Ground Up Cookery

Ground Up Cookery We run a range of courses and offer consultancy services on sustainable menu development

Meadowsweet, coumarin and the strange story of dicoumarol…Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) contains aromatic coumarins ...
25/08/2026

Meadowsweet, coumarin and the strange story of dicoumarol…

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) contains aromatic coumarins alongside its better-known salicylates.

Coumarin gives dried plants a distinctive flavour and aroma: vanilla, cherry Bakewell and a slight antiseptic note.

The chemistry becomes even more interesting with spoiled sweet clover. Microbial activity can transform coumarin into 4-hydroxycoumarin and, ultimately, dicoumarol — an anticoagulant that helped lead to the development of warfarin.

🌿 Plant → 🧪 Coumarin → 🦠 Microbial transformation → ⚗️ Dicoumarol → 💊 Modern anticoagulants

That’s what I love about foraging: you’re not just collecting ingredients, but chemistry.

Nature is the original laboratory

Delighted to find this still flowering in the Hebrides as due to the drought our local plants were over in minutes it seemed this year. Great for infusing in spirits, flavouring pannacotta, custard, ice cream and herbal tea

20/08/2026

Loved doing these!

20/08/2026

Once a season, the cookery school will become something rather different… Just 14 guests around one friendly table, for something rather special. Five courses and a menu that has been months in the making.

Foraged, fermented, pickled and preserved ingredients meet the best of the season and more than 30 years of Colin's professional chef experience. All paired with beautiful wines from Regency Wines and Huxbear Vineyard.

Our first Seasonal Fine Dining Evening sold out to subscribers within 24 hours. Guests described it as “a complete treat from start to finish” and, perhaps our favourite, “like having dinner with friends.”

For autumn we're opening for two nights, on 2nd & 3rd October.

Again we offered our newsletter subscribers priority booking, so most places have already been snapped up, including several returning guests from our first evening. We now have a handful of places available for general booking.

And the autumn menu is rather special…

Venison & hawthorn. Torched mackerel & spruce. Wild mushroom ravioli. Pheasant, elderberry & beetroot kimchi. Pear & apple Tarte Tatin with pinecone treacle ice cream.

Want to know what one of our Seasonal Fine Dining Evenings is actually like? We've shared the story of our very first one on the blog.

https://www.groundupcookeryschool.co.uk/blogs/welcome-to-our-blog/seasonal-fine-dining-devon

Or, head straight to the booking page.

https://www.groundupcookeryschool.co.uk/collections/courses/products/dining-experience

Food Drink Devon Dining Devon

Looking out over the machair today back home on the I spotted these absolute monsters pushing their way through the gra...
18/08/2026

Looking out over the machair today back home on the I spotted these absolute monsters pushing their way through the grass.

One of the things I love most about Coll is that the landscape still dictates what’s available. Grazing animals, shell-sand soils, salt-laden winds and nutrient-rich pasture all combine to create an environment that’s unlike almost anywhere else in the UK.

The reward? Sometimes it’s a mushroom the size of a dinner plate picked overlooking the majestic Crossapol bay.

Picked, sliced and simply fried in garlic butter. Nothing complicated, nothing refined and absolutely delicious!

Just a fleeting reminder that some of the best food you’ll ever eat is still growing exactly where it’s supposed to.

Hebrides ScottishIslands SeasonalEating GroundUpCookery FieldToFork

For those of you who keep tabs on what we do at Ground Up Cookery School, you might remember last September’s glorious g...
15/08/2026

For those of you who keep tabs on what we do at Ground Up Cookery School, you might remember last September’s glorious glut of penny buns/ ceps /porcini. You may also remember the mushroom shoyu I started almost a year ago.

Unlike many commercial ferments, I don’t use temperature-controlled incubation. I leave them to do what they’ve done for thousands of years: quietly transform at room temperature.

It’s undoubtedly slower, but I find the flavours become more nuanced, more complex and far more individual. The downside? No two batches are ever quite the same, which probably isn’t commercially viable. Fortunately, that’s never been what drives me.

Over the past year, I’ve watched this ferment evolve through distinct phases. The initial oxidation and darkening, the deep forest-floor aromas, the surprisingly intense alcoholic and almost antiseptic notes that emerged around the six-month mark, and now this fascinating stage of separation.

What’s surprised me most is the aroma. I expected something bold and assertive. Instead, it’s delicate, subtle and remarkably complex. My suspicion is that it’s only going to improve with age.

And the taste?

Confession time… I still haven’t tried it.

I’ve waited this long, so I’m going to let it reach its first birthday before opening the jar.

Some things are worth waiting for.

WildFood Foraging Mushrooms FoodFermentation SlowFood

🍅 Tomato Koji EssenceLooking for something unusual — and seriously delicious — to do with your tomatoes?This is a brilli...
10/08/2026

🍅 Tomato Koji Essence

Looking for something unusual — and seriously delicious — to do with your tomatoes?

This is a brilliant way to use up unripe, gnarly, overripe or slightly manky tomatoes. Don’t worry about trimming them too much either — leave the green bits in, and you can even throw in a few leaves.

