About us
We like wild food. We forage it, cook it, dry it, prepare it, store it and eat it! Foraging for us started with a genuine love of the great outdoors and a passion for food, combining both turns our walks in the woods and by the seaside into genuine treasure hunts.
What is Wild Food UK?
Wild Food UK was formed 14 years ago by Marlow and Eric driven by a desire to expand peoples experience of nature into a practical source of enjoyment. Since then the company has grown in course leaders and course locations, covering most of the UK. Our aim is to educate people about tasty edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, roots and flowers that we think everyone should be able to identify, pick and eat with confidence.
We’re extremely lucky in Britain to have a climate that provides us plenty of food all year round, all you need to know is how to find it. We teach these “skills for life”; and we believe that with the skills we teach, every life will be enhanced. Not only is foraging fun and interesting; you never know when being able to pick your own food might come in genuinely useful or even life saving!
Wild Food UK Team
Marlow Renton
Director / Foraging Instructor
Marlow is someone who enjoys talking, maybe a bit too much for his wife and some of his friends, but it’s good if you like to hear about mushrooms! Marlow loves…Marlow is someone who enjoys talking, maybe a bit too much for his wife and some of his friends, but it’s good if you like to hear about mushrooms! Marlow loves…
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good food, good ale, all things nature, and hitting things with sticks.
From an early age he was a lover of the great outdoors and anything wild; from mushroom hunting with his Nan to building a wildlife pond in his garden. After spending his early years living in South London, Marlow moved to Scotland to attend secondary school. There he started to learn about wild food. Largely through walks around the local countryside that the teachers at his school used to enhance their lessons. Having now left an internet career behind, Marlow is delighted to be out foraging rather than sorting out HTML issues; even in the rain and wind!
You can find Marlow running courses across the West Midlands, Wales &South East
Favourite Food:
Roast dinner with all the trimmings or a Paella
Scared of:
The Miller
Hobbies:
Mushrooms, walking, camping, snooker/Pool/golf/Boulles, music, photography, reading and occasionally writing
Favourite Mushroom:
Hedgehog Fungus
Favourite Plant:
Wild Garlic
Favourite Fruit:
Yew Berries
Last Book:
How to become a miwwionaire in 3 easy steps
Ambitions:
To learn more about foraging and become Lord of the Manor.
Favourite Doctor Who:
Matt Smith
Favourite Music:
Whatever I’m listening to…
Favourite Chef:
Keith Floyd
Eric Biggane
Director / Foraging Instructor
Calls himself the George Clooney of foraging but the reality is; cross Ray Mears, and a fair portion of Swampy and you’ve just about built an Eric. Having lived numerous lives…
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(not in the Buddhist way) Eric is decidedly more happy in the woods than the city.
Living off the land and sustainable foraging are part of his family tradition and he himself has many years’ experience of farming, foraging and eating from the wild. He grew up near the South Downs and has lived and worked in France and Spain, as well as the UK. Along the way, he has built up a wealth of knowledge about wild food. One of his particular specialities is mushrooms which he has a great passion for. In his free time, Eric enjoys walking, exploring prehistoric sites and camping; his favourite places in the UK are the rugged spaces of Dartmoor and the Scottish Highlands.
Eric can be found running our foraging courses in Wales & parts of Herefordshire
Favourite Food:
Potatoes (he is part Irish)
Scared of:
Hornets
Hobbies:
Mushrooms! Engineering, astronomy, old cars, music, reading, science and pre-history
Favourite Mushroom:
Horse Mushroom Or The Horn of Plenty
Favourite Plant:
Pignut or Hogweed
Favourite Fruit:
Blackberry’s n Raspberry’s or a bit of watermelon.
Last Book:
How to Live in a Cave.
Ambitions:
To learn more about foraging and move into a cave…
Favourite Doctor Who:
Tom Baker
Favourite Music:
Jimi Hendrix, obviously, as he is the best musician by far…
Favourite Chef:
My Mum!
Lindsey Wyatt
Office Administrator
A core member of our office team, Lindsey would much rather be out & about exploring than in the office. So we have considered chaining her to the desk, but we’ve also heard somewhere that we…
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might get in trouble for that! She would far rather be outside learning about the plants and mushrooms, or with her rescue horse John. She also loves cooking and experiments a lot with the things that we pick so you might taste some of her creations while on a course with one of the team.
She is certainly not so keen on fax machines and even has a morbid fear of the telephone, but we’ve stuck a mane and toy horse to it, which seems to be curing her, so she’ll be happy to hear from you.
