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Preserving Traditions: Processing & storing your own food & medicine


  • Near Rhayader Location on Booking (map)

Workshop Overview:

 

  • Dates: 31 August / 1 September

  • Duration: 2 days

  • Location: On booking, In Rhayader, Wales, LD6 5PD area.

  • Cost: £195 10% discount for student / concessions

  • Inclusions: Lunch, materials, and products to take home(but please bring some recylced jam jars)

  • Instructors: Forager & food preservation expert Szymon (Foragerium) and medical herbalist Kim (Handmade Apothecary)

  • Focus: Learning traditional methods of food and medicine preservation including processing vegetables, foraged plants, fungi, and protein-rich foods.

  • Travel & Accommodation: See Travel & Accommodation. Free carparking at site.

  • Accessibility: We aim to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us if you have any questions. Paths around site are sometimes uneven. There are up to 5 steps to get around the site. Toilets on ground floor, but accessed up 1 step to get in the house then three steps inside and a couple of small ledges.

 

Join forager & food preservation expert Szymon & medical herbalist Kim in a 2-day intensive workshop to discover traditional methods of food & medicine preservation. Learn the art of processing veg, foraged plants, fungi and protein-rich foods to store all year round. Taste and try a wide range of items, make and take home a selection of your own products. 

Lunch included each day. Vegetarian/vegan lunch available, but please note part of the workshop day 1 includes processing meat and fish.

DAY 1 (10 am – 5.30 pm):

Fermentation, pickling, koji, miso, smoking, mushroom preservation techniques. Cooking with ferments. Storage tips and troubleshooting.

 

DAY 2 (9.30 am – 5 pm):

Learn how to turn herbs into Infused oils, balms, tinctures & vinegars and what herbs to use for basic first aid. Storage tips and troubleshooting.

 See full programme lower down the page.

 

What do I need to bring?

Notebook and pen, 2 x recycled jam jars. Box or bag to carry away your goodies. Bring your own produce to show and tell (optional). Good outdoor clothes and shoes as the area can be muddy.


COURSE LEADERS

Day 1 - Szymon is a biologist, permaculturist, forager and food preservation expert. Brought up in a self-sufficient family in rural Poland, Szymon learnt his skills at the knees of his elders and became passionate about sharing this knowledge. After completing a BSc in Environmental Biology, he founded the Foragerium in Edinburgh to provide workshops translating hunter-gathering skills into the modern world with minimal impact on the environment. His workshops include wild plant and mushroom foraging and how to process the season’s bounty into ferments, preserve, pickles and smokes. Szymon is a member of the Association of Foragers.


Day 2 - Kim Walker trained as a medical herbalist in 2012 before setting up www.handmadeapothecary.co.uk to share her knowledge of botany, foraging and creating herbal remedies. Fascinated by research she went on to gain a PhD in the history of medicine at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She now works as an author, researcher and teacher at the herbal medicine school www.betonica.co.uk

Kim is a member of the Association of Foragers.



PROGRAMME

Day 1 – Food preserving

10 am -11am Introduction and overview of food preservation methods.

11am – 15 min break

11:15 am-1:15 pm – Lacto-fermentation, talk and practical skills.

1:15 – 2:15 pm – Lunch made with fermented and foraged ingredients.

2:15 – 3:15 pm – Magic of mushrooms, koji, miso and mushroom fermentation.

3:15 pm – 15 min break

3:30 – 5 pm- How to cook with your ferments. Traditional methods and creativity.

5:30 pm  – finish

Day 1 – Medicine Preserving

9:30 -11:30 am – Gathering, drying & storing herbs

11:30 am – 15 min break

11:45 am – 12:45 pm – Infused oils, balms (Oil extraction & preservation of herbs)

12:45 – 1:45 pm  – Lunch made with fermented and foraged ingredients

1:45 – 2:45pm  Infused oils, balms (Oil extraction & preservation of herbs)

2:45pm – 15 min break

3pm -Tincturing (alcohol & vinegar extraction & preservation of herbs)

5pm – Finish