Cornwall Climate Catch Ups: Josh Quick

What was your experience like being part of a Cornwall Climate Care film?

It was great fun to work with Bryony, Claire and the rest of the team at Cornwall Climate Care.  

Food security is a subject close to my heart and one I’ve spent many years exploring. This well researched film visited a few places I’ve been to before, such as the Plants for a Future forest garden, as well as opening my eyes to new ideas.

It was fascinating to see behind the scenes of how a film like this comes together and all of the hard work that goes into it. They made the process feel easy and have given me the confidence to start making my own videos and sharing more of my own story.

How has your story moved on since the film was made?

Life has totally changed for me since the film was made as me and my wife have welcomed our first child into the world. It’s been an incredible and totally life changing experience, leaving me more determined than ever to work towards creating a better future.
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I’ve put a lot of time into building my social enterprise ‘Wild St Ives’, where I share my passion for the world of plants and aim to reconnect people with the natural world around them. I currently offer workshops in foraging for wild foods, botany, tree identification and soon to be starting cookery lessons using wild foods with a great local chef.
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A lot has also been going on with another project I helped found and am a director of, the St Ives Community Orchard.
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It started off about 13 years ago as an idea to create an open access food forest. We planted over 150 fruit trees on a strip of land full of bracken and brambles and it has turned into a really amazing community project. I’ve made many lifelong friends, the trees are thriving and we host regular community events and volunteer days. It’s been a real sanctuary in a town and community like St Ives that has been shaken by excessive tourism.
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Last April we opened a new eco learning centre on the site in which we’ve been able to offer lots of workshops and events. And after many years of pushing the paperwork with the council we have just taken on a 30-acre nature reserve next door to the orchard.
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How can foraging be a part of the solution to climate and biodiversity crisis challenges?

We all have to eat, and replacing some of our diet with sustainably-harvested wild foods can really help the environment and our own health. Humans are a keystone species, and our choices and actions can have large effects throughout ecosystems.

It’s not about heading out and pillaging nature, but selectively harvesting in a sustainable way when plants appear in abundance in our local environments.

If done thoughtfully this can actually increase the food available for wildlife and each plant has an individual approach to harvesting that can be beneficial. An example would be harvesting nettle tops here and there rather than cutting back a whole patch at once. Each stem that is cut will regrow two new shoots, and the maturity of the plants will be staggered offering a longer season for nettle munching insects.

Learning to safely harvest wild foods is a slow process that takes commitment, time and knowledge. Food is something we can all relate to and foraging is a great hook to get people interested in the world around them. It is accessible to almost everyone. I firmly believe that when we learn to understand and interact with the natural world around us we are far more likely to want to protect it. Nothing has made me feel more connected and part of the landscape.

Foraging helps us to slow down, get away from the screens, be more mindful and focus on the world around us. It gets us out walking and exploring. On average people eat a very small number of plant species and increasing this diversity of foods is currently being talked about as a major way to improve health. But the shops and farms only supply certain foods. In our mild Cornish climate there are dozens of wild edible species that can be harvested sustainably throughout the year to increase that diversity.

For me, it’s not about trying to survive on wild foods, but introducing elements into our diets. Respectfully harvesting the abundant leafy green vegetables is where I think foraging can be most useful in a practical sense.

Cultivated greens are very perishable, expensive, are often transported large distances, wrapped in plastic and sprayed with chlorine. Wildlife is displaced to farm the land, machinery and fossil fuels are used in growing and transport, and fertilisers or pesticides used to grow the crops. Compare these inputs to wild greens happily growing in a hedgerow.  

I was in a large supermarket a few years ago in January and they were selling chives flown in from Kenya whilst the landscaped areas in the car park were overflowing with three cornered leeks, a great wild chive substitute. I'm not saying a car park is a great place to pick, but clearly something is wrong here and opportunities are present.

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