Totally Wild UK Reviews 75

What a great day at Summer's Pond, Horsham foraging through ancient woodlands. Our guide, from Totally Wild, Al, was extremely knowledgeable and created a really interactive and hands-on experience. Our lunch of pasta with woodland herb pesto was amazing. A thoroughly enjoyable day, thank you.

This foraging experience was fantastic and far more than I expected!

Fez was an extremely knowledgeable, friendly guy who taught us the basics of foraging and how to identify various plants, flowers and mushrooms. He also had so many great stories to tell along the way.

At the end he set up his outdoor kitchen and provided us with a 4 course meal cooked using the foods we had foraged that afternoon! Very tasty and looked great!

Fantastic day would highly recommend!

I am finding it difficult to write this review as I don't really know what we were expecting. We were with Brooke at Cannock Chase. He is an interesting chap and we spent the first 30 minutes listening to his somewhat unusual life history. I think this was to give context to how he has worked foraging into his own life. He then asked us to introduce ourselves, which is fine and offer a personal embarrassing story. I think he wanted us to do this to break the ice. We then were offered a break to go to the loo and get a coffee so didn't get underway until 11a.m
Brooke has amazing knowledge and clearly is fully engaged in foraging and using what he finds in his daily life. He puts an enormous amount into his talks. This part was thoroughly engaging and enjoyable and educational.
At 1.50 we arrived at the place we were to lunch and we took the opportunity to have a drink and our own snacks whilst Brooke went off to get our lunch organised. We then spent 2 hours whilst lunch was prepared and eaten just mostly chatting amongst ourselves with a few stories from Brooke along the way. We had picked sorrell, nettles and beautiful tiny raspberries to include in the cooking. I was hoping this was going to be the highlight of the day with some inspirational dishes to enjoy although I appreciate preparing food in the restrictive circumstances was always going to be difficult.
Our lunch consisted of a cracker with chimchurri ready prepared elsewhere using some foraged ingredients which was actually delicious. We then had a green salad which Brooke prepared and included the sorrell and a lovely fresh pickle. Following that there was pasta with a pesto also prepared elsewhere but including several foraged ingredients including wild garlic. For dessert there was a strange mix up of broken biscuit, an odd cream like topping from a carton, some fruity sauce prepared elsewhere and our little raspberries. I think I was hoping for some real inspiration and whilst the food was tasty and included some foraged ingredients I can provide just as interesting dishes with ingredients grown in my back garden with much less effort. So whilst the day was highly educational and interesting I don't think foraging will be high on my list of how to cook dinner this week. But then perhaps next time we are out walking and I see some wild garlic I might just take some home!

Fez was a great guide with a refreshing character and sense of humour. Every plant, tree, mushroom we came across he was able to tell us a story about. Often it was followed with a great knowledge about its usefulness in the wild and the often multiple uses it has. I would definitely recommend the course to anyone interested in bushcraft, foraging and living from the land. Absolutely brilliant!

What a fab day with so much learnt. Our forager Matt was brilliant. He was very relaxed, professional and friendly and happily answered our dozens of questions. He cooked up a great 3 course meal too!
Our venue at Oxwick Farm, Wickwar was interesting with lots going on and it's somewhere I'd like to return to for another event.
I came away from the day having had the best of experiences.

I attended a foraging course in Brandon Country Park which exceeded my expectations. I was bought a voucher for my birthday as a gift. As one of a group of 16 people, the day was thoroughly enjoyable. Aaron who lead the group was extremely knowledgeable and made the day go without a hitch. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in foraging

Our leader Chris was so up on his subject that he made the day truly eventful.
His knowledge was boundless and I love listening to people who know what they are imparting to others.
A day that I will never forget and i will carry on foraging forever.

This experience did exceed my expectations. I got this for my husbands birthday, I wasn’t overly bothered about foraging but went along to accompany him. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much. We went to the Swinsty Foraging event hosted by Kris. The event was engaging, interactive, and very interesting. We had a good down pour of rain, so be prepared for the weather. I would highly recommend.

The foraging day exceeded our expectations. Beth who led the day was extremely accomplished in describing the foods we found which gave us confidence to try some foraging. She was able to tell us some historical and folklore information which added extra relish to the day. The samples we were able to try were a bonus too . A fantastic day

Had an incredible day of foraging with Kelly, who was super knowledgeable and lovely! We learnt loads about how to identify plants and what to use them for, then cooked a delicious 3 course meal as a group. Such a great experience, highly recommend :)

Our guide Lucy was amazing, very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. A brilliant way to spend the day in the sunshine at Buckland Park and eat our findings over lunch. Would highly recommend

Our guide Mo was so knowledgeable, her enthusiasm and love of nature were contagious. A very enjoyable day indeed and I experienced none of the issues spoken about in the 1 star reviews. When I booked the event I had imagined that we would be doing the cooking ourselves. We did contribute to chopping some veg though and Mo did the lion's share of the food prep. Would recommend this to people who are used to being outdoors and on your feet for prolonged periods.

