5 Benefits of Foraging Together

Foraging has been a human activity since the beginning of time. It was an integral part of our lives that connected us with nature, plants, the seasons and each other. This blog explore the history and benefits of foraging together and what might have been lost by moving from a community to an individual model of foraging.

Benefits of foraging together

These days, deeply impressed upon the human psyche, is the monomyth of the hero’s journey - the myth of the lone range, the heroine, the 'going it alone'¹. It is without question that individuals have achieved great things and also great destruction in our world. From Jesus to Adolf Hitler, Gandhi to Donald Trump. From Florence Nightingale, to Mother Teresa, Tarana Burke to Michelle Obama, from Dr Jane Goodall to Malala Yousafzai.

And yet, it is the impact that these individuals have had on the collective that make them really powerful. It is people joining together for a common cause that creates palpable strength and resilience. So let us break this down into 5 main benefits of doing things together in relation to foraging.

1. Keeping morale and spirits high

Our ancestors knew that as social animals we needed each other to stay healthy. Whether it is to remind each other of why we do what we do, offer support when tiredness kicks in, or help lift spirits when motivation or morale dips. Doing it together helps!

Recent research into farmers mental health² reveals that although the, often, solitary work of farming can be peaceful, there are real risks to mental health and physical safety. As a foraging guide I can relate to this - foraging is so much more fun when I have a group with me; sharing experiences, stories and learning together. I'm always grateful for the people who join me, and solo participants join specifically to enjoy the group experience too.

Foraging as a community activity fosters social connection, addressing social isolation and creating networks of support between people.³ It echoes the natural connections and networks that we are part of as living beings that share this earth with billions of species⁴. A fact that is easy to forget in our modern lives. Both a sense of belonging, for example, with fellow foragers and belonging to this earth is essential for good mental health⁵.

Engaging in nature-based activities like foraging has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety levels, contributing to mental well-being. This benefit stems from mindful engagement with natural surroundings, which promotes relaxation and reduces stress-related symptoms (e.g. lowering cortisol levels).⁶

2. Sharing and working together

Foraging in groups was originally a survival strategy. A way of getting work done quickly, using people's unique skills and keeping the group safe. It is thought that we lived in tribes of about 150 people as the ideal number for foraging communities. Families and tribes would work together, each person playing a crucial role - working with everyone's strengths and weaknesses.

I've seen this when I've taken groups or families out to forage too. Each person has a different strength. For one person it could be their sense of smell or taste, while another is able to remember facts better. And someone else is able to visually read the landscape from a distance, noticing the change of terrain and plants. While those better at detail will pick up on the shape, colour and texture of a plant. Together, the team is strong with a wide range of skills needed to forage safely and effectively.

Community foraging events offer opportunities for participants to bond over shared interests and activities, building connections across age groups, cultures and backgrounds.⁷ I've loved the moments when people realise the weeds in their city or Cornish garden are edible, or when a plant we find here also grows in someone's country of origin and cultural recipes are shared. These experiences create a stronger sense of connection between us⁸ and the plants making our world smaller for a moment and building a community of people being in and appreciating nature.

3. Increasing learning, connections and deepening fulfilment

Some of us learn better in groups. Indeed there's much research that back up the benefits of collaborative learning.⁹

I've met many people on foraging walks who have tried to learn foraging from books, including my foraging books and on their own. However, they are either still not sure if they've got the right plant, or just prefer learning with others. Encouraging each other to accurately identify a plant and celebrating successes can be a massive boost. As someone said to me recently; 'foraging in the original dopamine hit'. Foraging beautifully combines a sense of purpose (finding food), and accomplishment, leading to enhanced self-esteem and sense of satisfaction.

Through physical and practical activities, learning can deepen and contribute to meaningful life experiences. Compared to online learning, for example, which looses the full human experience of touching, tasting, smelling, seeing and experiencing together. Our ancestors would have known and experienced this to their core, and foraging together would have enabled knowledge to be passed down through generations. From identifying plants to understanding the seasons, animal behaviour, and weather patterns. Our ancestors were like walking encyclopaedias of nature.

