Cuir sàr-eòlaiche rùrachd ri oide àrainneachd Gàidhealach agus tha cuirm biadh fiadhain air leth ann.

Take a foraging expert and add a Gaelic environmental educator to create the perfect recipe for a day out discovering wild food.  Read the full blog in Gaelic below.

What a great day! We were with the foraging expert, Mark Willliams, who hails from Galloway, and Highland-based Gaelic environmental educator, Roddy Maclean, to learn about putting a Gaelic perspective on wild food collecting in a West Highland context at Dunstaffnage near Oban. Mark enthusiastically gave us information from his vast store of practical knowledge about what you can eat that grows naturally on our ‘doorstep’, and Roddy added his own ‘colour’ with the Gaelic names for the species, and cultural and practical knowledge related to Gaelic tradition, delivered in that language. The experience was informative and great fun.

We started with some trees, chewing on the edible and tasty buds and young leaves of the lime and elm trees, as well as that ubiquitous Highland species, the rowan. Mark talked about how to use the nettle and wood sorrel as food and introduced us to the dangers of poisonous species such as the foxglove and the hemlock water-dropwort. He highlighted his ‘favourite’ species – hogweed – and gave us a piece of his delicious cake made using hogweed seeds. One of the delights of Mark’s work is his ‘bag of tricks’ which is full, not only of cakes, but of vials and bottles of drinks and sauces made from native species. Most are delicious, although one or two are less so!

On the sandy ground behind the beach, we chewed on sea sandwort, which is very pleasant, and Roddy introduced us to silverweed, an important addition to the Gaels’ diet in times of famine. As low tide approached we spent time foraging on the seashore to access edible seaweeds and learned there are no foraged or shallow-water species in Scotland that are poisonous (but polluted areas should be avoided). We ate, or at least chewed on, forest kelp, dulse, pepper dulse, sea lettuce, Dumont’s tubular weed and channelled wrack, and collected some newly washed up sugar kelp to take back to cook.

At the cooking session, Mark introduced us to delicious wild plants which are not as common in the Highlands as in Galloway, notably sea kale and sea beet, making a great seafood soup, and he fried young hogweed shoots which were surprisingly tasty. We went home hungry – but only for more knowledge about how to forage wild food! Thanks to Bòrd na Gàidhlig for their support for this, and related, Gaelic foraging events.

Abair latha math! Bha sinn còmhla ris an t-sàr-eòlaiche air cruinneachadh bìdh, Mark Williams, à Gall-Ghàidhealaibh, agus Ruairidh MacIlleathain, a bhios a’ teagasg mun àrainneachd tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig, airson eòlas fhaighinn air ‘rùrachd’ airson biadh air taobh an iar na Gàidhealtachd (aig Dùn Staifhinis faisg air an Òban). Bha Mark gu math practaigeach agus sheall e dhuinn na ghabhas ithe air ar stairsnich. Chuir Ruairidh ri sin le fiosrachadh ann an Gàidhlig mu ainmean Gàidhlig nan lusan agus eòlas air cleachdaidhean traidiseanta nan Gàidheal. Bha iad le chèile fiosrachail agus spòrsail.

Thòisich sinn le craobhan, ag ithe nan gucagan is duilleagan òra air an leamhan, teile agus caorann. Bhruidhinn Mark rinn mu chleachdadh na deanntaig agus na feada-coille airson biadh agus mar a dh’aithnicheamaid gnèithean puinnseanta, leithid lus nam ban-sìth agus an dàtha bàn iteodha. Dh’inns e dhuinn gur e an t-odharan an lus as fheàrr leis agus thug e dhuinn pìos cèic air a dèanamh le sìl an odharain. Tha màileid iongantach aige a tha làn (a bharrachd air cèic) de bhotail de shabhs agus deochan. Tha a’ chuid as motha dhiubh air leth blasta, ach tha fear no dhà ann a tha car searbh!

Air an talamh ghainmhich os cionn a’ chladaich, chagnaich sinn air duilleagan blasta lus a’ Ghoill agus bhruidhinn Ruairidh mun bhrisgean, a bhiodh na Gàidheil ag ithe aig àm goirt. Le ìsle na mara, thug sinn ùine seachad air a’ chladach, a’ lorg feamainn a ghabhas ithe (chan eil gin a lorgas tu beò air a’ chladach puinnseanta – ach bithibh faiceallach ma tha truailleadh ann). Dh’fheuch sinn stamh, duileasg, duileasg piobarach, glasag, an fheamainn phìobach agus an fheamainn chìrean, agus chruinnich sinn langadal a bh’ air tighinn a-steach leis an làn airson a chocaireachd.

Anns a’ ‘chidsin’, dh’ullaich Mark brot biadh-mara le lusan nach eil cho cumanta air a’ Ghàidhealtachd ʼs a tha iad ann an Gall-Ghàidhealaibh, leithid càl na mara (smaoinich brocolli) agus biatas-mara (smaoinich bloinigean-gàrraidh), agus dh’fhraighig e gasan òga odharain a bha gu h-iongantach taitneach. Chaidh sinn dhachaigh làn acrais – ach airson tuilleadh eòlais fhaighinn air mar a chruinnicheas sinn biadh air a’ bhlàr a-muigh! Ar taing do Bhòrd na Gàidhlig airson an taice le seo agus le tachartasan Gàidhlig eile dhen aon seòrsa.