Wild Harvest School of Self-Reliance

03/09/2026

A beautiful day for Wedding Archery today. All the way down to near Loughborough and Willow Marsh Farm for Sophie and Jades marriage. The girls and their bridesmaids had already done archery before so it was a fab first round !

31/08/2026

🧙 Learning a bit about Yorkshires witch history … ready for our Halloween Event; it turns out somehow quite by chance our local Market Town of Pocklington has a witch histowy of being known for some quite rare witchcraft cases !
Can’t wait to share it all with you at our Halloween event !

🔥 The 1600s Pocklington saw the last burning of a witch in the UK years after burning had been replaced with hanging as a sentence.

🌾 Crop failures, civil war and economic crises saw angry local mobs take ‘justice’ into their own hands and Old Wife Green was burned at the stake in the market square of the town in 1632.

🌱 Often these poor women were simply women who had more connected conceptual level thinking, (rather than just talking about people would talk about emerging connections between concepts) understood plants and Nature, maybe lived alone on the outskirts … who recognises themselves in what would once have been the definition of a witch and is thankful they are born into this time of the world 🕰️ 🌍

If you fancy dressing up with friends and getting to enjoy an adult Halloween of magical crafting making black bath potion, herb tea spells and blood red candles and eat green soup : if this is YOU we have just a handful of places left and have opened up three free camping places for small/medium tents.

Visit wildharvest.org to connect with your modern witch sisters this Halloween ! 🧙‍♀️

Photo : a very early media photo when I lived on the edge of a remote village, without a man, and played with plants haha … join me this Halloween !

30/08/2026

"Easy to sit and read, trying to learn more about sustainable living." Rachael
Check out my ebook - 240 pages to help you be more self-sufficient - Naturally.
https://f.mtr.cool/butk1rfk5u

28/08/2026

☕ Grab a coffee and read this weeks blog post... 📖
Brooms can be made from the natural materials around you. For a handle choose a straight length of ash, chestnut or hazel about five feet long and about 1.5 inch diameter (3.5 ish cm). For the bristles you need to gather either dried heather off the moor (ensuring you cut the bundles at the base to keep the stems on) or leafless bushy winter branches of birch. The bundles of bristle need to be about 1.5 feet long. This gives a foot for the brush and 6 inches to be lashed to the pole. More
❤️ Aiming to help you become more self-sufficient, Naturally!

If you are here, you have probably wondered how you can make a traditional broomstick (or more likely 'How to Make a Broom', they just get nick-named Broomsticks at this time of year (writing this blog at the end of October!) from just what is growing around you right now... Whether it's for Hallowe...

27/08/2026

HOW TO GET MORE JUICE OUT OF YOUR APPLES...

As an ex industrial chemist My Dad likes to combine science and self sufficiency. Gardening to him is experimenting, measuring inputs and outputs and altering methods to tweak results...

He worked out that fresh fallen apples yielded juice at only about 30 - 40%. They were also tough to press. He's getting old and wanted more juice for less pressing! So...

He froze his apple harvest for a day, until hard then took them out of the freezer to allow them to thaw.

After thawing the apples, and using his Vigo hand press he pressed the apples and discovered that the above ratio of pulp:juice reversed!

He yielded 60 - 70% juice and 30-40% pulp. A much better return for effort and much easier pressing.

We decided the juice was still very strong but possibly less so and debated whether there was simply extra water from the ice.

The 'waste pulp' of course was brought home for our animals. The Vigo press here was about £85, needs no electric and can press about 3kg of apples at a time.

The total time to make 1l of apple juice was 40 mins. That's under ten mins per glass. Still a lot of time input but the result is unpasteurised which you can't get in the shops, so retaining maximum vitamin C too.

Link to the video of him pressing the thawed apples here:

His favourite thing to do is to optimise the output of a growing/pr...

26/08/2026

Craft Workshops and Wild Food Foraging Walks in Yorkshire and Beyond. We also run eco hen parties, team building events and weddings. Established in 2006 and still going strong. We offer courses, activities and accommodation all aimed to empower you to self-reliance. Make, Grow and Forage. Attended....

24/08/2026

Advice Needed! I want to list a new type of basket weaving day as a progression day for our previous basket weaving day customers .
A slightly chunkier version of the basket above using a slice of wood for the base, different weaves and types of willow for the walls then leather strap handles.

The thing is ; pricing it all up after advert costs , materials costs and tax and payment processing fees to get an actual teacher’s wage from the full day (inc prep time ) I’d have to charge £149 per student for a one day course . I’ve been teaching for 32 years now and still manage to price to undervalue myself and know this has to change into older age.

I have seen others charge as a norm £120 for day courses but I’ve always tried to be as affordable as possible to help people access the skills , so for me to charge this even though it’s what the costs are dictating these days, feels risky.

Before I order materials to do the demo one (slightly chunkier than above ) I may as well know if I would actually be able to sell six or seven places needed to fill the course .

What do you think please ? Should I bother or just stick with the entry level basket days . Please especially comment if youve already been on our intro basket day and would like a progression option !

23/08/2026

"Great morning, informative and will make our hikes take on a new challenge"
Whatever your reason for wanting to learn foraging, we have you covered...
wildharvest.org