Favourite Food:
No Idea
Scared of:
The Telephone
Hobbies:
Horses
Favourite Mushroom:
Penny Bun
Favourite Plant:
Silver Birch or the Cedar of Lebanon
Favourite Fruit:
Strawberries
Last Book:
The Wild Food UK Handbook
Ambitions:
To Find Herself
Favourite Doctor Who:
Nick Clegg or Dr Gunther
Favourite Music:
Quiet Music
Favourite Chef:
Michel Roux Junior
Rachel Renton
Designer / Office Assistant
Our resident fiery red head keeps Marlow in order… Most of the time. Rachel brings top quality design skills and a passion for rose flavoured infusions to the team.
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Better late than never is a phrase used very often in Rachels company, and never in a truer sense. Her designs are worth waiting for, as are her roast dinners, though eating at 11pm on a Sunday does leave Marlow occasionally falling asleep with his head on his plate! In the her office role she is much more timely and efficient, probably because she’s getting paid!
Favourite Food:
Cheese
Scared of:
Sharks and heights
Hobbies:
Illustration, film, alcoholic beverage invention, travelling and cleaning!
Favourite Mushroom:
Porcelain fungus because it’s so pretty
Favourite Plant:
Rose and my babies (house plants)
Favourite Fruit:
Mangosteen
Last Book:
How to keep bees
Ambitions:
Help the church become eco warriors and globetrott again
Favourite Doctor Who:
Err… I like Star Trek
Favourite Music:
The Cat Empire and Jurassic 5
Favourite Chef:
The one that didn’t win Masterchef but cooked with flowers
Phil Leng
Foraging Instructor
Few people can lay claim to have been foraging whilst suspended by carabener & ropes 300ft above the ground. Wild Food Uk’s resident mountain climber…
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sky surfer, dipsy diver – sorry, deep sea diver/snorkeler and one of the country’s leading/only EXTREME foragers, Phil Leng, can!
For health and safety reasons and to ensure that everyone who embarks on a foraging expedition whilst in the company of our most intrepid instructor, lives to reap the benefits, we have insisted that all courses remain strictly on a terra firma basis.
Based in the Solihull area our man in the Midlands will happily recount dazzling tales of his extraordinary exploits traversing land, sea & air along with details of what might be foraged in the most inhospitable environments across the country. Aldi on park street in Solihull not being one of them…
Phil spends most of his life exploring the great outdoors and his insatiable inquisitiveness has allowed him to garner an extensive knowledge of the fungi, fruits & fauna available throughout the year in our green and pleasant land.
Phil can also be found running foraging courses in the East Midlands, and North Wales.
Favourite Food:
Wild mushrooms on toast
Scared of:
Decorating
Hobbies:
Climbing, scuba-diving, astronomy
Favourite Mushroom:
Hedgehog
Favourite Plant:
Hairy bitter cress
Favourite Fruit:
Damson
Last Book:
John Wright’s History of the Hedgerow
Ambitions:
Climbing El Capitan again
Favourite Doctor Who:
Matt Smith
Favourite Music:
Pink Floyd
Favourite Chef:
Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall
Robin Judson
Foraging Instructor
Dr. Judson discovered his love of foraging while planking beside some mushrooms on a sponsored walk from Lands End to John O’ Groats!
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Years later, his review of the planking photo he’d taken revealed that he had been beside some delicious Chanterelles.. This made him determined never to miss such an opportunity again! He is now a fully qualified foraging instructor with us here at Wild Food UK, which he fits around his day job as a GP. Marlow and Eric were very pleased to discover that because of his day job, they didn’t need to pay for his first aid courses!
Robin is a great communicator and flew through our instructor training programme. He’s also a talented musician, so we might get him to write some foragy songs and perform them on our YouTube channel 🙂
Dr Rob can be found on our foraging courses in parts of Herefordshire & South Wales as well as running our collaborations with the National Garden Scheme in Raglan!
Favourite Food:
Curry
Scared of:
Dementors and the Nazgul, in equal measure
Hobbies:
Too numerous to mention, including guitar, foraging, piano, Swahili, science, French, church, etc. etc. etc…
Favourite Mushroom:
Cauliflower fungus
Favourite Plant:
Elder tree
Favourite Fruit:
Mango
Last Book:
Making time for planking
Ambitions:
To get all of his patients at his GP practice out foraging, rather than in the GP surgery!
Favourite Doctor Who:
Himself. His bone structure also resembles Matt Smith’s disturbingly well at times…
Favourite Music:
Awful folky sing-a-longs and Disney sing-a-longs!
Favourite Chef:
Marlow
Emma Banks
Office Administrator
Emma has a degree in Psychology, so we’re not sure if working in the Wild Food UK office is just research for her masters!.. Either way we’re happy to have her.
