Hedgerow Cottage

21/05/2024

Proud wife moment - in addition to the raving reviews for our forays, Adrian's new book "Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging" has just received another 5 star review on Amazon.

Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging: An Essential Guide for the UK

01/05/2024

Wow, what incredibly history, mystery and magic we have here, right on our doorstep!

Aveline’s Hole has been recognised as the largest Mesolithic burial cemetery in Northern Europe, dating from 10,200 and 10,400 B.C. It is estimated that the cave served as the final resting place for around sixty individuals.

The site was meticulously sealed between burials and utilised repeatedly as a cemetery for approximately a century. A number of perforated animal teeth, red ochre and seven pieces of fossil ammonite, suggest that some of the bodies were adorned. Can be found at Burrington Combe in Somerset, England, and watch out for the goats......

https://ruralhistoria.com/2024/04/03/peoples-have-been-roaming-our-countryside-for-900000-years/

18/04/2024

A great opportunity for a last minute space on a masterclass with the amazing Steve Lamb at Vale House Kitchen near Bath (Adrian teaches the foraging courses at VHK, it's a fantastic venue). Highly recommended!

1 space left on Sundays Smoking and Curing Masterclass with the amazing Steven Lamb - link below - come and join us for an incredible hands on day and learn some incredible new culinary skills (along with some new butchery ones as well….)

https://valehousekitchen.co.uk/course/smoking-and-curing-masterclas-s-21042024/

18/04/2024

🌿 What a great Spring Wild Food Foray we enjoyed last weekend with outstanding feedback from our lovely guests including four who also came last year! 🌿

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Brilliant teaching”, “Lovely relaxed natural style”
“Excellent, will book again”, “Look forward to the next time”
“Even better than anticipated”
“Wonderfully funny and knowledgeable”

🌿 Wild garlic and nettles were key features of our spring foragers lunch - nettle soup with wild garlic oil and cream, wild garlic focaccia and a very special dessert with sorrel… secret recipe! Lots of other yummy food including a fabulously moist and delicious home-made Somerset Apple Dappy cake with tea/coffee to end the day! 🌿

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Delicious!”, “Perfect”, “Amazing”
“Really excellent, just the right amount of everything”
“Renee - excellent chef” (feedback from a chef on the foray!)

📖 If you can’t make it to a foray with us, you can still find abundance in every season with Adrian’s new book "Wild Food & Mushroom Foraging: An Essential Guide for the UK" available on Amazon in paperback at £10.99 or Kindle £2.99 or pick up a signed copy from us at Blagdon for £10, just send a message to arrange collection. 📖

Our next forays are in the autumn. Sign up to our newsletter if you’d like to be the first to find out about event dates and news. Places are limited http://eepurl.com/hd0dPH

We also arrange private and corporate forays, just drop us a line to find out more.

Lastly, we are delighted to receive a 5-star food hygiene assessment today!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Food-Mushroom-Foraging-Essential/dp/B0CZTXT35C/




https://www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk/home/activities/adrian-boots/

Adrian Boots Adrian Boots is a landscape ecologist, researcher, tutor and adviser with a passionate interest in wild food, nature conservation and the history of the landscape. With a degree in Geography & Environmental Management and a Masters in Research, he was previously a university lecturer &....

09/02/2024

🌿 Spring Wild Food Foray - Sun 14 April 2024! 🌿
Spring Flowers, Leafy Greens (and possibly some fungi too!)

👉 Book your place by calling 07787 446615 or email [email protected].

🌿 From luscious wild garlic in the spring to fabulous fungi in the autumn, learn how to find abundance in every season with expert landscape ecologist and forager, Adrian Boots 🌿

🌿 Itinerary:
Arrival, tea/coffee & biscuits. Introduction & H&S.
Foray across fields, picking, discussing and tasting as we go.
Back to base – Light foragers lunch
Short wild food cookery demo. Q&A.
finishing with tea/coffee & biscuits. 🌿
£65 per person; £5 discount for previous attendees.
Location: Blagdon, Mendips
Link to Adrian's bio https://www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk/home/activities/adrian-boots/

26/10/2023

What a fabulous day in Dorset with our lovely friends John Wright (Adrian's fungi Yoda) and his wife Diane.

