Foraging is undeniably rather trendy at the moment. Many high profile restaurants make a feature of ’foraged’ dishes on the menu, blinding us with science about how hard the ingredients are to come by and how exclusive. A lot of it is nonsense of course, as I discovered when I joined a foraging walk led by Pippa Lovell who is the chef at - where else? - Foraging Vintners.

We were well fortified right from the off, with a glass of the winery’s trademark rhubarb fizz so the dozen of us taking part were all in very good spirits as we headed across Port Erin beach.

One of the things that puts most of us off gathering wild plants and berries to eat is the possibility that, unless you happen to have a degree in botany, you might be picking something poisonous. So we learned something very useful straightaway from Pippa, when she told us: ’All UK seaweeds are edible. There are no dangerous ones, they just have different flavours.’

Before coming to the Isle of Man, Pippa worked in Copenhagen at Noma 108, the sister establishment to the world’s most famous foraging restaurant also four times voted the world’s best restaurant. So she knows a thing or two about picking wild food to make gourmet dishes and she gave us a bit of the inside track.

Take sugar kelp, for example, the crinkly, belt-like seaweed that is all too common on our shores. Pippa said: ’Lots of Michelin-starred restaurants use sugar kelp, in dishes like sugar kelp ice cream, and try to give the impression it came from Japan or somewhere but it literally grows everywhere.’

If you want to try seaweed in your cooking there are a couple of ways. First of all pick it as the tide is going out and leaving it behind on the rocks otherwise it collects debris and bacteria. You can then air dry it outside, stir fry it or roast it in butter; you can also leave it to stand in the butter, strain it and then use the flavoured butter in your cooking.

As we climb the cliff path heading towards Spaldrick we learn more: plantain, a very common wild flower can be eaten when the petals drop and tastes exactly like a mushroom; fuchsia flowers can eaten; gorse has a coconut flavour, and Loaghtan lamb smoked over gorse ’tastes amazing’.

Another piece of advice from Pippa: ’Eat more dandelions - they have diuretic and antioxidant properties so bulk out your salads with dandelion leaves.’

We arrive on Spaldrick beach where we take a break and polish off another bottle of fizz before picking camomile flowers (the one the petals have dropped off) to fill the little sachets we’ve been given for a herbal tea.

Walking up from the beach we find sorrel leaves which are a revelation: they are very juicy and taste exactly like a sour apple.

And Pippa gave us a final piece of general foraging advice: ’Spread out your foraging: be fair on the plant and the area you’re in.’

There was more fizz when we arrived back at Foraging Vintners and then a choice of dish to eat: veggie, vegan, fish or meat. I chose the meat option: beef tartare, pork, tarragon and foraged herbs. It was served with a piece of Pippa’s light-as-air freshly made bread and absolutely delicious. We also tried some of the sea beet Pippa had picked on our walk, stir fried in dill oil: that was very good too.

The introduction to foraging had turned out to be surprisingly engaging. It is of course a way of ’reconnecting with nature’ but it is also quite heart-lifting to go out and ’earn’ your food before you eat. Altogether thoroughly recommended - in fact I’m just off to pick some dandelions.