MORE TASTE, LESS SPEED

“I know a van that’ll sell us a Magnum. I forage but I’m also not averse to an ice-cream”

For this magazine, Cheddar Gorge is a gift. As one of the best and most scenic climbs in the country, we’ve had countless photoshoots there, ride-outs with colleagues and friends and watched the Tour of Britain peloton float up it. Today would be a first, however. I’d be meeting David Hamilton there, a foremost foraging expert, for a ride in which we’d pick and eat our way along the lanes of North Somerset. Not quite gorge on them, but certainly nibble about the edges.

Dave’s latest book, Where the Wild Things Grow: A Forager’s Guide to the Landscape, had just been published. The book, his sixth, is a guide that brings together over 25 years of knowledge of finding, picking, preparing and eating wild food. It’s broken down into four separate sections – man-made, rural, woodland and water – the distinct landscapes from where the abundance of wild food can be found. The idea behind today was to ride, carrying only the basics for a lunch and to forage the rest along the way. With bike-packing