A restaurateur says she wants to bring a Michelin star to the island.

Pippa Lovell of foraging restaurant Versa discussed the idea when she addressed 26 members and five guests when the Inner Wheel Club of Rushen and Western Mann met at The George Hotel in Castletown.

Pippa’s restaurant uses the foraging ethic and only uses Manx-sourced food.

She is opening a restaurant in Port Erin and is aiming to bring a Michelin star to the island.

She explained how to forage sustainably making sure that enough plants are left for the animals and birds and for regrowth and she said that foraging should take place above knee height to ensure that it has not been contaminated.

The members were told about collecting and drying herbs and flowers including how to use dried meadowsweet for black pepper and using spruce for salt and sugar, as well as learning that elder leaves make excellent insect repellent and crushed plum kernels can flavour ice-cream.

Pippa gave each of them a ’seed bomb’ to throw into gardens or hedgerow to grow more natural ingredients and to encourage sustainability of our wild vegetation.

She also passed around samples of her dried plants and presented the club president Julia Vanderpump with a tin of her dried mixed herbs.