Family saves over $200 monthly on groceries by foraging their food

By Amy Reast

A dad saves $258 a month on groceries - by foraging for ingredients in meadows, forests and along coastlines.

Joshua Lawrey, 36, began his journey 15 years ago, after working in a high-end restaurant where their menu featured wild ingredients which had been foraged.

He did plenty of research and visited woodlands, meadows and coastlines around his hometown of St Austell, Cornwall, to see what he found.

Inspired by his restaurant job, he began getting creative and integrating his foraged goods into his daily diet.

He makes tzatziki dip out of nettles, 'steak' out of giant mushrooms and even espresso martinis by baking dandelion roots.

By foraging flowers, mushrooms, leafy greens, fruits and berries, he saves "easily" $64 a week on his weekly grocery shops to feed himself, daughter Josephine, one, and wife Jennifer, 36.

Joshua, who is now a lead forager with a foraging excursion company, said: "Most people would walk past a field or grassy area and think it's all grass.

"But there are things to forage everywhere - probably even in people's own back gardens - and they don't even know it.

"The more you learn about, the more you can sub out of your shopping list - I only really buy carbs, lentils and meat these days, everything else is foraged.

"I think there's satisfaction in having gained the knowledge to find something - and it saves a lot of money.

"You have to make sure you know what you're picking - don't 'munch on a hunch', as us foragers say.

"But it's fine if you do your research - my one-year-old daughter eats everything I forage, and she's still alive!"

Joshua's knowledge of food from previously working at a high-end restaurant gave him the base understanding of flavors - so he knew how to put new ingredients together.

Alongside his job leading foraging expeditions, he ensures he goes out at least once a week to find food for his own fridge.

He knows what to look for based on what's in season, and plans his meals around that.

He said: "It's mostly self-taught, learning and watching others, and reading books.

"You learn what tastes good."

He explained it's important to learn what poisonous varieties to avoid, including certain mushrooms and berries.

But he said there are specific features to look out for to help you know which to steer clear of.

He said: "Hemlock is very abundant in the UK, and it's irreversibly deadly. To the untrained eye, it looks a lot like cow parsley.

"You have to be very sure on the stem and leaf shape, because it's a mistake you can only make once."

Joshua loves making honey with dandelion and primrose, added to sugar and water.

At this time of year, he finds in-season three-cornered leeks which are a substitution for spring onion.

He loves making Greek-flavored meals using stinging nettles, as the leaves taste like cucumber.

He said: "I recently did a nettle tzatziki with wild garlic, sorrel and yogurt."

Joshua said a quirky example is digging up the roots of dandelion - and washing, chopping and roasting them.

He said: "It takes on the flavor of coffee and chocolate - you can mix in cream for a chocolatey coffee.

"You can even make an espresso martini with it!"

He loves making fancy garlic bread using wild garlic to make his own garlic butter using a homemade olive oil garlic infusion.

And he explained he loves making fried 'chicken' and 'chicken' gyros out of a type of big orange mushroom that grows on decaying wood.

It is dubbed 'chicken of the woods' because it's similar texture and flavor when blanched with chicken stock.

Joshua said: "I'm not vegan, but I'd eat that instead because it was so like chicken."

Similarly, he said a 'beef steak mushroom' can be a great foraged alternative to a cut of steak to have with chips for dinner.

He said: "It's like a giant slab of steak hanging off a tree - and when you cut it, it bleeds like steak too.

"When dried, it has more protein in than steak too.

"I also made beef jerky out of it once, and you would never have been able to tell it was a mushroom."

He explained that foragers need to ensure they're on public land before getting stuck in, or getting permission - and can't go digging things up without consent.

But on public land, the Countryside Act permits foraging for the 'four Fs' - fruit, foliage, flora and fungus - for personal consumption.

Because of his foraging, Joshua rarely needs to purchase any fruits, vegetables or leafy greens.

He said: "It's halved my vegetable bill. I only really buy carbs, lentils and meat these days.

"It saves me £50 a week on my food shops, easily."

Joshua said alongside the money saved, and the ability to create unique-tasting meals and drinks, he loves the "satisfaction" of the end product when he's foraged everything from scratch.

He added: "You've picked something, you know exactly where it's come from and how it's been treated.

"You get to turn a wild plant into a lovely culinary creation and know you've played every part in it."