After a catch up over tea & cake we had the most amazing foray around an outstandingly beautiful nature reserve. Lots of fabulous fungi were found, identified and discussed, along with the ecology & natural history of the site. The sun even came out!

We exchanged lots of foray stories, thoughts, recipes and much more, over a lovely dinner (thank you Diane). There's always so much to talk about and never enough time!

P.S. John's latest book 'The Observant Walker' is out now and we are looking forward to another great read!


https://www.instagram.com/johnwrightmushrooms/

02/10/2023

02/10/2023

☺️ Wow, we've just reviewed the feedback from our first 2023 autumn Fungi, Fruits & Nuts foray yesterday and we're delighted that all our guests absolutely loved the experience. Not one suggestion for improvement and lots keen to come again! ☺️

🌿Adrian was on top form, as always, and many commented on how much more there was to discover behind the foraging due to his extensive knowledge of landscape ecology. His story-telling helps people connect to the landscape and our hunter-gatherer ancestors as well as understanding much more about how the landscape indicates what wild food can be found and where! 🌿

🤩 "Adrian is brilliant, charismatic, informative, knowledgeable but also easy to understand and relatable."

🍲 Our autumnal forager's lunch of Renee's secret recipe sweet chestnut and squash soup dressed with boletes (ceps), crispy sage leaves and cream and fresh 🥖, followed by home-baked Somerset apple dappy cake with apples from our orchard, went down a storm!



Thanks to Sara for photos!

28/09/2023

Just had a cancellation for this Sunday 1 October!

So, we are offering 2 places at the discounted price of just £59 each if you would like to come along!

After this foray event we are going to have an optional apple picking session in our orchard and ... yes you can take some home!

Get in touch asap if you'd like to take up the 2 discounted places!!

07787 446615

25/09/2023

🌿 We are so looking forward to our first autumn wild food foray this Sunday! 🌿

🍄 The theme is fruit, nuts and fungi! A truly authentic and immersive wild food experience with Adrian Boots. One of the most experienced foraging experts in the country, he's a landscape ecologist, ex University lecturer, wild food forager, and elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. But most of all, Adrian makes wild food fascinating, fun and accessible to all.

🤩 Adrian has been to the arctic with Ray Mears, he taught Mary Berry to forage on Countryfile, and cooked wild Mendip 'wallfish' (aka snails) for the late, great Terry Wogan on his last TV series.

🍲 Our new autumnal 'forager's lunch' menu, cooked over an open fire, showcases sweet chestnuts, blackberries and traditional old Somerset variety apples from our orchard. We'll taste a few other wild things, and we'll demo and sample some bannocks and breads. The day will finish with a good mug of tea/coffee and our home made Somerset Orchard Apple Cake.

🍎 Our autumn forays are now fully booked other than October 15th where we have a few spaces left, just give us a call 07787 446615 if you'd like to book. Or please enquire for private forays and corporate events.

Alternatively, check out Adrian's foraging and wild food cookery courses with the brilliant Bod at ValeHouseKitchen near Bath.



Photos by our lovely friend Seb Rogers

10/09/2023

⭐ A busy day! ⭐

🍎 Inspired by just the fallen apples in our orchard, we made a test batch of fresh single variety apple juice which was bright pink (due to the red skins of the apples) and totally delicious. We are experimenting with single variety and mixed combinations in preparation for lots of juice making. We have a pasteurising machine which means the juice will keep for at least a year once we start making larger quantities. 🍎

🍏We also picked and prepared all the veg and fruit for our annual batch of spicy chutney. Apples from the orchard, oversized courgettes from the garden and green tomatoes from the greenhouse. Leaving it for 24 hours to mature just seems to give everything time to develop a better flavour. Tomorrow we will cook it for about 2.5-3 hrs then pot it up. 🍏

⭐ Knocked up a bit of sourdough while we were at it using the no-knead recipe from Bread Ahead! Happy days... ⭐

⭐ If you need a bit of countryside inspiration, visit our web site and check out our autumn wild food forays, courses and holiday accommodation. We also run sustainable corporate team days and events... from dry stone walling to wild food foraging to orchard management... www.hedgerowcottage.co.uk

09/09/2023

We're not surprised that Wells, Avebury and Corfe Castle have been voted as the top 3 tourist attractions in the UK. Wells is probably our favourite place in the UK - and we are so lucky it's just 15 minutes from us, with a fabulous Weds & Sat market, lots of lovely independent shops, tons of great eateries, and of course, the most stunning Wells Cathedral & Bishop's Palace & Gardens. Avebury and Corfe Castle are an easy day trip. There's much more to visit as well, on the doorstep and nearby!

Somerset city scores five stars for attractiveness and tourist attractions as it tops Which? survey of inland towns and villages

08/09/2023

⭐ AUTUMN FORAYS UPDATE - Fungi, Fruits & Nuts Foray ⭐
👉 DATES: Sunday the 1st of October (NOW FULLY BOOKED), Sunday the 15th of October (limited places left, please enquire), Sunday the 29th of October, Saturday the 4th of November and Saturday the 11th of November.
👉 Book your place by calling 07787 446615 or email [email protected].
🍄 From luscious wild garlic in the spring to fabulous fungi in the autumn, learn how to find abundance in every season with expert landscape ecologist and forager, Adrian Boots.
🌿 Itinerary includes:
Arrival, tea/coffee & biscuits. Introduction & H&S.
Foray across fields, picking, discussing and tasting as we go.
Back to base – making tea with your foraged ingredients; wild food cookery discussion & demo. Q&A.
Light foragers lunch finishing with tea/coffee & cake.
Ends approximately 2pm or so.

07/09/2023

🎉 We're very excited to announce the winner of our competition with The Tourist Trail!
🌿 Congratulations to 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗝, the lucky winner of two places on one of our fantastic wild food foray days with a foragers lunch! 🌿 Will Kath choose an autumn fungi, fruits and nuts foray 🍄🌰 or a spring flowers and leafy greens foray?!

🎉 We Have A Winner! 🎉
🌿 Congratulations to 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗝! 🌿
​
You've won a Wild Food Experience for 2 at 𝗛𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗖𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲! 🍄🌰 Explore nature's pantry and savour a wild lunch for two.
​

https://www.thetouristtrail.org/business/bristol/hedgerow-cottage/
Hedgerow Cottage

22/08/2023

⭐ Rural Retreat near Wells⭐
🥂 Such amazing facilities in our fabulous rural glamping retreat, so much more than other locations
⭐Our 5 metre bell tents have proper beds and lots of pretty features and decorations
🥂 We have fabulous private dining/living areas with fully equipped kitchens, perfect for a group stay!
🥂 With outstanding views to the highest point of the Mendip Hills, and across the Severn Estuary to Wales, what a gorgeous location!

Call us on 07787 446615 or email
✉️ [email protected]

Family Holiday Activity: The Incredible Clock
Wednesday 16th August
Children will love getting to know Wells Cathedral’s famous clock during this activity session! Listen to a story, find out what makes it so special, see it strike – complete with jousting knights and bell-ringing Quarter Jack – and enjoy a clock craft activity to take home as a souvenir!

Book this and other family holiday activities over the summer, via www.wellscathedral.eventbrite.co.uk

Book online or feel free to drop in on the day! (subject to availability of spaces)

Can’t make the date? There’s another Incredible Clock session on Thursday 31st August as well as a host of other activity days on offer!

