Biography
Darach works in environmental, outdoor and nature education - as a teacher of wild food foraging courses (specializing in seaweed), a leader of nature walks, a Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics trainer and a facilitator of wild-crafting and Woodland Ways programmes. Darach is a Heritage in Schools Panel member, and through this he delivers the above activities as well as vegetable growing, gardening for biodiversity and shoreline ecology to schools. He strives to deliver holistic and experiential nature connection and place based education programmes to children, teens and adults. Darach’s interests also include herbalism, permaculture, community projects, low impact eco-living, growing food and other “traditional” living skills.
His other hobbies are
*exploratory mountaineering expeditions - he was part of a team that climbed a previously unclimbed 6000m peak in the remote Indian Himalaya
* cold adventures - he skied across arctic Finland from Norway to Russia in February 2019
* epic hitch hiking journeys, sea swimming, cycling as a means to getting around, dancing to tunes, forest walks and chilling out in the sun.
Darach has been delivering formal foraging workshops since 2012, initially teaching everything he knows about seaweed and then expanding to offer land foraging workshops as well. He lives what he teaches, using foraged food almost everyday for his home cooked meals and he is constantly processing and preserving (drying, pickling, conserving, fermenting etc) what he finds on the land around where he lives.
He is passionate about sharing his knowledge with others to empower people to forage independently and responsibly. He sees foraging as a powerful tool that allows people to make meaningful connection with nature and inspires stewardship.
