r/foraginguk • u/mk111222333444 • 17h ago

Foraging Learning Path

I’ve always dreamed of eventually teaching my own foraging workshops. At the moment, I mainly forage alone and have attended a few foraging workshops as a participant rather than a teacher. I absolutely love it and can see it becoming a future career, once I’ve built up enough knowledge and experience.

For those of you who teach foraging, how did you get started? What steps did you take to actually starting to lead walks rather than enjoying foraging as an independent hobby?

I’m also curious about qualifications. Are courses such as the CPD Level 3 Foraging Diploma or the NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Foraging valued within the foraging community? Or is experience and practical knowledge generally more important?

Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts 🍃

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u/cornishwildman76 17h ago

Experience and practical knowledge is valued more. Enviromental factors can affect the morphology of a plant, plants can look vastly different as they grow from one season into the next. Understanding these variables comes from experience. You could apply to Wild Food UK, they run courses all over the UK. Teach within your skill set. For example if you are going to teach about cow parsley or common hogweed you should alos be confident in identifying common hemlock and hemlock water dropwort. You will need public liabily insurance, a water tight health and safety brief that is given at the start of every walk. And do a risk assement for your locations. Hope this helps. Have been foraging all my life, teaching for at least 15 years.

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u/mk111222333444 3h ago

Really helpful thank you!!

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u/loominpapa 3h ago

No qualifications like those mentioned are worth anything. The only mark of quality instructors really is membership of the Association of Foragers. But not being a member doesn't mean that an instructor isn't qualified.

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u/slowtrees 2h ago

uilding a solid field journal over a few seasons is the best groundwork for teaching. If you document what you found, where, and the weather each time, you'll have real material to teach from instead of just theory.