10/07/2023

⭐ Boutique Bell Tents ⭐

🌿 If you’re looking for a group accommodation that’s cosy, unique and surrounded by nature, look no further than Hedgerow Cottage & Glamping. You can stay in our converted barn 'The Stables' or one of our five boutique bell tents - each with an apple-themed name.

🌿 Come and stay with us and enjoy the tranquility of the Somerset countryside. We have last-minute availability this month and next, so get in touch today! You can reach us directly on 07787 446615 or [email protected].

08/07/2023

Don't miss out on this incredible upcoming event in Bristol, book accommodation with us today! 🎈

Four days of family fun at europe’s largest ballooning event. The Balloon Fiesta is jam-packed with activities for all the family.

07/07/2023

⭐ A Trip To East Somerset Railway ⭐

🌿 If you’re looking for a great way to spend quality time with your loved ones during your stay with us, why not hop on board a steam train at East Somerset Railway? You’ll get to experience the charm and nostalgia of a bygone era and explore the beautiful countryside along the way.

🌿 Don’t forget to stop by The Station Cafe for a delicious meal or snack and check out the fascinating replica museum that showcases the history of the railway. East Somerset Railway is more than just a train ride - it’s an adventure for the whole family!

☎️ 07787 446615
📧 [email protected]

04/07/2023

⭐ Stunning Sunsets ⭐

🌿 Nestled in the Somerset village of Blagdon, our glamping site offers you the chance to experience the peace and tranquillity of the Mendip Hills AONB. Whether you’re looking for a romantic retreat, a family adventure or a celebration with friends, we have the perfect accommodation for you.

🌿 Our spacious and stylish boutique bell tents are cosy and fully equipped with everything you need for a comfortable and memorable stay. Come and stay, relax, make new memories and enjoy stunning sunsets like this!

☎️ 07787 446615
📧 [email protected]

01/07/2023

⭐ Last Minute Availability ⭐

🌿 Looking for a last-minute getaway? Look no further than Hedgerow Cottage & Glamping! Our self-catering accommodation in Blagdon is perfect for special occasions, family getaways or countryside escapes.

🌿 Enjoy our onsite activities which include archery and wild food foraging or explore the nearby vibrant cities of Bristol, Bath and Wells. To find out more and to book a stay with us, head to our website or give us a call directly at 07787 446615 today.

30/06/2023

⭐ Places To Visit ⭐

🌿 Escape to Hedgerow Cottage & Glamping in Blagdon for a fun-filled family adventure! During your stay, visit the Bristol Aquarium and explore over 40 naturally-themed displays and spot the thousands of amazing aquatic creatures including tropical sharks, rays, seahorses and so much more.

📸: Bristol Aquarium.

27/06/2023

⭐ Wild Food Forays 2023 - Fungi, Fruits & Nuts Foray ⭐

👉 DATES: Autumn 2023. Sunday the 1st of October (limited places left, please enquire), Sunday the 15th of October (limited places left, please enquire), Sunday the 29th of October, Saturday the 4th of November and Saturday the 11th of November.
👉 Book your place by calling 07787 446615 or email [email protected].

🍄 From luscious wild garlic in the spring to fabulous fungi in the autumn, learn how to find abundance in every season with expert landscape ecologist and forager, Adrian Boots.

🌿 Itinerary includes:
Arrival, tea/coffee & biscuits. Introduction & H&S.
Foray across fields, picking, discussing and tasting as we go.
Back to base – making tea with your foraged ingredients; short wild food cookery discussion & demo. Q&A.
Light foragers lunch finishing with tea/coffee & cake.

25/06/2023

Well you could win a place on an autumn fungi foray for just £1. We wholeheartedly support Munchkins Miniature Shetland Rescue and have donated a place on a foray - please do go and bid. Every £1 goes towards the food, vet bills and care of tiny ponies who have been abandoned, neglected and abused. Thank you!

How many followers have we got here at Munchkins. Yet only a small percentage see our posts.
Our 'WIN A FOOD FORAGING EXPERIENCE"
We have been running this competition for a month or so to win a day on a good foray in The Mendip Hills. £1 an entry.

