Foraging in July: nature's best summer food for foraging

Explore your inner hunter-gatherer by foraging for seasonal edible wild plants this summer. You’ll find them along hedgerows, path edges, woodland and heathland.

A wild food foray is a great way to connect with the landscape and enjoy peaceful moments spent in nature. Read on to discover the best foods for foraging in July in the UK.

Please remember to only take what you absolutely need (and only when there is a plentiful supply), sticking to species you can identify with certainty. Read our sustainable foraging guidelines for more advice.

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

These edible berries of heathland and moorland turn fingers, lips and tongues a deep purple.

How to use it

The berries of the bilberry plant are pleasant tasting when raw but are even better when cooked. They can be made into jam or lightly stewed with a little sugar and added to natural yoghurt, cream or ice cream. Use them to make a version of Scottish cranachan, a summer pudding or (if you have picked enough) as a filling for pies, tarts and crumbles.

What to look for

The low shrubby plants grow on heaths, moors and sparse conifer woods with acidic soil. Their fruit resembles small blueberries and can ripen around the beginning of July, continuing into August and September.

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Chickweed is an overlooked but underrated weed with cleansing and healing properties, packed full of vitamins and minerals.

How to use it

Chickweed's tender leaves can go in salads with lemon and olive oil dressing. Alternatively, blend them into homemade pesto, or use them to liven up fish or chicken. Wilt the leafy stems in a knob of butter, add spring onions and eat as a vegetable. The tiny white, edible flowers make a pretty salad garnish.

What to look for

The plant is common throughout the UK on waste ground and in gardens. Look for its small, white, star-like flowers and low, creeping habit. Leaves are too small to be picked individually, so pick the fine, tender stems.

Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)

This yolk-coloured fungus is one of the prettiest and most flavoursome of all wild mushrooms.

How to use it

The chanterelle has a firm flesh and a peppery, slightly fruity taste, smelling mildly of apricots. It is one of the few mushrooms that can stand washing. Cook it in a little oil or butter, add to pasta or steep in vodka for a distinctive liqueur.

What to look for

From July through to autumn, look for the golden, trumpet-shaped chanterelle in all kinds of woodland, from pine to mixed. Its wavy shape distinguishes it from the poisonous false chanterelle, which smells and looks like a more typical mushroom but just happens to be a similar colour. If you're not 100% sure which species you've found, don't risk eating it.

Fat hen (Chenopodium album)

Don’t let fat hen's alternative names of dirty dick and pig weed put you off. This common and nutritious plant, also known as wild spinach, was a staple food for our ancestors. Its seeds have been found inside the stomachs of Danish bog bodies.

How to use it

Fat hen leaves taste similar to spinach and can be cooked in the same way. Pick the tender leaves off the stems and lightly steam or boil them. Blend into a dressing with parsley, capers and olive oil or use them to whip up a soup.

What to look for

Fat hen has diamond or goose foot-shaped leaves that are covered with a coating of faint white hairs. It likes to grow in gardens, where it's often seen as a weed. Choose tender leaves and flower heads from the top of the plant.

Mallow (Malva sylvestris)

The leaves, flowers and seeds of mallow are edible. Leaves are rich in protein, calcium, iron and vitamin C, and in traditional medicine they’ve been used to treat constipation, diarrhoea, dry throats and chesty coughs.

How to use it

The slightly furry leaves are best picked in the summer. They contain a resin that gives them a distinctive gummy texture a little like okra. It adds glutinous richness to the Arabic soup, molokhia, which is made from them. The purple-mauve flowers have a similar flavour and texture to the leaves and are a good addition to salads, while the seeds have a delicate nutty flavour.

What to look for

You can find mallow in open, sunny habitats along hedgerows and roadsides and in pastures and wasteland. Its geranium-like leaves are best picked in midsummer, making July the ideal foraging time. When the flowers start to drop, look for the little pea-sized, green seeds that are worth a nibble.

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

Meadowsweet has long been a hedgerow herbal medicine. It was important in the development of aspirin, which got its name from the older scientific name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.

How to use it

The leaves of meadowsweet have a pleasant cucumber flavour, while the flowers have a scent similar to sweet almond. Both leaves and flowers can be used to flavour homemade wines, teas, cordials and sorbets.

What to look for

Meadowsweet is in full flower in July. It grows best where there is moisture, so look for it along ditches and in bogs, marshes and at the edges of watercourses.

Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Also known as alpine or woodland strawberry, these distinctive fruits are tiny but full of flavour. Small woods can be dominated by wild strawberry plants, but unless these populations are kept secret they can be decimated by over-picking and uprooting of plants to transplant into gardens. Only pick what you need and always forage sustainably.

How to use it

Wild strawberries are small and it’s rare to be able to pick more than a handful. They are best eaten raw, on their own or with a slight sprinkling of sugar (and possibly some cream). They’re considered far superior in flavour to cultivated strawberries.

What to look for

Look for low-growing plants with three-lobed leaves and fruits that look like miniature cultivated strawberries. You can find them in deciduous woods, along hedgerows and on rough grassland on chalky soils. The fruits ripen between June and August.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Also known as soldier's woundwort and staunchweed, yarrow was used traditionally to stem bleeding from wounds and treat nose bleeds and fevers. This strong-smelling plant was popular as a vegetable in the 17th century.

How to use it

Yarrow leaves are edible but have a medicinal and slightly bitter taste. The younger leaves make a pleasant leafy green in salads or when cooked like spinach, or in a soup. They can also be dried and used as a herb in cooking.

What to look for

You’ll find yarrow growing in grassy habitats in fields, meadows, gardens and along roadsides. It has distinctive feathery leaves and umbels of white to pink flowers from June to September. The leaves look a little like chamomile, pineapple weed and tansy but all three of these species are edible. Take care when picking – it can cause allergic skin reactions or photosensitivity in some people.