Classic Cookery, Preserving & Fermentation

Gut Health: Rewild Your Microbiome

10:00 - 17:00
|
from £245.00

Overview

Gain insight into the inner workings of your microbiome while learning how to use delicious foods to support gut health naturally. This course focuses on incorporating fermented foods into your daily dishes, combining foods to help you absorb more nutrients, and exploring the incredible role wild foods play in the microbiome. There’s much talk about rewilding our landscape, and you can take a similar approach to your own internal ecosystem.

We’ll learn how eating a diverse range of plants, particularly fermented foods, creates balance in your gut microbiome—much like planting a forest, where various tree species support each other and form a complex ecosystem. By embracing this approach, you’ll bring vibrancy to your gut health, energising your body and delighting your taste buds with the extra zing of flavour. Soon, your diet will undergo a transformative makeover with fermented and wild foods that will keep you hooked. You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of how to improve gut health naturally and how to increase good bacteria in the gut naturally, equipping you with the knowledge to enhance your health and energy through nutrition.

Highlights

  • How to creatively incorporate fermented foods into your everyday dishes
  • The difference between probiotics and prebiotics, and how to use them to keep your gut healthy
  • The benefits of wild foods
  • Why eating your greens can improve your health, and what to add to greens to boost nutrient absorption
  • How to make pulses and grains more digestible
  • How to sprout, grow microgreens, and ferment—and why these practices are beneficial
  • How to ease inflammation with delicious recipes and create nourishing treats
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Your day

10:00 - 17:00

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

You will meet your host and settle in with an energising welcome snack prepared by our team of chefs.

SESSION ONE

You’ll start the day with a tour around the farm to gather seasonal ingredients and forage for wild foods while learning the benefits of gathering a diverse range of ingredients. You’ll also learn about the healing power of herbs and how to use them to support gut health.

SESSION TWO

You’ll also learn how to construct creative and nutritionally enriched salad dressings, which you’ll use to make a salad with fermented pickles, sprouts and microgreens. You’ll also learn about food combining, pick up some clever knife skills, and other tips and tricks to maximise digestion and nutrient intake.

LUNCH

Lunch will feature a colour array of delicious flavours made with River Cottage Garden veg and local ingredients like ferments, pickles, pulses, nourishing grains, and a micro green herb oil. Alongside lunch will be a nutritious salad with a probiotic dressing and prebiotic ingredients, and to finish the meal off you’ll make an herbal tea and some tahini fudge with dried lemons.

SESSION THREE

After lunch, you’ll learn all about sprouting and easy-to-grow micro greens and how they boost flavour, texture and nutritional benefits of your meals. You’ll taste an exciting palate of delicious flavours and take home a sprouting and micro green project to start at home.

SESSION FOUR

You’ll make a seasonal ferment such as sauerkraut, kimchi or lacto-fermented pickles using herbs and produce from the garden which you can take home. During the session you’ll learn more about how to use fermented foods to boost gut health as well as flavour in dishes.

SESSION FIVE

You’ll make a sweet treat without refined sugar which we’ll enjoy with homemade teas and tonics. You’ll be able to take some of your sweet offering home to share with loved ones (or keep you going through the week).

Departure

There will be time to chat to your fellow cookery course scholars and the River Cottage team before heading back up the hill for 5pm. You’ll take home a jar of fermented veg, a nourishing sweet treat, seeds to sprout at home and a recipe pack laden with wisdom and recipes from the day.

About the Tutor

An award-winning author who has worked in food, health & sustainability for more than 20 years. She teaches nutrition, fermentation & wild food courses and was Course Director of the College of Naturopathic Medicine’s Natural Chef diploma course. She’s worked as Head of Food for Abel & Cole and was Commissioning Editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated. She’s studied sustainable food systems at University College London and was instrumental in setting up the Crystal Palace Food Market.

Further Information

Directions

This course is run from River Cottage HQ on the Dorset/Devon borders. Full address details of HQ will be provided once you have booked.

Licensed Venue

We are a licensed venue. We have a wide selection of the finest organic wines available to purchase.

Accommodation

If you would like to stay at the heart of River Cottage, we offer overnight accommodation at River Cottage HQ in our beautiful 17th century farmhouse. We have three stylishly refurbished bedrooms for B&B plus the 2-bedroom Gardener's Cottage. These get booked quickly so for more information go to rivercottage.net/stay to book. Alternatively, we have put together a list of our local accommodation which includes B&Bs, self-catering, hotels and camping.

Suitability

We would advise that this course is only really suitable for 12 years of age and upwards. Under 16s must be accompanied by a paying adult. We put these guidelines in place for the safety, comfort and enjoyment of all our guests.

Allergy Advice

Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements or allergies when booking.