“I’d always wanted to build a cargo-style bike,” he told me, “but the catalyst for the project was The Constructor’s Challenge at last year’s Bespoked (the handmade bicycle show). It was a challenge to create a bike that serves a purpose greater than getting from A to B. This was the thing that made me think about it. So I dropped Hugh’s people a line and he was into the idea. It evolved from there.”

The bike sounded better than I could have imagined. It could carry everything needed for collecting and cooking wild food on the go. It was fully equipped with foraging tools – a mushroom knife, a sharpening stone and a foraging hook for getting hard to reach treats.

“The pièce de résistance: a fold-out fire pit BBQ, specially designed to not damage the woodland floor…”

There was a locally made detachable wicker picnic basket on the front rack to carry up-cycled cooking pots and pans, a chopping board made from old boat decking, stainless steel water bottles, and plates and utensils made from pine tree fibres. And the pièce de résistance: a fold-out fire pit BBQ, specially designed to not damage the woodland floor, for cooking all the foraged food in the beauty of the environment you found it in.

A couple of months ago I got to see the finished bike in the flesh at Bespoked. It was a masterpiece in British manufacturing. The look of it is based on the classic Series 1 Land Rover with the same bronze green paint. The sand coloured canvas bike bags are made from the same material that’s on the back of a Land Rover. And a tan leather British Brooks saddle to top off. “I wanted it to have that very British Land Rovery look,” said Darron.

I ask Darron if someone is inspired to go foraging by bike, but can’t afford the £3,900 price tag that this one commands, can they adapt their own bike? “Yes, you can just put racks on the front and back of your bike, attach a basket to each rack and go off. Take a decent pair of secateurs and a reasonable knife with you. I prefer to take cloth bags to store the foraged food in because in plastic bags it sweats and goes damp. I converted a supermarket basket and designed a clip to attach it to the rear rack, to collect stuff in, which worked really well because you could put stuff in the basket, sluice it with water and make it fresh.”

So what does Hugh think of it? “I’m incredibly pleased with The Forager,” he says. “It’s a brilliantly skillful and imaginative piece of engineering. And, even more importantly, it’s a joy to ride! I’m very much looking forward to a full-scale two-wheeled foraging expedition!”

“What does Hugh think? ‘It’s a brilliantly skillful and imaginative piece of engineering. And, even more importantly, it’s a joy to ride!’”

If you are going foraging make sure that you do it safely and use a good book (like Richard Mabey’s ‘Food for Free’) to identify which species are edible, and which are definitely not! Hugh’s book ‘A Cook on the Wild Side’ is great for recipe ideas and wild food preparation tips. Or check out Roger Phillips’ ‘Wild Food – A complete guide for foragers’.

If you fancy one for yourself then The Forager, fully equipped, costs £3,900 from svencycles.com

To read the rest of Mpora’s June ‘Wild Issue’ head here 

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