Forage Yourself Happy

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🌲 York Forest Therapist
🍄 Nature Immersion • Forest Therapy • Waterfall Hikes
🌕 Retreats, Foraging & Wild Wellness Experiences
📍 Yorkshire
✨ Helping people reconnect with nature & themselves

06/09/2026

I dug this patch up a few months ago, and now it’s come back with reinforcements 🌼

Turns out dandelion root has a pretty impressive ability to regenerate. And when I started looking into the research on dandelion root, things got even more interesting.

Researchers are looking at its effects on the heart, blood pressure and cellular damage, as well as all the other compounds hiding in this supposedly “ordinary” w**d.

There’s some fascinating research out there. 🌱

Do you let the dandelions grow in your garden?

04/09/2026

What does a mushroom sound like? 🍄🌲

I stopped in the woods and listened to this bracket fungus play.

Not a recording of a sound you could hear with your ears. Its electrical activity was translated into music in real time.

Would you have stopped to listen?

This place saw me at some of the worst points of my life.Goathland.For nearly five years, I’ve been coming here most wee...
01/09/2026

This place saw me at some of the worst points of my life.

Goathland.

For nearly five years, I’ve been coming here most weeks.

I’ve walked these paths with tears rolling down my face. I’ve stood at the waterfalls when I felt like I couldn’t cope, and somehow, I always kept coming back.

I didn’t come here because I understood anything about forest therapy.

I came because something about this place made me feel like I could breathe.

The waterfalls became my favourite place. Then came the foraging, learning what was growing around me and slowing down enough to actually notice it.

Years later, I qualified as a forest therapist, and I started to understand why this place had helped me so much.

The trees. The water. The sounds. The smells. The movement. Being outside and completely immersed in the natural world.

I had been experiencing it long before I had a name for it.

For five years, Goathland has been part of my life.

And now I get to take other people here.

That feels incredibly special to me.

Because this isn’t just a beautiful place.

This place helped me through some of the hardest days of my life.

And now I get to share it.

This Saturday, I’ll be back at Mallyan Spout, walking through Goathland and sharing an experience that means far more to me than just a walk in the woods.

This place holds my heart.

Join me on Saturday, and the first Saturday of every month 👇🏻

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hidden-waterfalls-folklore-forest-therapy-goathland-tickets-1989986737902

29/08/2026

Did you know moss can help scientists detect pollution? 🌿

And this little plant has survived exposure to space.

Moss absorbs heavy metals from the environment, so scientists can use it to monitor pollution.

And some moss spores have actually spent nine months outside the International Space Station and survived.

Then there’s its history as a wound dressing, its ability to survive being completely dried out, and the fact that it can help preserve things in peat bogs for thousands of years.

And we just walk past it.

What else should I go and investigate? 🌿

27/08/2026

Have you ever used pine resin? 🌲

Because this stuff is seriously useful.

It burns really well, which makes it brilliant for fire lighting and wilderness survival.

You can use it as a natural glue and waterproofing material, and pine resin has also been used traditionally for medicinal purposes.

And then you get into the really interesting stuff...

Pine has a whole load of folklore around protection, cleansing and purification, including old Scottish traditions of burning pine and using pine torches.

So we’ve got fire, survival, medicine, practical uses and a bit of witchy folklore all from one tree.

And this is exactly the sort of thing I love teaching when we’re out in the woods.

Have you ever used it for anything else?

26/08/2026

This mushroom was found with a 5,000-year-old man. 🍄

Birch polypore was found amongst the belongings of Ötzi the Iceman, who was discovered frozen in the Alps in 1991.

And here’s the really interesting bit...

Ötzi had intestinal parasites, and birch polypore has a long history of traditional medicinal use, including against parasites.

We can’t know exactly why he was carrying it, but it’s pretty incredible to think that people were using and carrying this fungus over 5,000 years ago.

And we’re still researching it today.

25/08/2026

Are they coming after our right to forage? 🍓🌿

Apparently, picking blackberries in some places could now land you with a £300 fine.

And it doesn’t stop there.

You can’t just dig up wild plants, roots, bulbs or other parts of plants on public land either.

Now there is a Nature’s Rights Bill going through Parliament which would give Nature legal rights, put a duty of care on public bodies, businesses and potentially individuals, and create new systems for enforcement and sanctions.

Now, I’m all for protecting our countryside. Of course I am.

But where does this end?

Are we going to get to a point where picking a few blackberries, collecting wild food or foraging in the countryside becomes something we’re no longer allowed to do?

Because foraging has been part of life in this country for generations.

Are they coming after our right to forage?

What do you think?

18/08/2026

We’ve spent decades trying to kill them. Why? 🌼

And when did we decide dandelions were a problem?

Because they’re actually bloody useful.

🌼 The flowers provide food for bees and other pollinators.

🐦 The seeds provide food for birds.

🐛 The leaves feed moth caterpillars and other insects.

🥗 You can eat the leaves, flowers and roots.

🌿 The root contains inulin, a prebiotic fibre.

💧 Dandelion has been used traditionally for digestion and as a diuretic.

And then there’s the history.

By the early 1900s, people were already using chemical treatments to get rid of dandelions and plantain from lawns.

Then in the 1940s, selective herbicides such as 2,4-D made it possible to kill broad-leaved plants while leaving the grass.

And that’s when the modern perfect lawn really took off.

Grass. No w**ds. No wildflowers. Just grass.

Now we’re being encouraged to leave more of those plants because we understand how important they are for biodiversity.

Makes you wonder what else we’ve decided is a w**d simply because we don’t like the look of it.

I’m covering loads of this in my upcoming workshops, including wild plants, their uses and the history we’ve forgotten.

🌿 Upcoming workshops are now open.

14/08/2026

It turns out us tree huggers were right. 🌳😂

There is actually research looking at what happens when you put your bare feet on the bloody ground.

And it’s pretty interesting.

Studies on grounding have reported changes in things like:

🌿 cortisol and stress
🌿 sleep
🌿 pain
🌿 inflammation
🌿 heart rate variability
🌿 mood and fatigue
🌿 physical function

One study looked at people sleeping grounded for 8 weeks and found changes in their cortisol patterns, along with improvements they reported in sleep, pain and stress.

Another randomised controlled trial found improvements in pain, physical function, energy, fatigue and mood in people who were grounded.

And this is exactly why I bloody love getting outside.

Take your shoes off. Stand on the earth. Walk through the grass. Sit under a tree. Get your hands in the soil.

You don’t need a fancy wellness retreat or another gadget.

Sometimes you just need to get your feet on the ground. 🌿

Who enjoys a bit of barefoot action?

11/08/2026

Why the hell are we not using roses medicinally? 🌹

And don’t be offended if you sent me a beautiful bouquet and then found me chopping the heads off it 😂

I’m making use of them!

Rose petals have been used traditionally for all sorts of things, including digestion, sore gums and mouths, irritated skin, inflammation and menstrual discomfort.

And yes, you can eat the petals.

Just make bloody sure you know where they’ve come from and that they haven’t been sprayed with chemicals. Your florist’s roses aren’t going in my tea!

There is also some really interesting research looking at the compounds in rose petals and what they can do.

So next time someone gives you roses, you might want to think twice before sticking them in a vase. 🌹

Would you use roses medicinally?

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