Urban Foraging Walk: Wild Flavors of Summer
Description
The summer foraging season in Berlin is long, luscious and full of treasures. Hidden in plain sight in parks, backyards and weedy margins, the wild edible plants of the city offer a genuinely breathtaking diversity of phenomenal flavors, medicinal benefits and powerhouse nutrition just waiting to be discovered!
On this guided summer wander through one of Berlin's lush parks, you'll receive a hands-on (and tastebuds-on!) introduction to the ins and outs of recognizing, finding, sustainably harvesting and safely utilizing a wide range of wild edible & medicinal plants and fungi common to the Berlin area in summer.
With an emphasis on the surprising, unique, intense and fascinating flavors offered by wild food, we'll concentrate on ingredients which are both easy and rewarding to incorporate into your cooking, as well as a few which are useful additions to your home apothecary.
Amongst others, we're likely to encounter vanilla-like sweet clover to infuse into panna cotta; earthy nettles to add into sauces and curries; tart oregon grape to make into sweet & sour gastrique; aromatic yarrow to infuse into healing teas and tinctures – and so, so much more.
As with all Wild Path Foraging events, this workshop will be guided by Simka (they/them), a passionate wild food instructor with over 4 years' experience teaching about plant and mushroom foraging in Berlin.
You can check out what people have said about previous workshops run by Simka here.
Through the afternoon, you'll receive:
a thorough introduction to 10-20 different edible & medicinal species
practical tips on plant identification
detailed guidance on safe & sustainable harvesting
explanations of each species' culinary and medicinal uses
explorations of the complexities around foraging and food systems
insights into the surrounding folklore of various plants
loads of relevant recipes and culinary inspiration
loads of infectious foraging enthusiasm
Attendance is limited to 15 people to keep the group cozy and ensure everyone has time and space to get all their questions answered.



Add a foraging guide:
In collaboration with the incredible illustrator Juliette Patissier, I've created a foraging guide especially relevant to Berlin and its parks! The guide is made up of a set of 7 cards, each featuring identification pointers, harvesting tips, recipe ideas and useful information on delicious, common plants, many of which we'll meet during this tour. The set also includes general foraging advice and a fire recipe for wild pesto, plus a waterproof envelope to keep it all safe.
The guide usually costs 15€, but if you buy one together with your ticket, you'll get a 2€ discount.
See here for more information about the guide!


FAQs
- Where will the event take place?
Each foraging walk will take place in a park in the central Berlin area, within 10 minutes' walk of an S- or U-Bahn station (e.g. Treptower Park, Landschaftspark Herzberge, Tiergarten, Wuhlheide, etc).
Once registered, you'll receive the precise meeting location by email around 1 week in advance of the workshop date.
Since the season progresses in a different way each year, and different parks have different planty strengths and weaknesses, this allows for the best possible experience based on what is in season at the exact moment of the event date! - What's the deal with the pricing?
It's a deep value of mine that this learning – which radically connects us with ourselves, the land, and one another – should be accessible for everyone, which is why I keep my tours as low-price as I possibly can. In order to uphold this financial accessibility while keeping this work sustainable for myself, there are two ticket levels: Full price and Concession. Please choose the concession level only if you aren't able to afford the full price ticket.
I totally understand if the concession level is also not accessible for you! I offer a fully donation-based workshop once a month throughout the foraging season, which I call the Broke Cuties Foraging Club. Feel free to register for one of these if you're not in a place where you can afford a full price or concession ticket here.
There are quite some processing fees associated with selling tickets, especially through Humanitix, which is an ethical ticketing platform that donates its proceeds to charity. It doesn't feel right to force you, the buyer, to pay these fees; however if you are in a financially comfortable position, you can tip me the fees during your checkout process, which I HUGELY appreciate.
My intention with all of this is to earn a living wage while widening the reach of financial accessibility to more folks than I was able to with my previous sliding-scale model. Thanks for being with me in navigating through the challenges of capitalism with justice, transparency and generosity! - What experience level is this workshop suitable for?
This walk is aimed at absolute beginners, but is also suitable for foragers with some existing knowledge. Absolutely no experience is required or assumed.
If you do have some experience already, it's likely you'll already recognize some of the plants we encounter, but I always try to include some oddball or unexpected plants that most casual foragers don't know about! If you're still unsure, feel free to contact me. - What is the cancellation policy?
If you can no longer make the event, you may cancel by sending an email to simka@wildpathforaging.com up to 7 days before the event.
Please indicate in your cancellation email whether you prefer to receive a voucher for the full amount, or receive a refund minus 7% to cover admin and payment processing fees via bank transfer. If the latter, please also provide your bank transfer information (name and IBAN). You may also request to transfer your ticket to a different date, dependent on availability.
Within 7 days of the event, a refund/replacement is not guaranteed. However, do still let me know if you are no longer able to attend. IF I manage to fill your spot last-minute, I will issue either a refund minus 15% to cover admin and fees, or a voucher for the full amount, according to your preference.
Don't forget that these events go ahead rain or shine! Only in the case of instructor illness or dangerous weather (such as gale-force winds which could cause breaking branches) might an event be cancelled.
In the unlikely event that Wild Path Foraging cancels an event, you will receive a full refund, voucher or exchange. - What happens in case of rain?
We operate with the philosophy that there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad preparation. The plants don't mind if it's wet! Tours are only cancelled in case of dangerous weather such as storms or extreme heat (in which case you would be notified as early as possible and receive a full refund). Please make sure to plan ahead and wear waterproof clothes & shoes as needed.
- What's the distance and pacing of each walk? Are they wheelchair accessible?
These walks are usually under 4km walking in total, with a slow walking pace and frequent breaks along the way. If you have any mobility issues feel free to let me know during registration as I will happily do what I can to make the walk accessible to you.
Usually there is the opportunity to sit on the ground at each stop, and sometimes also on benches. Feel free to bring a folding chair if sitting on the ground is an issue for you (I also have one available, please note this during registration if you would like me to bring this).
These walks are unfortunately not ideal for wheelchair users as we often need to leave paved paths to reach the plants. However it's not impossible to arrange a wheelchair accessible route - please reach out to discuss your specific needs and to find a suitable event date. - Can I bring my dog?
It's usually possible to have one leashed, well-behaved dog who is great in groups per workshop. If you are afraid of dogs, or for any other reason would not like to attend a workshop with a dog present, please simply reach out in advance to ensure your chosen date is dog-free. Otherwise, dog places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis, restricted to one per event.
However! it's important to understand that we stop very frequently to discuss plants along the way, and due to this slow pace, dogs can often get bored, cold and/or agitated and become disruptive, which we absolutely can't have. So please be realistic about how your dog would handle this.
If you would like to bring your dog, reach out by email in advance to make sure this is possible for your chosen date. - Can I bring my child?
These workshops are geared towards adults. However, curious kids with good attention spans may also enjoy them. Age 14+ need a ticket; age 7 and younger can attend for free. Reach out to arrange a discounted ticket for age 8-13.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity






