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For a certain type of Barbour-clad middle-aged man, the best time of year is late summer, and the arrival of the grouse season. But if you’re in your twenties and living in Hackney, you’re more likely to get excited for spring and the arrival of wild garlic. Foraging has become a fashionable activity for twentysomethings. ‘Instagram has changed the game,’ says the nature writer and wild garlic picker Patrick Galbraith. ‘People love the foraging aesthetic.’
Some fans generously compare notes online on the most fruitful spots. Others gatekeep. The Instagram page ‘Real Housewives of Clapton’, which satirises the lifestyles of young bourgeois east Londoners, has gained a following making snide memes about hopeless amateurs foraging in Dr Martens.
We’re currently at the peak of wild garlic season. From the middle of February, woodlands across the UK break out in long green leaves.
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