Food bills are soaring up and down the country as the cost of living crisis escalates. But an Altrincham family has discovered a way to slash their food bills while enjoying delicious meals - insisting they spend just £5 a month in the supermarket.
Jim Parums, 32, used to watch his grandmother Anne, 84, pick mushrooms when he was a youngster. Now, he is passing on the art of foraging to his family - wife Kat, 35, and their two young daughters aged three and one.
For every meal they eat, the Parums family use ingredients grown in their garden or foraged from local woods. Jim says it leaves the family needing to buy just pasta and olive oil from the supermarket, at a cost of £5 a month.
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Jim said: "Some of the tastiest ingredients are waiting outside your doorstep. With a little bit of guidance, foraging can be used in every meal, and that expensive weekly shop can be reduced drastically.
"My family and I rarely visit our local Tesco because we have everything we need in our garden or outside. We only buy pasta and olive oil which barely breaks our £5 spending limit in the local shop."
In January 2020, Jim trialled giving up weekly food shops after becoming sick of processed, frozen and expensive meals. The family loved their new way of life so much they stuck with it and continued to source fresh produce from the environment around them.
Their meals even include birds left behind from pheasant shoots during that season. The family now save over £100 a week.
After a childhood of adventures with his grandma, Jim discovered his talent for foraging after easily identifying mushrooms with just a glance as a young adult. He now works as a professional forager.
The dad-of-two continued his passion during his degree in Electronic Engineering at Ashton University, Birmingham, in 2011. During this time, Jim would forage berries and make wine for his friends.
Jim said: "We were young and we just wanted to something to drink, so I thought why not, I'll create it myself. It was awful, but it definitely did the job. My wine-making has improved quite dramatically in recent years."
In 2015, Jim met his wife Kat on a job when they both worked in hospitality, and they moved to Manchester in 2019. But he quickly became unfulfilled with 'the daily grind' and decided to do something he loved instead.
Jim said: "At first Kat was confused by my obsession with fungi, but after cooking her a full three course meal that was fully foraged she was blown away! After just five years, Kat is an incredible forager. Even our eldest daughter can distinguish mushrooms by their spots at just aged three."
The family of foragers will spend their morning harvesting various fungi, berries and plants to use to create their breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, they will have homemade jam from foraged berries, black, red and wild with freshly baked bread.
Jim's typical lunch for the family will include a variety of fruits harvested from their garden and their dinners will change with each season. Jim said: "We grow a number of fruits and vegetables in our garden, but it all depends on the seasons.
"Our friends and family love the foraging lifestyle with some of them even learning a few helpful tips and tricks. Some of our meals are drastically amplified by the tastiness of the earthly flavours only nature can provide.
''While people spend £10 on their fruit and veg every week, we are growing and foraging for nothing. Weekly food shops can be such a burden on people's finances, while we save hundreds each year for throwing away the idea of a weekly food shop.
"The average weekly food shop for a family of four is around £90 if not much more, and we barely hit that in a month. Our whole family is foodies and have discovered some of the tastiest combinations found outside.
''Our daughters have never been fussy eaters and enjoy every meal we make for them. No food is wasted, we use what we need and recycle and compost our leftovers."
Jim now helps other families to reduce their cost-of-living through foraging though his business Forage Box. Typical foraged meals Jim and his family eat:
- Laver Seaweed Risotto
- Chicken Of The Woods Mushroom Nuggets
- Dandelion Bhajis with Watermint Raita
- Woodland Pesto Pasta
- Poached Eggs on Toast with Shaggy Inkcap Ketchup
- Wild Ramen with Foraged Mushrooms and Horseradish
- Nettle and Dock Leaf Saag Aloo
- Sourdough Pizza with Wild Ingredients
- Roast Pheasant with Fermented Blackberry Jam
- Crumpets with Dulse Seaweed Marmalade
- Wild Mushroom and Muntjac Sausage Roll
- Stir Fried Marsh Samphire with Seaweed Glaze
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