Grow Wild: Native British Plants
Tasty Natives was a project developed by Ana Maria Jaramillo Abadia one of our early residents in Green Lab. Funded by Kew Gardens, the project was part of the Grow Wild’s programme of community development around native species of flowers, plant and fungi.
Grow Wild is run by the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) which every year selects and funds different projects from all over the UK with the purpose of bringing communities together, reactivate abandoned places and promote knowledge about the native natural environment.
Green Las was selected from among 300 other projects to deliver a range of culinary experiences and public events hosted in the bright and cosy space of our Green Lab Incubator in Bermondsey. Each event featured the presence of local chef and food activists highlighting native edible species largely diffused in the UK though neglected. Different kinds of dishes were prepared, from starters to desserts all tasty and alluring for the participants.
All the recipes collected from the chefs and foodies who cooked for the events were crowd sourced and formed the basis for a Tasty Natives blog to inspire others.
‘ … the Tasty Natives project brought people closer to food, food that is native to the British hedgerows, fields, farms – it highlighted there is a such a variety of plants and fungus growing, many never heard of by the average urban city dweller and how these form part of a healthy and nutritious diet. Amongst the many projects Green Lab undertakes, putting people and communities back in touch with natural ingredients is an important part of changing how individuals understand food systems and where their food comes from. Supporting Kew in this initiative was something we really enjoyed, and it really demonstrated how varied a plant based diet can be …’
Ande Gregson, Founder Green Lab