Foraging and adventure in Jersey
21.08.2023 - 11:56
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
Can you imagine stepping outside your house and wading out onto a reef to collect seaweeds and shellfish for your lunch? Or talking the dog for a walk into the nearby forest, hunting for mushrooms and foraging edible plants to go with them?
That’s the idyllic-sounding lifestyle of Kazz Padidar, who lives by the sea in Jersey and makes his living by foraging and teaching outdoor adventure activities. I was lucky enough to have a chat with Kazz, who explained how his career choices have been motivated by a love of nature and why Jersey is a lovely place to visit – even in the winter.
Kazz’s grandparents lived on Jersey during the German occupation of the Second World War. They owned a farm, but when the Nazi’s commandeered all of their food production, they were left to forage for wild foods to feed themselves. Far from burying this experience as deeply as possible, Kazz’s grandmother passed on her skills to her grandsons, convinced that this knowledge would once again be important in the future.
Kazz and his brothers had the kind of wild childhood that is all but impossible now (but which science increasingly shows is the best possible start for kids). As Jersey was a safe island, they were allowed to roam free all day, until it was time to go home to eat. Things have changed a bit nowadays, including an increase in road traffic, and it’s likely that Kazz and his brothers were among the last people to grow up this way on Jersey.
With his Wild Adventures, Kazz aims to give kids and adults a taste of that world by teaching them bushcraft and survival skills, including foraging. His hope is that, by doing so, he is helping to reconnect people to nature. With a better understanding of their environment, and an appreciation of
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