Our Isles is a project founded by Angus D. Birditt & Lilly Hedley that
explores and celebrates the lives and landscape of the British countryside.
Our Isles is a project founded by Angus D. Birditt & Lilly Hedley that
explores and celebrates the lives and landscape of the British countryside.
Our Isles is a project founded by Angus D. Birditt & Lilly Hedley that
explores and celebrates the lives and landscape of the British countryside.
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Our Isles is a project celebrating and preserving the rural life of the British Isles, exploring its food & drink, landscape, nature, art, craft, heritage and community.
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Our Isles is a project celebrating and preserving the rural life of the British Isles, exploring its food & drink, landscape, nature, art, craft, heritage and community.
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Our Isles is a project celebrating and preserving the rural life of the British Isles, exploring its food & drink, landscape, nature, art, craft, heritage and community.



A Sense of Food & Place
A Sense of Food & Place
The Making of Baron Bigod
Angus D. Birditt
Isles of Scilly
Discover Megan Gallacher, a photographer from Norfolk, who contributes her photography collection called 'En Noer' to Stories within Our Isles evoking the life and culture on the Isles of Scilly.
Kingston upon Hull
Explore Studio Kettle's designs in their contribution to Stories within Our Isles that promotes a deeper attachment to our belongings.




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Seven Sisters
Shropshire
Angus D. Birditt visits Appleby's cheesemakers to see how they make their award-winning Cheshire.
Suffolk
Explore the article by Tanmay Saxena, designer & filmmaker, who designs sustainable, handmade clothes. 'Darker than' is Tanmay's collection of handmade clothes inspired by his response to the changing landscape and light of Seven Sisters in East Sussex.
Jess Wheeler, designer and ceramist, on where in the British Isles she gets the inspiration.
Powys
Lottie Hampson series entitled 'Still Here' traces her family history to the River Usk in Wales.
Peak District
Explore Joe Winstanley's Skai, a series of prints inspired by the landscape of the Peak District.


Cumbria
Explore Grania Howard's series of photography called Cob Culture. Taken during her travels across the British Isles, Grania captures the unique connection between travellers and their horses.
Powys
Honest agriculture
From his journey within the Dee Valley, Jac Williams ventures across fields and farms talking to and capturing the lives of Welsh farmers.
We often marvel at it's appearance, live and breathe on it, make homes and feed from it. But do we truly understand the lie of the land? The following words extracted from longer poems and accompanying photography attempt to capture the immense beauty, fragility and mysteriousness of our Isles.
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Finding a positive in a looming, unpredictable situation is understandably difficult, but perhaps a way we can see light in these dispiriting times is to take notice of the nature around us, and remember that once again it is spring and new life is emerging.
With each spring, a plethora of new life transpires in nature. The fauna of new spring lambs, fluffy fledglings and spritely bunnies are bouncing into life. The colour shows of flora; the greens of new shoots, buds, trees and hedges; the uplifting yellows of primroses, daffodils, celandines, broom, gorse and dandelions. Look around to see the seasonal wild foods sprouting; wild garlic, young hawthorn leaves, goose grass and garlic mustard. What’s best is that these natural delights can be appreciated, and sustainably foraged, both in rural and urban environments wherever you are in the British Isles.


Now is the time to look out for robins that can be heard singing their hearts out from dawn till dusk to protect their territories, all types of corvid (not Covid) – the rooks, crows, jackdaws, magpies and ravens of the sky life – that can be seen meticulously building their nests up high in young ash copses, and new growth that can be seen on every trimmed bush and scaling tree around us.
It can also be a time where we think again about our immediate landscape, which we pass through everyday, perhaps without a second thought. For those who wish to learn a little more about its wild foods and create some simple dishes using them – using the wild foods that can all be found both in rural and urban environments – we have shared a few easy recipes. Many of the recipes can be frozen for longevity as well. Please, when you are foraging these wild foods make sure to be safe when picking, learn the laws of sustainable foraging and ask the landowners permission before picking.
SEASONAL SPRING RECIPES USING WILD FOODS
Wild Garlic Pesto Pasta (serves 4-6)
A Handful of wild garlic leaves (around 10 leaves),
200ml olive oil
60g cheese
60g any nuts, we like to use pine kernels or hazelnuts
A pinch of sea salt
500g Pasta
1. Blend or finely chop all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Cook pasta for 1-2 minutes under stated cooking time to have that lovely biting texture.
3. Drain the pasta, leaving a little of the salted water in.
4. Then add the pesto into the bowl of pasta, and serve the pesto pasta with a little grated cheese.
You can freeze the pesto if you don’t use all of it at once.
Garlic Mustard & Wild Garlic Muffin Loaf (serves 4)
A handful of garlic mustard & wild garlic leaves (around 20 leaves) finely chopped
100g feta
50g grated cheese
A pinch of salt
A pinch of chilli flakes
125g salted butter
300ml milk
1 egg
350g self-raising flour
1. Mix the dry ingredients, and set aside.
2. Then in a separate saucepan, melt the butter and add the milk & egg to make a wet mixture.
3. Combine wet and dry mixtures into dough.
4. Pat down gently into loaf tin.
5. Bake from 20-25 minutes or till golden at 190C.
The muffin loaf can be frozen
Wild Foods 'Stock Cubes' (25-30 servings)
2 handfuls of any wild food, 20-30 leaves (e.g. wild garlic)
300ml olive oil
1. Blend both together in mixer.
2. Place small amounts of the oil/leaf mixture into holes of an ice cube tray and freeze.
This is a great recipe to add to any savoury cooking; just as you would garlic cloves, plop an ice cube amount of wild garlic mixture each time you fry something perhaps alongside onions, celery, and or carrots.
Freeze for several months
Hawthorn & Wild Garlic Salsa Verde (serves 4)
1 handful of young hawthorn leaves
1-2 handfuls of wild garlic leaves (around 10-20 leaves) finely chopped
3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
180ml olive oil
50g of capers
3 tbsp. Dijon mustard
50g parsley
1. Blend all ingredients in mixer and serve with fish or meat.
Can be frozen for 1-2 months
Wild foods in urban and rural environments now:
Wild Garlic - use as you would garlic cloves, found in wetted tree canopies and waterways.
Gorse – use yellow petals in salads, found near footpaths, roadsides, verges, hills and riverbanks.
Dandelions – use young green leaves and yellow petals in salads, found near footpaths, pavements, roadsides, verges, field edges and parks.
Goose grass – steep in water for refreshing juice, found near footpaths, pavements, roadsides, verges, hedges and riverbanks.
Garlic mustard – use young green leaves in salad, found near footpaths, pavements, roadsides and verges.
Hawthorn leaves – use young green leaves in salad, found in hedges, fields, gardens, parks.
Nettles – use as blended in soup or as green vegetable (always boil before eating), found near footpaths, pavements and fields.
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The New Life of Spring
Photographs & Words by Angus D. Birditt | @ourisles