I've spent years going around for elderflower, blackberries, wild garlic and mushrooms. Some of the best days I've had in this job have been the ones that started at six in the morning in a wood somewhere with a basket and a bad coffee.
So this isn't me telling anyone to stop. It's the opposite. But if you're putting wild food on a menu you charge for, the law is different from what most of us assume — and I'd guess the majority of chefs have never actually checked. I hadn't, properly, until this month.
First, the headlines aren't quite right
You've probably seen the "£300 fine for picking blackberries" stories doing the rounds. They're mostly noise. There's no new law, no government crackdown on foraging. What happened is an ecology consultancy put out a press release and the local papers ran with it.
The actual legislation is decades old. Under Section 4 of the Theft Act 1968, it is not theft to pick the "four Fs" — fruit, foliage, flowers and fungi — from plants growing wild, even on private land, provided it's for your own use and not for sale or reward. That's been the position since before most of us were born.
So picking a basket of blackberries on a walk? Entirely legal. That part of the panic is overblown.
Where it changes for us
The protection disappears the moment there's money involved.
Pick blackberries for a crumble at home - fine. Pick those same blackberries to put on a menu you charge customers for, and legally that's theft unless you have the landowner's permission. It applies regardless of quantity or intention. It applies to the mushrooms, the wild garlic, the elderflower, all of it.
And there's no such thing as a commercial foraging licence in the UK. There's no form to fill in, no register to join. There is only permission from whoever owns the land - or owning it yourself. Those are the two options.
"But it's a public park"
This is where people get caught out, because "public" doesn't mean unowned. Someone owns every inch of this country.
Council parks and green spaces. Councils can set their own bylaws banning or restricting foraging entirely, and those bylaws are where the fixed penalty notices actually come from, typically £100 to £300, usually issued for ecological damage or stripping an area bare. Check for notices at the entrance. Epping Forest is the well-known example: a nurse was fined and left with a criminal record for picking mushrooms there, and that was for personal use.
Canal towpaths. Canal & River Trust land. Same rule, they're the landowner, so commercial harvesting needs their permission.
Public footpaths across farmland. You can forage from the path for personal use, but stay on it. Step off and you're trespassing. And anything that's clearly been planted is a crop, not wild food — that's straightforwardly theft.
Nature reserves and SSSIs. Often restricted or banned outright, and removing plants can be a criminal offence. These need permission from Natural England.
Two other things worth knowing
Roots are off the table. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it's an offence to uproot any wild plant without the landowner's permission — full stop, personal use or not. "Uproot" means digging up or removing the plant from the land. Leaves, flowers, fruit and fungi are fair game in the right context. Whole plants aren't. So dandelion or burdock root, however common the plant, needs consent.
Some species are protected entirely. Schedule 8 of the same Act lists plants where picking a single leaf is an offence. Certain wild orchids, for instance. And you cannot sell wild-picked bluebells. If you're not certain what something is, that's reason enough to leave it.
What I'd actually do about it
Go and ask. That's it. Most landowners I've approached have said yes, and several were pleased someone bothered to knock. A farmer with a hedgerow full of sloes usually isn't precious about them. The conversation takes ten minutes and it turns a legal grey area into a proper arrangement. One you can put on your menu without a second thought.
And if you've never taken your team out foraging, do it once. It's the best team bonding I know, and it teaches something no supplier invoice ever will.
Buying a kilo of girolles is easy. Go and find a kilo of girolles — the driving, the walking, the knowing where to look, the knowing what you're looking at. Then come back and look at the invoice again. You'll never grumble about the price of wild mushrooms the same way.
Hedgerow jelly is the one I make every year without fail. Blackberries, damsons, elderberries, sloes, whatever the year gives me. It still ends up on my Christmas cheese course, and it's still my favourite thing I make.
Stefano Camplone is a chef and the founder of Edit Studio London, making sustainable workwear for professional kitchens. He writes From the Pass, a weekly newsletter for chefs — kitchen news, industry stories and one thing worth your time, every Thursday at 7am. Join here.
This piece is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by local authority — check with the landowner or council before harvesting commercially.
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