Fat Hen

What Is Fat Hen?
Fat Hen (Chenopodium album): a wild edible plant and a common weed of cultivated ground. It was a valued crop to our ancestors being one of the staple foodstuffs of Neolithic times. It is a plant that is found all over Europe in prehistoric settlements. Its leaves can be used like spinach both raw and cooked and its seeds can be ground to make a flour.

Fat Hen is the realisation of a dream borne out of my passion for wildlife, the countryside, the Cornish landscape and food. It is a celebration of wild food and cooking.

Fat Hen aims to teach others the art of foraging for wild food, to demonstrate traditional and contemporary gourmet cooking techniques used to cook the foraged produce, and to feast in rustic style in our beautifully converted granite barn in West Cornwall.

Fat Hen is a small, rural, family enterprise set up by forager and professional ecologist Caroline Davey, alongside our fantastic chefs, Matt Williamson and Claire Thomson.

Fat Hen aims to get people out into the countryside, to engage people in being connected to and a part of the landscape, and to teach people about sustainable living and conservation.

Fat Hen aims to empower people with the experience of freedom and independence in finding food resources, and to feel the emotional and physical health benefits of spending time in wild places.

CAROLINE DAVEY