A canny couple are tackling the cost-of-living crisis by foraging for all their meals.
Jim and Kat Parum reckon they save around £100 a week by swerving shop-bought food to make meals with ingredients that are either home-grown or gathered from local woods.
The couple even plan to forage a festive feast for Christmas Day, complete with homemade booze from wild fruit.
Foraging has been a life-long passion for Jim, 32, who grew up watching his grandmother pick mushrooms and berries. He began making wine for friends in his 20s then introduced Kat, 35, to the idea of cooking three-course meals from gathered ingredients.
Three months later, the couple decided to live off the land as much as possible, spending just £5 a month on kitchen staples like pasta.
In 2019, Jim quit his hospitality job to forage full-time and now teaches other people how to enjoy nature’s larder. As food prices rocket and people look to save money, the demand for his Forage Box courses has gone through the roof.
Dad-of-two Jim said: “With a little bit of guidance, that expensive supermarket shop can be drastically reduced. We save hundreds each year by throwing away the idea of a weekly food shop.
“My family and I rarely visit our local Tesco as we have everything we need in our garden or outside. No food is wasted, we use what we need and recycle and compost our leftovers.”
Jim, of Altrincham, Gtr Manchester, spends most mornings harvesting fungi, berries and plants, before eating homemade jam with freshly baked bread.
A typical lunch will include a variety of fruits harvested from their garden while dinners will change with the season. Some have even included birds left behind from pheasant shoots.
Jim, whose three-year-old daughter can already distinguish mushrooms by their spots, added: “Our whole family are foodies and have discovered some of the tastiest combinations found outside.”
Jim’s top foraging tips
1. Eat more nettles! They are easy to identify, highly nutritious and tasty. Use them in place of spinach in curries and pasta sauces.
2. Get to know your neighbours. A polite knock on the door of someone with a lawn full of windfall apples may save you a few pennies.
3. Make it an activity. Swap expensive days out for family trips to the woods, beach or even park, armed with containers, to look for wild ingredients you can identify safely. Follow local laws, pick lightly and leave no trace.
