These days, many of us are rediscovering the comfort and practical value of traditional cooking pastimes. (If you don’t have a sourdough starter on the go at the minute, are you even in quarantine?) Foraging is something else we might consider. Although we’re not suggesting the situation is so dire that we reject conventional supermarkets and go totally feral, self-isolation has got us thinking about the outdoors differently – as a source of nutrition and a tonic for mental health. If you’ve found certain ingredients scarce during this pandemic, you might have been re-evaluating your relationship with self-sufficiency.

But can you actually eat what you find in a city? Mr Wross Lawrence is a professional forager who sees constant abundance as he walks around London. In his book, The Urban Forager, released in March this year, he explains what you can find, when, and then what to do with it to ensure it’s delicious to eat. He shares his tips with us, below.

“There’s a basic hunter-gatherer thing about bringing your own food home and knowing exactly where it’s come from,” says Mr Lawrence. “Sometimes, I find I’ve been foraging for two or three hours at a time and have got completely lost in it. It feels innate in the body, like we’ve been doing this kind of thing for a thousand years. It’s a lot more rewarding than going to the supermarket, and it doesn’t need to be complicated. Foraging has loads of benefits to your mental health, and frankly, what you find and harvest yourself tastes better.”

“Researchers from the University of Berkeley took a load of wild plants from the San Francisco Bay Area and tested them. None of them had taken on any pollution from the cars going by. As long as the root of the plant isn’t in something toxic ­­­– old factory land, or the arsenic-laced grave of a Victorian – it’s fine. The fact it’s grown in a city doesn’t make it worse than a plant grown in the wild. As a rule of thumb, pick above knee height in case a dog has cocked its leg on it, and wash anything you collect before you use it.”

“You don’t need loads of specialist knowledge to start foraging. From being kids, most of us know what blackberries look like, and they literally grow everywhere. Picking straight from the hedge means it’s got more vitamins and minerals, plus it’s not got the pesticides of a shop-bought berry. They might not be bigger, but they’re tastier and better for you. Nettles are everywhere, too, and are packed with vitamin C, iron and protein. Pick the new leaves at the top (gloves are a good idea!) and use them like spinach. I like to make ravioli with them. Just keep your eyes peeled. There’s wild garlic and three-cornered leeks among the headstones of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, mallow, meadowsweet, herbs and hips on Walthamstow Marshes, and loads of berries in Wormwood Scrubs Park. London is one of the greenest cities in the world.”

“All you really need are bare hands (unless you’re picking nettles!) and deep pockets. A small knife can be handy for cutting plant stems, but it’s not necessary, and I’m not the kind of guy who’s always got Tupperware to hand, though it will save your clothes to use a food container. Instead, if I spot something, I make a mental note and then come back for what I need. In fact, the most useful tool is your phone – with 4G in most places, you can double-check your findings before you take stuff home.”

“People look at me like I’m mad, but I find, once people start foraging, they get completely obsessed. It’s a slow hobby, and it takes time to learn – I learn around five new plants a year, watching each in every season so I’m confident I know it well. Cherry blossom is hard to miss in springtime, but only lasts a couple of weeks – if you cure the flowers in salt and plum vinegar, you can bake them and their almond-y flavour into shortbread. Three-cornered leeks are wild garlic's cousin and more common in the city. They have a distinctive triangular stem, white trumpet-like flowers and grow all year round in parks and on waste ground. Don’t forget to look in the cracks of pavements and along roadsides for pineapple weed. Its yellow flowers look a little like a tiny upside-down pineapple, and it tastes like one, too. It also resembles a daisy without the white petals and makes an amazing granita. It turns out, there’s food everywhere if you just know what to look for.”

The Urban Forager: Find And Cook Wild Food In The City_ (Hoxton Mini Press) by Mr Wross Lawrence is out now_