Eatweeds Podcast: For People Who Love Plants – Details, episodes & analysis

In this powerful episode, host Robin Harford welcomes Hannah-May Batley, founder of Hedge School, to discuss her groundbreaking work in plant-based healing and community regeneration.

Hannah-May shares her journey from a post-mining community in South Yorkshire to creating a unique curriculum that addresses trauma, particularly sexual violence against women, through reconnection with nature.

She explains how foraging, wild food, and traditional plant knowledge can be powerful tools for recovery and resilience.

Highlights Include

• The origins of Hedge School and its impact on post-mining communities
• How plant-based practices can aid in sexual violence recovery
• The intersection of class, land rights, and healing
• Personal insights into nature as an anchor during dark times

This episode offers a sensitive yet hopeful exploration of how returning to our roots - literally and figuratively - can pave the way for profound healing and community restoration.

Don't miss this inspiring conversation about the transformative power of our connection to plants and place.

Rape Crisis Resources

• Rape Crisis- England & Wales
• Survivors Network
• Rasac

Recommended Books

• Women Who Run With The Wolves
• The Sun & Her Flowers
• The Body Keeps The Score
• Girlhood
• Caliban & The Witch

About Hannah-May Batley

Hannah-May is an unruly educator & the founder of Hedge School, a school that seeks to recover, reconnect & restore our relationship with kith & kin through plant-work, traditional skills & unruly education. 

She would describe herself as a woman deeply interested in the human relationship with plants, minerals & mark-making. Hannah-may teaches foraging, community herbalism, wild food, how to forage & process wild pigments & botanical inks, preservation methods & folk medicine.

She is a writer with work published in several UK journals & magazines & is currently working on her first book. Hannah-May is a member of the Society of Ethnobotanist & Pigments Revealed International. She specialises in working with community trauma, taking plant-work into marginalised communities.

Connect With Hannah-May Batley

Instagram: Woman of the Hedge
Instagram: Hannah-May Batley
Substack: Root and Rock
Website: HedgeSchool.co.uk

Back Matter

Follow me (Robin Harford), for the latest updates and insights around foraging and wild food on Substack, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you're ready to uncover the secrets of Britain and Northern Europe's wild plants, grab a copy of my bestselling foraging book. Inside, you'll learn how to safely harvest and thrive on nature's bounty.

Embark on a journey through 48 essential wild plants, all beautifully illustrated in full colour. Rediscover the forgotten wisdom of our ancestors and revive our ancestral heritage. Get your copy today and start your foraging journey!

Welcome to Episode 50 of the Eatweeds podcast, where host Robin Harford takes us on an auditory journey into the world of sound art and ecoacoustics with guest Jez riley French.

In this episode, titled 'The Sound of Trees', we dive into the fascinating world of listening to plants and the hidden layers of sound that surround us.

Jez, a leading British sound artist, shares the behind-the-scenes details of his latest exhibition in the Forest of Dean, revealing the actual internal sounds of plants and trees through his self-built microphones.

The immersive live installation aims to change the way we engage with forests, moving beyond their traditional leisurely use.

Highlights of the episode include Jez's discussion on the ethics of field recording, the importance of listening on nature's terms, and the significance of durational listening.

He also sheds light on the often overlooked history of women in sound art and field recording, challenging the conventional narratives that have long dominated these fields.

Listeners are encouraged to rethink their relationship with nature and sound, embracing the complexity and beauty of the world's acoustic environment. 

Whether you're a seasoned sound artist or new to the concept of ecoacoustics, this episode offers a fresh perspective on the art of listening and the power of sound to connect us more deeply with the natural world.

Tune in for an enlightening conversation that will leave you with a newfound appreciation for the sounds that often go unnoticed.

Show notes are below for a deeper dive into Jez riley French's work, and the transformative power of sound.

Connect With Jez riley French

• Website
• Linktree
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Soundwalk: The Secret Sounds of Trees

Credits

Many thanks to Pheobe riley Law for permission to use her photo of Jez in the episode artwork.

• Website
• Instagram

Back Matter

Follow me (Robin Harford), for the latest updates and insights around foraging and wild food on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

And if you're ready to discover the secrets of Britain and Ireland's wild plants, get my bestselling foraging book. In it I teach you how to safely thrive from nature's larder.

A short audio essay on sustainable harvesting and ethical wildcrafting. Spoken by Robin Harford from Eatweeds. Receive more audio essays, articles and wild food recipes by email. Sign up at https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/subscribe

Related articles

• Archive of shows of the Eatweeds Podcast
• Botanical Society Code of Conduct
• Sustainable foraging guidelines
• Foraging safety guidelines
• Careful with that plant ID app

Flora's website: Plants and Colour

Find Flora on Instagram: @plants_and_colour

About Flora Arbuthnott

Flora Arbuthnott. Flora came to this practice through a desire to connect with the land. Working with plants such as camellia and buddleia flowers, oak galls, and dock roots, or growing dye plants in her garden such as madder, woad, and coreopsis. Creating drawings, paintings, and prints as one-off explorations of plant-based surface application bringing together natural dyeing, ink and paint making, and printmaking.

Growing up in the countryside in Gloucestershire, Flora was taught to paint and print by her mother as a child. Following a degree in product design at Glasgow School of Art, she sought to reconnect with her family roots in textiles and printmaking, as well as with the natural raw elements of where materials come from. She was drawn to Devon to study permaculture (Earth Activist Training), horticulture (Schumacher College), and wild plants (Ffyona Campbell & Rhizome).

Flora’s interest in plants and fungi go beyond colour. She is committed to living and working in rhythm with the seasons, the foraging and growing food, dyes, and medicines.

Mark Duffell is one of Britain's foremost botanists and ecologists. We discuss... 

• The best way for beginners to learn plant identification.
• Why the ecology of a plant is important to know before harvesting.
• Forager or pillager? Which one are you?
• How to overcome your fear of botany and science jargon.
• Why learning plant families is important.
• Sustainability and commercial wild food harvesting. Is there a problem?
• How ecology can guide us to live harmoniously with the Earth.

Full show notes at eatweeds.co.uk/ep39

Nick Hayes author of the 'Book of Trespass' discusses the reason why Right to Roam is so important to the nation's mental health and wellbeing.  Why access to the countryside helps people deepen their connection to nature so they become better stewards of the planet. We discuss the concerns landowners have over littering and damage to their property including fences, gates, livestock etc. Also covered is the criminalising of trespass and its potential impact on already marginalised communities, as well as the rest of the general public. How will it impact your life and liberty? Show notes at eatweeds.co.uk/ep38

Emma Welton, a musician who lives locally to me discusses listening as a nature connection practice. How active listening can develop a deep empathic relationship with the natural world. The section on using sound to identify trees is very revealing. As well as creating soundscapes of botanical gardens and different habitats where plants grow. If you have followed my work for any length of time, you will know that I teach sensory engagement with plants, yet the practices I teach can be applied to the whole of the natural world. Show notes at eatweeds.co.uk/podcast

Tom Hirons is a nature based poet and storyteller. In this interview we discuss his work and how as creative humans we can all express our inherent wildness through creative and magical acts. Show notes at eatweeds.co.uk/podcast

A quick plant talk on silver wattle, Darwin's barberry and catkins which I found a few hundred metres from my house.

Nicole Rose runs Solidarity Apothecary which materially supports revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy, self-defence and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence. Show notes at eatweeds.co.uk/podcast