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Our latest team member has taken over our accounts and marketing and she’s such a good fit it already feels like she’s been here for years.With her audacious sense of humour she’s added a new dimension to the office dynamic which we’re all enjoying 🙂
One major issue is that she doesn’t like mushrooms but Marlow has been forcing her to taste them for the videos on our YouTube channel! She’s even managed to fake liking them for the camera once..
Favourite Food:
Lasagne
Scared of:
Birds
Hobbies:
Reading, studying, working and walking
Favourite Mushroom:
Yuk
Favourite Plant:
Wild Garlic
Favourite Fruit:
Bananas
Last Book:
Neurodiversity in the workplace
Ambitions:
To be a chartered Psychologist (but no-ones perfect)
Favourite Doctor Who:
David Tennant (who I also saw playing Hamlet)
Favourite Music:
Err, Garage (I am from Essex!) and a bit of country.
Favourite Chef:
Me!
Attila Fodi
Mycologist
As well as being a Mycologist, Attila speaks 11 languages including Mandarin and is extremely proficient at far eastern cooking; but by far his most impressive talent…
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is being able to recite the whole of ‘Snail and the Whale’ to Marlow’s daughter Bonnie from memory!
He’ll be writing for us and appearing in the occasional video (we have to hide the camera though :)) among other courses and our specialist Field Mycology Courses.
Attila is already well known online as an authority on mushrooms. You can often catch him on the mushroom Facebook groups where he spends a lot of his time when he’s not out finding and studying the real thing. Strangely his biggest fungal fascination is with the polypores.. we’ll try to get him to study the Boletes on our behalf too though! ;).
Favourite Food:
Ramen
Scared of:
Camera, I have an incurable camera shyness, so I hardly can deal with on-line presentations…
Hobbies:
Mushrooms (especially polypores and medicinal mushrooms), Lichens, Reading and Animes
Favourite Mushroom:
Slate Bolete (Leccinum duriusculum), sometimes Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa)
Favourite Plant:
Gorse, Yew, or Lombardy Poplar (which always reminds me of home)
Favourite Fruit:
Pear or Apple
Last Book:
The Enlightened Spaniel by Gary Heads
Ambitions:
There are too many pending projects of mine, incl. unfinished translations. If I have to name anything which is important enough to fit into this category, let’s name this: I want to finish translating the medicinal mushrooms related descriptions of Zhonghua Bencao.
Favourite Doctor Who:
I don’t really follow it, another Star Trek fan here…
Favourite Music:
Always depends on my mood, but right now it is either The Interrupters, or Элизиум, Rammstein or Tankcsapda
Favourite Chef:
The Late Antonio Carluccio
Kerry Woodfield
Foraging Instructor
Kerry is a one of our brilliant instructors.
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With an encyclopedic knowledge of plants, mushrooms, cooking and folklore, on her courses you might see her timing herself through her talks as we’ve had to set limits on how long she can talk about any one species!
On Kerry’s courses you’ll also often find some more unusual foraged dishes in the meal at the end as her training as a chef means she is probably our most adventurous cook, and we all look forward to trying her recipes 🙂
Kerry’s other passion is running her worldwide poisoning emergency group on Facebook which is used by vets, doctors, and often worried parents from all over the world! This is no small achievement and has saved lives!!!
Favourite Food:
Seaweed
Scared of:
Heights
Hobbies:
Foraging, Foraging and More Foraging! Celtic Folklore, Writing short stories.
Favourite Mushroom:
Hen of the Woods
Favourite Plant:
Hemlock
Favourite Fruit:
Fragaria
Last Book:
The seaweed identification book
Ambitions:
To save the world 1 acre at a time and then World domination, or maybe just a bigger garden…
Favourite Doctor Who:
David Tennant
Favourite Music:
Seth Blakeman
Favourite Chef:
Shane Davies-Nilsson
Jordan Mckeating
Foraging Instructor
With a keen eye for gold (having formerly worked in a jewellers) we expect him to be extremely good at finding chanterelles 🙂 Jordan was our youngest…
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instructor to go through our training. Having done numerous jobs in his short life so far Jordan has finally settled on Foraging being his passion.
His ambition with Wild Food UK is to find more chanterelle spots each year than the rest of us, which considering his younger legs and the fact that he’ll be our most northern based instructor is a distinct possibility!
Jordan runs our foraging courses in Yorkshire, Cumbria, the Lakes & Scotland.
Favourite Food:
Thai Food, Panang Currys my fave
Scared of:
Nothing!
Hobbies:
Foraging, Mountain Climbing
Favourite Mushroom:
Chicken of the woods
Favourite Plant:
Hogweed
Favourite Fruit:
Watermelon
Last Book:
The Wild Food UK Instructor Handbook!
Ambitions:
To Become a Wild Food UK instructor!
Favourite Doctor Who:
I hate Doctor Who!
