Roath Feast, Foraging

  A rather peculiar gathering assembled yesterday (April 27th) in front of the Roath Park clock tower. A collective mixture of peoples from all sorts of lives. All had heard the call and had mustered in the name of Foraging.

"Foraging you say? but you are in the middle of a city (Cardiff), what is there to forage in the middle of Cardiff? apart from, you know, discarded chips thrown to the floor in paper rags which you'll have to do battle with Cardiff's most fearsome predator in order to eat...... no thank you that sounds foul, pulse those harden Cardiff predators are pretty dangerous, they'll have your eye out" (I am of course referring here to that dreaded and treacherous native Cardiff species, Charadriiformes e.g the common hardcore Cardiff Seagull). 

But no, it turns out there is quite a lot of things you can forage and eat in the middle of Cardiff (without having to do battle with a Seagull) quite tasty things too. In this example we were after that most elusive and hard to find item, wild garlic. 

Which we found in surprisingly large amounts,  which we foraged and picked and ate with a very nice meal of pasta. Which most of us had no idea you could do, especially in the middle of a city (I am quite shocked by this fact, you may be able to tell), such a simple and historical act of foraging for ones food. A skill which in todays sociality has sadly fallen from the minds of common knowledge but thanks to yesterday adventure is now back, present in our understanding.

We were foraging because of one artists grand version for a project, Roath Feast. This ambitious project, designed and run by Artist  Clare Charles has been taking place over the last year on a monthly basis with each month a new skill sharing session taking place offering a different aspect of food.  Everything from biscuit making to smoking of foods has taken place, with the end goal of throwing one large feast encompassing every aspect that has been learned over the last year. The project is soon to be coming to an end, with the big feast taking place on the Summer solstice. Its been exciting watching this project take shape over the last year and it'll be interesting to see the final outcome. If you like to know more about Feast do have a look at the projects feast website.