Aroundtown MEETS
Aroundtown meets
Armed with her trusty wicker basket and shopping list, Alysia Vasey applies a slick of lipstick before she’s ready to leave her Doncaster home to collect groceries.
Just another humdrum task for most, but Alysia’s destination of choice isn’t her local supermarket or farm shop; I’m not sure she’d find giant chickweed, beechnuts, or sweet woodruff there. Plus, she’d probably get a few alarmed looks from her fellow shoppers if they saw the tools she was carrying.
Instead, she and her husband Chris are off to the woodland behind their house in search of the treasures of the wild. Her marketplace stretches from moors to mudflats, coastal cliffs to marshes, fields to rockpools. From the first signs of spring to the arrival of winter, Alysia scours the Yorkshire landscape to gather that day’s ingredients order. Alysia’s alias is the Yorkshire Forager; a botanicals expert and wild food consultant who supplies some of the world’s finest chefs and restaurants with fresh produce handpicked
from Yorkshire landscapes. Her contacts book is a ‘who’s who’ of fine dining, including 25 Michelin-star chefs who are eager to enhance their menus with some of nature’s most elusive and exclusive finds.
“It all seems a bit surreal when you just pick
‘‘Alysia has become one of the country’s most in-demand foragers, appearing on the likes of James Martin’s Saturday Morning and BBC Countryfile.’’
weeds for a living,” she says.
But there is far more to foraging than that. It may sound like something out of a fairy tale with visions of deer prancing past while she sings to the birds; but in reality, Alysia is battling the elements and earthly environments using SAS survival techniques to select her wares. It’s easy to become entranced by Alysia’s vast knowledge of the botanical world and the science behind it. Her reputation hinges on it. As she says, there are no accreditations or qualifications, just a basis of trust.
“Who knows how to challenge a forager? While you can’t be arrogant when you’re working amongst industry greats, I am also immensely proud of my reputation and I wear it on my back like a juggernaut. Sequins and all,” she says. And so she should be. Since launching
Yorkshire Foragers ten years ago, Alysia has become one of the country’s most in-demand
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wild food experts, appearing on the likes of James Martin’s Saturday Morning and BBC Countryfile. This year, she released her first book, The Yorkshire Forager: A Wild Food Survival Journey which gives a detailed insight into her own personal journey stemmed from childhood memories of foraging with her Polish grandad, along with tips for the foraging year and what to look for.
What she doesn’t know about foraging isn’t worth knowing. She works with chefs to explain flavour profiles, the history of plants, their medicinal or culinary properties, how to prepare and preserve them, are they water, oil or alcohol soluble.
Then there is the muddy subject of
which plants are toxic – something that even confuses experts.
“There are 4,500 different types of mushrooms growing in the UK, most of which look very alike. About ten percent are wonderfully edible. Two percent are deadly and would destroy you from the inside out.
“Every single bit of a pine tree is edible, from the pinecones to the young cores and green shoots and even the needles. Whereas every bit of a yew tree is toxic. Yet I have had chefs confuse the two evergreen trees and be adamant the tree they’ve been collecting cuttings from isn’t going to poison anyone.” With authenticity comes the need for sustainability and responsibility. Foragers are sometimes accused of exploiting our natural environment, a perception which Alysia is conscious to dispel. “We always pick from the same places every year and we never over-pick any items as I am fully aware that produce may be there one day and not the next. Some are seasonal while others are
Alysia Vasey
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