Favourite Music:
Tool! Bob Marley and the Foals
Favourite Chef:
Ray Mears???
Steph Smith
Office Administrator
Steph’s persistence is legendary. So we’re going to let her deal with the Forestry Commission for us this year :).
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Like all of us she does prefer being outdoors, but we tie her and Lindsey to their desks during work hours, so they’ll be there to help you with any booking queries you might have.
Having helped Eric to a win in the first ever Wild Food UK Christmas Quiz we now know her plant foraging knowledge is good already… but we’re going to be teaching her a bit more about mushrooms over the coming months. We expect that just being in the office with Attila means that is inevitable anyway!
Favourite Food:
Good bread and butter.
Scared of:
Angry people.
Hobbies:
Nature, Foraging, Growing Food, Cycling Around in the Countryside, Cooking and Singing
Favourite Mushroom:
Waxcaps
Favourite Plant:
Currant Bushes
Favourite Fruit:
Lemons
Last Book:
Merlin Sheldrake – Entangled Life
Ambitions:
To stay healthy and happy
Favourite Doctor Who:
David Tennant
Favourite Music:
Radiohead
Favourite Chef:
Jamie Oliver
Karl Broberg
Foraging Instructor
Karl is a qualified chemist so we’re pretty sure he wont poison anyone 🙂 and if he does he’ll know what to do about it..!
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He has a keen interest in nature and (almost) all things alternative. He once went on a silent camp where no-one was allowed to talk for 2 weeks… Luckily enough he didn’t decide to go for the silent life as we prefer our instructors to be quite chatty!
Karl has a fantastic analytical mind, but Kerry did sort of carry him through the Christmas quiz! That might have been due to too much mead though… Nonetheless he has a broad knowledge of many things and a relaxed teaching style that makes him an outstanding instructor for Wild Food UK!
Karl can be found running our foraging courses in Derbyshire & Cheshire.
Favourite Food:
Seaweed
Scared of:
Heights
Hobbies:
Foraging, Foraging and More Foraging! Celtic Folklore, Writing short stories.
Favourite Mushroom:
Hen of the Woods
Favourite Plant:
Hemlock
Favourite Fruit:
Fragaria
Last Book:
The seaweed identification book
Ambitions:
To save the world 1 acre at a time and then World domination, or maybe just a bigger garden…
Favourite Doctor Who:
David Tennant
Favourite Music:
Seth Blakeman
Favourite Chef:
Shane Davies-Nilsson
David Hamilton
Foraging Instructor
Dave has been designated David to help us differentiate between him and our other hirsute new recruit Dave Brookhouse.
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David is a very experienced forager and foraging instructor, having written books on the topic in the past, he has also published books on Archaeology and a number of other interests. With a wealth of experience belying his ‘Hairy Harry Potter’ youthful looks David is another great addition to the team. Based in Somerset he’ll be running our courses in Devon & the Cotswolds.
Favourite Food:
Lebanese or Pizza
Scared of:
Death (prob a good fear for a forager!)
Hobbies:
Walking, Photography
Favourite Mushroom:
Hedgehog Fungus
Favourite Plant:
Nettle
Favourite Fruit:
Wild – June Berry/Amelanchier – Cultivated – Banana (technically a herb)
Last Book:
Paperback – Shakleton’s Boat Journey by F.A. Worsley. Audiobook – The Missing Musk by Bob Gilbert
Ambitions:
To lead a long and full life
Favourite Doctor Who:
As I was born in Northampton it has to be Matt Smith
Favourite Music:
90’s is my era so love 90’s Britpop, indie and dance but like everything from Johny Cash to German hard rock, classical to the Beastie Boys.
Favourite Chef:
Yoram Ottolenghi or my good friend Andy Karkut (an excellent vegan cook and lover of mushrooms)
Dave Brookhouse
Foraging Instructor
Our other hirsute Dave is our latest foraging instructor, you’ll find him running our courses across the South, from Sussex to Kent.
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Dave joined us with an extensive knowledge of Trees through his job helping plant the planting for Brighton Council, and trained with us over the last year or so, perfecting his knowledge on all things foraging!
We might have to improve his taste in chefs first though and why does everyone called Dave prefer being on the left in their photos?
Favourite Food:
Ramen
Scared of:
Things grabbing my feet while underwater!
Hobbies:
Foraging, Rock Climbing, Bushcraft, Wild Camping and Guitar
Favourite Mushroom:
Hedgehog Fungus
Favourite Plant:
Fat Hen
Favourite Fruit:
Mango
Last Book:
Entangled Life, by merlin sheldrake
Ambitions:
Self Sufficiency
Favourite Doctor Who:
Indifferent…
Favourite Music:
Erykah Badu
Favourite Chef:
Hugh F Whittingstall