Description
An introductory course to ancient cookery
A foodie’s day course at our meadow in West Lothian learning how our mesolithic ancestors made fire, cooked and preserved food.
Topics covered
Discussion: Ancestral wild foods
Practical: Forage some lunch ingredients
Discussion: Ways of making fires and tinder
Practical: Fire making methods
Practical: Cooking over fire and underground
Discussion: Food preparation techniques
We will practise some of the most exciting fire making methods, such as hand drill, fire bow, spark fire with flint and marcasite, as well as flint and steel and make different types of tinder, without which fire making does not work. We will also investigate Stone Age-style stewing, simmering, roasting, frying… without a pot or pan. We’ll cook meat, fish, eggs and vegetables using various methods such as cooking stones, grill stones, hook grills, wood grills, stick grills, stone roasting, ember roasting, earth ovens, wrapped foods, etc. and use the pot made the previous day. Lunch will be cooked outdoors and include foraged foods.
Please note
We have the deepest respect for animals and can sensitively explain the use of wild animal foods. However, this course may not be suitable for people with strong vegan principles.
Monica ‘Mo’ Wilde is a passionate ethnobotanist who teaches the traditional uses of plants, seaweeds and fungi for wild food, medicine, craft, and the old ways of being and doing. Her experiment of living on only free wild food for a year, recorded in her award-winning book ‘The Wilderness Cure’, gave rise to The Wildbiome® Project – a fascinating ongoing research study into the health effects of a foraged diet.
Mo has a master’s degree in Herbal Medicine. She is a founder member of the Association of Foragers, a member of the British Mycological Society, the Society for Ethnobotany and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Brought up in East Africa, Mo now lives in a wooden eco-house on a small rewilded patch of Central Scotland.
Werner Pfeifer was born and raised in Namibia, mainly in the bush, which fostered a lifelong love of wild things. Originally studying biology and geography, he once worked as a professional hunter, then a game ranger before becoming a tourist an
d bush guide in Namibia. He helped the Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari set up their Living Museums and continues to work with them to preserve their traditions and ancestral skills. Werner has taught primitive and Stone Age skills for many years, being a leading specialist in everything regarding the North European Mesolithic period – the last hunter-gatherer time here.
In 2013, he built a Mesolithic settlement in the Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen (Stone Age Park) in North Germany where he currently works as a Stone Age teacher. Each year he also hosts the annual European Stone Age Gathering. Werner truly loves everything about nature, tracking, trapping, fishing, primitive skills and foraging. He is a patient teacher and an incredible source of ancestral knowledge.
