foraging – Dave Hamilton

Where the Wild Things Grow

Where the Wild Things Grow, A Foragers Guide to the Landscape’ is a book about the wild foods growing all around us. Referencing close to 200 different wild foods, it explores what can be foraged in the manmade environment, the countryside, coast and woodlands. Each of these are split into smaller sections, such as coastal marshland, conifer wood, roadside and gardens. The beauty of ordering by habitat is you can simply flip to the right chapter whenever you want to find something in a specific area.

The book is crammed full of recipe ideas, foraging tips, snippets of food science and even a smidgen of folklore.

Flowers, plants, fruits, nuts, seaweeds, mushrooms of every kind are featured. It is a must for foodies, foragers, walkers, cyclists or anyone with an interest in the natural world.

It is my longest book to date marking the culmination of years of study into the subject of foraging from my first wild garlic forays in South Wales aged just 21 to teaching Guardian Masterclass decades later.

Why not look at Dave’s other books?

Family Foraging

Written with clear information, instructions and illustrations, Family Foraging is a book the whole family can enjoy. Learn how to safely identify 30 common edible plants, found in our parks, woodlands and hedgerows. Create delicious recipes like, sea beet huff-a-puffs, puffball kebabs or my personal favorite, roasted hazelnut chocolate spread!

With both child friendly recipies and easy to ID plants, this book is great for parents looking for things to do with their kids.

Photo Jason Ingram

From Darwin to David Attenborough, many naturalists built their careers on a curiosity which began in childhood. However, in this digital age our children can easily become isolated from meaningful contact with the natural world. A day gathering edible plants, picked in the wild, can be a great way to reconnect with family and nature. So get ready for your new Family Foraging adventure and pick up a copy today.

About Dave Hamilton – OLD

Hello! I am Dave Hamilton, a writer and tutor living in the South West of England with my partner and two young sons. I have sold over 70,000 books worldwide and have been translated into five different languages.

The themes of the outdoors and food run through both my written work and the subjects I tutor. I run foraging and gardening classes for adults and children (see list of current courses here). I am also available for hire for classes, talks and workshops.

‘Wild Ruins BC‘ (Left) (Wild Things Publishing) I toured Britain for three years from the Isle of Wight and Cornwall up to the Hebrides and Orkney in search of the relics of ancient Britain (more about the book here).

This followed on from my first travel book ‘Wild Ruins‘ (Right) released in 2015 which reached number 10 in the Amazon Charts.

Family Foraging (White Lion/Quarto Press) is the culmination of years of study. It explains how to identify and cook 30 of the most common wild foods you might find in the Northern Hemisphere. Although aimed at children it is suitable for adults looking for an introduction into foraging.

English language versions of the book are available in the UK, USA and Canada with books also translated into French, Dutch, Danish and Hungarian.

My writing career began with the book the Self-Sufficienish Bible (Hodder and Stoughton-2008) which I co-wrote with my identical twin brother Andy Hamilton. This followed my experiments in self-sufficiency whilst living and studying in Oxford. By the year 2003 all the fruit and vegetables which came into my house were from foraging or those which I had grown myself. Again in the book I focused on the outdoor aspects covering the subjects of Wild Food, Fruit and Vegetable Gardening and Seasonal Food whilst my brother, a keen meat eater and drinker wrote about livestock, brewing and herbs. Subjects he still pursues.

Whilst living in Totnes and teaching sustainable horticulture at Schumacher College I wrote my second book Grow Your Food For Free. Published by Green Books in 2011, the book led to a column in BBC Gardener’s World Magazine and won and award for the best practical gardening book of the year.