Hmmm.... I can count on one hand the people who have entered.
It looks fun and includes a meal too.
Why not have a go?? please PayPal [email protected] £1 per entry
💥WIN!! A fantastic FOOD FORAGING experience followed by a meal! 😋
Based in the West Country on the Mendip Hills, join Adrian Boots, expert landscape ecologist and forager in a Wild Food Foray.
This gift voucher worth £65 could be yours
Available Dates October 1st and October 15th.

Donate £1 to: PayPal [email protected]
Stating "FOOD FORAY"
Visit Hedgerowcottage.co.uk for more information!

23/06/2023

⭐ Delicious Pub Grub ⭐

🌿 During your stay with us, treat yourself to some delicious pub grub at the nearby The New Inn Blagdon. Under new management, the pub has a fantastic menu, stunning views and a welcoming atmosphere.

🌿 While you're with us, feel free to use our unique 'My Welly Walks' app to explore some lovely, countryside walks (with some fun camera challenges) which include visiting The New Inn Blagdon.

🌿 We have summer availability in our fabulous 5-metre 'boutique camping' bell tents, so get in touch today to find out more and book your next staycation.

21/06/2023

🌿 Happy ! What a beautiful photo from Stonehenge. ☀️🌻

We were delighted to welcome around 8,000 people to Stonehenge to celebrate the Summer Solstice – with approximately 154,000 people tuning-in from across the world to watch the sunset and sunrise on our live stream.

A beautiful dawn followed a slightly misty sunrise which was greeted with drumming, chanting and cheering from all those who came to Stonehenge to celebrate this important point in the calendar. Stonehenge continues to captivate and to bring people together to celebrate the seasons, just as it has done for thousands of years.

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge is a major operation and we couldn’t do it without our fantastic staff and volunteers but also the support of our partners, especially Wiltshire Police and Our Wiltshire. We look forward to welcoming people to the Summer Solstice again next year.

20/06/2023

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Such a friendly couple run this site. We had a lovely weekend (3 families). Renee & Ady couldn't do enough for us. Clean, lots of facilities, hot tub, gorgeous bell tents and beautiful meadow setting... What more could we have asked for? Fabulous!"

🏠 Family friendly.
🔥 Hot tub.
🍄 Onsite activities.
📍 Close to the cities of Wells, Bristol and Bath.
🎈 Perfect for special occasions.
🚿 Fantastic facilities.
🌳 Rural retreat.
🌼 Peaceful setting.

☎️ 07787 446615
📧 [email protected]

16/06/2023

⭐ Friday Feeling ⭐

🌿 It's almost the weekend and we're looking forward to welcoming our guests! Come and stay and enjoy a glass of wine whilst enjoying stunning Somerset sunsets. Set within 10 acres of orchards and meadows, our accommodation is perfect for those needing a well-deserved break.

🌿 Our spacious and boutique accommodation is perfect for larger groups and equipped with all the essentials to make your stay as comfortable as possible. We have June, July and August 2023 availability and don't forget to book direct for the best rates.

☎️ 07787 446615
📧 [email protected]

14/06/2023

We have Valley Fest accommodation availability. Get in touch today! 🎉

PHWOAR! Look how gorgeous our festival looks! Only 12 weeks to go...

Tickets: https://bit.ly/12weekstilVF

13/06/2023

⭐ Summer Availability ⭐

🌿 We absolutely love this photo of our accommodation! The sun was slowly setting and it truly captures how peaceful it is here. If you're looking for the perfect retreat for your reunion with friends and family, then book a stay with us.

🌿 On top of offering holiday accommodation, we also have a fantastic range of onsite activities to choose from including archery, wild food foraging, bushcraft and more.

🌿 We pride ourselves on offering a personal service whilst also giving you the freedom to enjoy that much-needed holiday away. We have summer availability, so get in touch today to find out more and for the best rates.

☎️ 07787 446615
📧 [email protected]