In February, 70 foragers met at the Field Studies Council building in South Cumbria. If you’ve wondered what a gathering of foragers is like, or if you are an AoF member and thinking about attending the 2026 Annual Meet Up,  Sam Webster shares an overview of the AMU 2025.

We arrived with the excitement of Christmas for seeing distant friends whom we often call our foraging family. These gatherings are one of the highlights of the year. The hugs on arrival were plentiful and the venue was a beautiful Georgian building set in a stunning woodland with a canal along one side. 

Part of the joys of the foragers’ AMU is the food, and indeed we shared some wonderful meals. Often at these meetings, timed for the winter season when other people think about foraging less, we celebrate Burns night and thus share an ode to the staggis (haggis made with venison rather than lamb). 

Sharing is a big part of the meet ups. Not just food,  we share our subject specialties and run short talks and workshops for our peers. Stand out talks I attended were the seaweed workshop run by Darach O’Murchu where we learned about the different types of seaweed in our British waters, wild butchery by Micheal White and how to get books published by Rachel Lambert. 

We also enjoyed a trip to the local coastline. It was lovely to get some fresh air after a wonderful night of toasting our kinship, and explore a beautiful coastline and do some foraging and gather some wild ingredients for our evening meal. 

There was lots of time for relaxing and catching up, we enjoyed many moments sat around the fire enjoying freshly made laver breads made by Mark Williams, a few of us enjoyed morning wild dips in the canal, and the sharing of many drinks and toasts in the evenings.

Leaving the AMU is the hardest part, and saying goodbye to our beloved friends, but we leave inspired and our hearts full of love and happiness after spending time with the members of the Association of Foragers. 

If you are thinking about joining us for the 2026 meeting the location is in Devon, details have been emailed to current members. If you’ve lost the email or are in the process of joining, get in touch to ask for the details on the general contact email.