We went on a foraging and cookery day last Thursday at Sumner Ponds. Our host, Alasdair, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. We sampled and collected a variety of edible plants while Alasdair provided identification information and ideas on culinary options. He also showed us various poisonous and distasteful plants and how to avoid them. Alasdair finished the day by cooking up a three course meal in the woods using the ingredients we had foraged. The food was delicious. We had a fantastic day and learnt a lot. Thankfully we were also blessed with beautiful weather.

We had such such a lovely day foraging with Hazel in delamere forest. I wasnt really sure what to expect but the whole experience exceed my expectations. The food we made was super tasty and we learnt so many interesting things about plants i normally would just walk past. I would 100% recommend this for anyone wanting something abit different for a day out

We had a wonderful foraging experience in Birchden Woods - Al was a great guide, full of enthusiasm and knowledge. The experience was really interesting, from deciphering which plants we can forage and eat safely, and learning wonderful recipes which utilise the foraged edibles. Every recipe Al described sounded so delicious!! We have already attempted the Zubrowka! Highly recommend to anyone wanting a wholesome day trip.

This experience exceeded my expectations!
I attended the Swinsty Foraging event hosted by Kris. The event was fantastically informative and the food was outstanding! I would highly recommend

We had a brilliant day with our knowledgeable guide Fez
Learning how to pick and prepare the plants we foraged for was amazing and a real eye opener

Thanks again for a great day, would highly recommend

Gail & Alistair

After years of following them on socials and getting great newsletters, I finally got out and did the Lea Valley Location with Kelly this month. Her knowledge and passion was amazing. The intro was super helpful, the pace of the day was perfect. Kelly had loads of science facts (That I wont remember) which were great to hear without it being overwhelming. I learnt loads about topical skin care and health benefits and also sensible advise about what not to do. The group size was 10 which was perfect. Everyone was fully engaged with it. This day added to my limited foraging knowledge and has inspired me to do more. The cooking part, well organised and the food was impressive. It's great that the company supports the staff in the prep for that.
Overall a great day, would highly recommend.

Top tips for joining - Be prepared to stand around, a lot. Take a camping stall if standing too long is an issue, be prepared to not always be near a toilet. Take extra snacks if you need to as the meal is later in the day but is rather filling and worth the wait.

Some low reviews on here are about admin/website issues. The booking system on the website is a bit glitchy. I had to cancel my attendance first time round and was offered to rebook with no losses. I called directly to discuss as I cant deal with chatbots etc. I was impressed with the staff who helped me out.

As for cancellations, they are going to happen, just accept that and ask to be compensated or rebook and if you are treated well why still give a poor score.

A great day with Kristopher in Grizedale. We took away so much from the experience. It was 10/10. We came away feeling reallly happy and learnt so much

My recent course was in Tegg's Nose Country Park led by Fez. It was a really great day, I learnt a lot from the experience and we were amazed at the creativity and variety of foraging suggestions and uses for foraged items Fez had.
Whilst we took notes, it was also great to receive a follow-up email that listed everything we had seen and talked about as well as their various uses. (It was made clear on the day this would happen, and so whilst buying the company's books was an option, it didn't feel pushy or like we'd miss out on what we learnt if we didn't get the book)
In some ways, we were lucky with the weather as it was very bright and sunny, but there was quite a strong wind which made cooking on the camping stove for the meal a bit challenging - but Fez managed it and we really enjoyed the fresh flavours of what we'd foraged (plus a few extras that had to be foraged from the shop - I may be a novice but I don't think rice crackers are particularly easy to forage otherwise!)
As a guide, Fez was friendly, funny and knowledgeable. We only had 4 people in our group so we had plenty of opportunity to ask questions which Fez was very happy to answer. We also really appreciated sampling some of his collection of syrups and drinks made from foraged items.
Overall, we had a lovely day, and I'd definitely recommend the course to anyone interested in getting into foraging. Maybe if you're already interested in foraging, it might not be as useful, but as an almost complete beginner (wild garlic and blackberries were previously my limit) I learnt a lot and felt like it was a really effective way of getting learning and hands-on practice with a helpful, knowledgable guide to prevent any mishaps.