At Forage we think there isn’t much better in life than eating food cooked with love, with good company and great music. So we thought we’d start ever so often putting on Wild Feasts. They’re not quite the average night out….Tables get moved, people help clear plates, service is slow BUT the food is fresh, the atmosphere is magic, and our guests feel like our friends. We’re not professional caterers but we do have lots and lots of squirrelled away treats we make through the year – the types of things that make menus a bit special & could make NOMA jealous..mulberry & sumac jam, rosehip & cardamom vinegar, pickled unripe gooseberries, wild cherry pit liqueur, dried meadowsweet & sorrel jelly,,,

The dust from our last wild night is just settling – it was quite a night and from a tiny village hall kitchen we fed 130 hungry people & then danced the starry night away to the incredible MABON. A very kind man called Richard Waite came along with his camera & snapped the night, and as pictures can say 1000 words, here are some of the highlights of a very wild night in the mountains…

Oh, by the way here is what we ate:

Canapes

Trout soused in unripe gooseberry vinegar

Salmon poached in rosehip, chilli & apple juice

Rose petal preserve on ragstone cheese

Damson & chocolate sauce on wild boar salami

pickled wild garlic buds with haford cheese

wild hazelnut & rose el hanout dukkah

Mains

Roast haunch of vension & spiced venison meatballs with mulberry & sumac sauce

pumpkin, blackberry, elderberry, walnut & chestnut tart

wild bubble & squeak with nasturtium leaves, cleavers, bittercress & chickweed

kale wilted in cobnut oil with pickled unripe blackberries, pine & blackberry vinaigrette & wild hazelnuts

Puddings

Wild black forest gateaux with meadowsweet, wild cherries, and wild cherry liqueur

Damson & Chocolate cream mess with toasted oats and meringue

elderflower champagne & gooseberry jelly

walnut, sloe gin & pine strudel with Shepherds sloe gin & damson ice cream

Cheese board with Wye Valley Ewes cheese, Neals Yard Ragstone, Stilton & Haford cheese (provided by Marches Deli in Abergavenny)

We drank some LOVELY wine, beer and cider from the wonderful Hay Deli,  and the feasters quaffed lots of Englands newest red, Sixteen Ridges Pinot Noir – the wine child of Simon Day, cider master at Once Upon a Tree, who is now taking the English wine scene by storm.

Thank you everyone who came, everyone who waited patiently for their food, everyone who moved tables, everyone who smiled, cleared their plates & danced. You were lovely, please come again!

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