Episode 7: Foraging Wild and Healing Foods with Belinda Blake

3 Sept

Healthily | 09/03/20

In this episode I am in conversation with forager and food lover Belinda Blake, as we discuss the wild food around us, and how it can be used in the simplest of ways to produce teas, oils and syrups as traditional healing remedies. Plants offer such an amazing array of botanical compounds and nutrients to support health, and this is a must for anyone who is keen to engage with food in a more exciting and experimental level.

TAKEAWAYs

✔️ Food as Healing & Pleasure

Belinda emphasizes that food is not just fuel but a powerful tool for healing, mood, and wellbeing.
Strict elimination diets can help initially, but long-term success comes from pleasure and creativity in eating.
Teaching clients (and children/teens) to engage with food through tasting, cooking, and experimenting helps build a healthy relationship with food.

✔️ Teaching & Workshops

Belinda runs Fabulous Food Courses for adults and children, and cook clubs for teenagers, focusing on practical cooking skills, nutrient-rich recipes, and understanding food science.
Workshops include tasting and hands-on activities, showing how to maximize nutrient intake and enjoy food while improving health.

✔️ Foraging & Seasonal Eating

Foraging reconnects us with nature, seasonal foods, and ancestral eating practices.
Belinda collaborates with medical herbalist Janine Gerhart to teach safe and sustainable foraging walks, incorporating wild herbs, flowers, berries, and leaves.
Seasonal focus:
- Spring: Nettles, dandelions, linden blossom (lime flowers) – packed with nutrients like iron and calming compounds.
- Summer: Flowers and herbs like St. John’s Wort for mood.
- Autumn: Berries – blackberries, elderberries, rose hips.
- Winter: Roots and warming spices (via cultivated sources) like ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves.

✔️ Simple Ways to Preserve & Use Foraged Foods

Nettle Tea: Steam leaves to neutralize stinging; freeze as ice cubes for year-round use.
Linden Blossom Tea: Calms anxiety, supports sleep; brew flowers in hot water.
OxyMels: Preserve flowers/berries in raw apple cider vinegar and honey for a probiotic-rich product. Can be used in water or as digestive aid before meals.
St. John’s Wort Oil: Infuse in olive oil in sunlight for mood-lifting and anti-inflammatory properties; can also be used topically for skin issues.
Elderberry Syrup: Combine elderberries with warming spices to create potent, antiviral syrup for immunity.
Fruit Leathers: Cook mixed berries with apples and minimal sweetener, strain, and slowly dry for a nutritious snack.

✔️ Practical Foraging Tips

Pick from clean areas away from roads, paths, and dog access.
Identify plants accurately—use apps like PictureThis or go with an experienced guide.
Only take what you need and leave enough for wildlife and others.
Learn multiple identifying features, not just leaves or flowers, for safety.