Want to Forage for Your Own Food? Join the Pros at These Five Spots

The COVID-19 pandemic led people to look for new ways to source food and many chose foraging - picking edible plants, fruits plus other foods that grow in the wild. As supply chains faltered, more individuals returned to this old practice. Websites that teach how to find and use wild food reported visitor numbers but also class sign ups that jumped anywhere from one quarter to five times the usual count. Travel spots across the globe now sell guided foraging outings.

At Drumoland Castle in Ireland, guests walk the estate and the nearby shore with professional forager Oonagh O'Dwyer. They pick wild herbs, nuts, seaweed as well as flowers - sit down to outdoor picnics and cookery lessons. The group learns how to turn nettles into soup or raspberries into cordial and they leave with printed recipes also a clear sense of which wild foods are safe to eat.

In Trancoso, Bahia, Brazil, visitors who stay at Ochoa Traditional Houses set out with physician nutritionist Julian Hamamoto to cross four coastal habitats. They collect wild pineapple or genipabu fruit for juice workshops and dig roots that later flavor handmade ice cream or spa treatments. Hamamoto mixes modern nutrition facts with traditional indigenous know how during each outing.

The adults only WaWant inn on Nantucket, USA, centers its foraging on the sea. Captain Rob McMullen steers a boat so guests locate next to haul Retsyo oysters, fish and lobsters. After the crew shows how to clean plus open the shellfish, the inn's chefs serve lobster rolls and barbecue dishes built from the same seafood caught that morning.

The Five Arms in Braemar, Scotland, runs forest walks in every season with guide Natasha Lloyd. Guests pick elderberry, nettle, valerian but also other plants - convert them into teas, tinctures or skin care salves. Each time of year yields a fresh set of edibles - repeat visitors bond with the land and learn how foraging shaped local history.

Italy's truffle business flourishes at Casa di Langa in Piedmont besides Castello di Casole in Tuscany. Visitors walk behind trained dogs as well as guides through nearby woods, watch the dogs sniff out black and white truffles or take the finds back to the kitchen. Chefs then serve tagliarini pasta topped with fresh truffle and desserts laced with the same aromatic fungus, all matched with local wines.