4. Staying safe

Feeling safe and secure is a basic need. Coming together in a supportive environment with like-minded people can help increase that feeling and simultaneously reduce stress, calm the nervous system and increase health and happiness. Walking slowly in nature, stopping to take mindful moments to observe, sense and connect can all help to create mental clarity and emotional resilience.¹⁰

When I've led foraging walks, I encourage everyone to work as a team and we're also working with the plants - considering their needs and only taking what we need. These skills of considering others (plant, person, animal, bird, insect) can help cultivate our ability to care for each other and the world around us. The benefits of this is; increasing physical safety when out walking together on the coast path, fields, woodland or beach. As mentioned before, we a group we can also access a range of skills to correctly identify wild foods, or at least identify the right questions to attain whether we are 100% certain of our identification.

5. Building collective responsibility and support

Learning together feels good! It confirms that we're not alone with our questions, interests and struggles. When foraging together we can keep each other accountable, support good practice and discover shared concerns.

Foraging naturally provides hands-on learning opportunities about local ecosystems, plant species and sustainable harvesting practices. Such activities can increase people's awareness of biodiversity and sustainability and can link our own actions to environmental issues.¹¹ There is potential for the collaborative nature of foraging to organically instigate a collective environmental stewardship and commitment to more sustainable actions.¹² As a forager and guide, this is an area I'm particularly interested in. How positive engagement with foraging can stimulate further actions of environmental protection, and how knowing we're not alone in these cares can strengthen this desire and action.

For example, hearing that others will be eating rather than killing weeds in their own gardens in the future, helps encourage others to do the same. There is more power and momentum in the collective.

References

1. Hero with a thousand faces, Joseph Campbell, 1949 and Vol. 24, No. 2/3, The Future of Group Psychotherapy in the 21st Century, Part II (September 2000), pp. 203-219 (17 pages), Published By: Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society. (Collective Consciousness and the Psychology of Human Interconnectedness by Pilar Montero and Arthur D. Coleman) Collective Consciousness and the Psychology of Human Interconnectedness on JSTOR ↩︎
2. Loneliness and Social Isolation in Farming, By Rebecca Wheeler, Matt Lobley, Jude McCann and Alex Phillimore, November 2021 ↩︎
3. Hartig, T., Mitchell, R., de Vries, S., & Frumkin, H. (2014). Nature and health. Annual Review of Public Health, 35, 207–228. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182443 and Volinia, P., Mattalia, G., & Pieroni, A. (2024). Foraging educators as vectors of environmental knowledge in Europe. Journal of Ethnobiology, 44(1), 212–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771241261225 ↩︎
4. Humans make up just 0.01% of Earth's life — what's the rest? - Our World in Data ↩︎
5. Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health | Mental Health Foundation and Marselle, M. R., Irvine, K. N., Lorenzo-Arribas, A., & Warber, S. L. (2014). Moving beyond green: Exploring the relationship of environment type and indicators of perceived environmental quality on emotional well-being following group walks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(1), 106–130. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120100106 ↩︎
6. Bratman, G. N., Daily, G. C., Levy, B. J., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning, 138, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.005 and Yao, W., Zhang, X., & Gong, Q. (2020). The effect of exposure to the natural environment on stress reduction: A meta-analysis. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 48, Article 126932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126932 ↩︎
7. van den Berg, A. E., & Custers, M. H. G. (2011). Gardening promotes neuroendocrine and affective restoration from stress. Journal of Health Psychology, 16(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105310365577 ↩︎
8. Zylstra, M. J. (2014). Exploring meaningful nature experience, connectedness with nature, and the revitalization of transformative education for sustainability (PhD thesis), Stellenbosch University ↩︎
9. The 5 key benefits of learning in groups - Learning and Leadership Consulting ↩︎
10. Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2 ↩︎
11. Leonie K. Fischer and Ingo Kowarik (2020), Connecting people to biodiversity in cities of tomorrow: Is urban foraging a powerful tool? ↩︎
12. See references 8 and 11). ↩︎

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