Our food-filled adventure starts with a foraging walk up to our woodland glen, gathering a selection of wild ingredients on our way. We will give you tips on how to identify seasonal hedgerow edibles, highlighting the tasty morsels that nature’s larder has to offer. Depending on the season and the (ever-changeable) Great British weather, you may want to bring wellies to change into and a good waterproof is recommended.

After a restorative cuppa in our woodland kitchen (recently equipped with a shelter in case of particularly uncooperative weather), we will then turn our attention to the main business of the day; skinning and butchering either a fallow or roe deer carcass. We will spend the majority of the morning taking our time preparing the deer. We will start by skinning and talk through the process of curing your pelt at home using traditional methods. During our field butchery lesson we will break down our carcass into primal cuts and use seam butchery to further process the deer. Using the whole animal from nose to tail and showing you how to reduce waste getting the most from the animal, we will talk through multiple ways of preparing each cut, stocks and sauces and the best ways to store your meat . Whilst all this is happening our team will cook up delicious snacks over fire to quell your hunger before we spend our afternoon cooking up a feast over fire.

Fires crackling and curiosity sparked, we will then introduce you to a medley of different cooking methods, including spit roasting, the Dutch oven, skillets, grilling and hot smoking. Following on from your introduction to whole deer butchery, it will be time for you to get cooking, using your new skills to create a magnificent lunchtime feast. And what better place to lunch than under our woodland canopy, surrounded by the snap, crackle and pop of the fires?

Keen to pass on methods that are safe for the environment and for yourselves, we will give you tips on how to sustainably source your firewood and also advise you on how to practice your new skills as safely as possible.

Expect to head home smelling of wood smoke, with plenty of food and fire in your bellies. We’ll send you an email recipe pack so that you can get started at home straight away.