Pulse the tomatoes in a food processor until pulpy, but not puréed. Add 2% salt and 2% sugar, mix well and leave overnight in the fridge. The salt and sugar draw out an incredible amount of liquid while concentrating the flavour.

The following day, strain the pulp through muslin and you’re left with a beautiful, delicate tomato water/essence — almost clear, but absolutely packed with fresh tomato flavour.

Now for the interesting bit.

Add approximately ¼ rice koji by volume, give it a good mix and leave it to ferment.

The result is something quite special: deeply savoury and umami-rich, but still unmistakably fresh tomato. The koji adds another layer of complexity without masking the character of the tomato.

For our recent fine-dining event, I blended the tomato essence with a little cold-activated starch to create a delicate gel, then served it with our tomato starter alongside fermented wild garlic, pickled wild garlic seed “capers” and wild garlic ash.

A great example of how fermentation can take something as simple as a tomato and turn it into a completely different ingredient.

Waste tomato → extraction → fermentation → a seriously versatile flavour component.

Amazing ingredient. 🙌😍

Want to know more about our fine dining events? Sign up to our mailing list on our website 👍

Fermented three-cornered leek focaccia, sprinkled with fermented wild garlic salt and finished with a beautiful grassy c...
09/08/2026

Fermented three-cornered leek focaccia, sprinkled with fermented wild garlic salt and finished with a beautiful grassy cold-pressed olive oil, which complemented the fermented notes perfectly.

Taking advantage of this seemingly endless summer, we even proofed the dough outside in the warmth before baking.

Served warm with whipped smoked butter, it was a great way to begin our recent fine dining evening — bringing together foraging, fermentation and simple ingredients in one delicious bite.

Blackberry Oxymel – probably my favourite way to preserve soft fruit.It couldn’t be simpler. Cover the fruit with equal ...
07/08/2026

Blackberry Oxymel – probably my favourite way to preserve soft fruit.

It couldn’t be simpler. Cover the fruit with equal weights of raw honey and cider vinegar, then leave time to do the rest.

The result sits right on the boundary between sweet and savoury, making it incredibly versatile. It’s just as good drizzled over roasted beetroot as it is folded into a clafoutis or spooned over yoghurt.

One thing I love is how well the fruit keeps its shape. The berries shrink slightly, but retain a wonderful texture, while all of that flavour migrates into the honey-vinegar syrup. In many ways, the liquid becomes even more exciting than the fruit itself.

A lovely bonus is the deep purple vinegar mother that often forms on top. Because I use my own homemade cider vinegar and beautiful local raw honey, a healthy mother can develop during storage. Slice it into ribbons as a garnish, or blend it with some of the berries and dehydrate it into an intensely flavoured fruit leather.

The oxymel itself is brilliant in cocktails, sparkling water or salad dressings, adding a rich, fruity acidity that’s perfectly balanced.

Don’t stop at blackberries either. Blueberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries all make fantastic oxymels. Once you start experimenting, it’s hard to stop.

The standout dish from last week’s Summer Seasonal Fine Dining Evening, according to our guests, was this one.Nettle and...
06/08/2026

The standout dish from last week’s Summer Seasonal Fine Dining Evening, according to our guests, was this one.

Nettle and lovage gnocchi with beurre blanc, pumpkin seed pesto, Parmesan crisps and toasted sunflower seeds.

Lovage is such a wonderful aromatic herb that has fallen out of favour in many kitchens. Most chefs will know it, but perhaps not its wider family, the Apiaceae, where its distinctive flavour is one of the key identifying characteristics. I love how it bridges the gap between the cultivated kitchen garden and the world of wild food.

Its aromatic sweetness pairs beautifully with the mineral-rich savouriness of nettles. After a quick boil, the gnocchi were pan-fried in clarified butter with fresh sage leaves before being finished with the beurre blanc, pesto and Parmesan crisp.

Simple cooking, great flavours, happy guests.

Sloe olives – my absolute favourite way to use these sour, tannic little flavour bombs. 🫒💙Forget sloe gin… this is where...
05/08/2026

Sloe olives – my absolute favourite way to use these sour, tannic little flavour bombs. 🫒💙

Forget sloe gin… this is where they really shine.

A simple 12% salt brine with a few aromatics transforms them over time. I like to add fresh oregano, wild fennel flowers, lemon peel and sometimes a little garlic to give them a real Mediterranean feel.

Patience is the secret.

They take around six weeks before they’re ready, but in my opinion they’re at their absolute best after 4–6 months. The bitterness mellows, the texture becomes beautifully olive-like and the flavour is incredible.

After that they start to soften, but don’t throw them away! I simply push them through a fine sieve, stir through a little finely chopped parsley and a smidge of Dijon mustard, and you’ve got an amazing wild sloe tapenade. 🙌

The last photo is from our Wild Dining Night on Saturday – baked potato skin topped with sloe olive tapenade and cultured cream cheese. Simple, seasonal and absolutely delicious.

Have you ever made sloe olives, or do your sloes always end up in gin? 👇🍸🌿

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