Nature's larder Wild diet helps forager Lewis save hundreds on food shop

A BRISTOL man saves up to £200 on his monthly food shop - by foraging for nettles, wild mushrooms and dandelions.

- Jamie SAUNDERSON

Lewis advises new foragers to read, take tours and classes, and learn from the experts - and never rely on apps

Lewis Pidoux, 41, has fond memories of picking blackberries with his dad as a youngster - and he got hooked on the hobby in his early 20s as a way of fuelling long-distance hikes.

Wild ingredients now make up about a fifth of his diet and his inventive meals include nettle pakora and acorn pancakes. Having recently gone part-time in his job as a chef to focus on growing his YouTube channel, the green-fingered Bristolian aims to make foraged food nearly 100 per cent of his diet.

He views foraging as a way to “connect with nature” and says it saves him £200 a month on his food shopping during spring and £100 in cooler months when he can’t forage.

Lewis, who works at Toby Carvery, said: “Foraging is seen nowadays as a niche hobby but it’s the way our ancestors survived, so I think there’s a deep need to do it.

“It’s part of us all. Off the top of my head, I probably save about £100 a month. Some of the fruits that I forage can be very expensive if you get the ones in the shop.

“Some of the mushrooms, like porcinis, can be really expensive. You could pretty much have most of your diet being foraged if you really wanted to but that would be a full-time job.”

Lewis has been foraging for around two decades and started posting on YouTube six years ago in a bid to educate people on wild foods. He noticed a spike in interest around the time of the pandemic.