, try new cooking/preserving techniques and then best of all, eating the amazing grub the course had just made – what could be better!
10 out of 10