The hunter gatherer experience at Swinton Park, North Yorkshire

Those looking for a culinary experience in the great outdoors, combined with foraging for wild edible food and a display of birds of prey and ferrets in hunt, will find the Hunter Gatherer Day a novel experience.

Whilst not for the faint hearted, the day provides an insight into countryside skills in a beautiful location in the Yorkshire Dales. The day is run by Chris Bax, a trained chef who combines his love of food with his love of the countryside and who has appeared on BBC’s Countryfile and is a regular contributor of foraging articles for foodie magazines, and the hotel’s falconer, Sophie Abbott.

The Hunter Gatherer Day at Swinton Park is spent entirely outdoors, starting at the Bird of Prey Centre with an introduction to the birds, following them into the parkland to watch them hunt with ferrets, and then finishing with lunch in the Deerhouse after a foraging session in the woodland. Guests will also learn fire making skills and watch or take part in skinning and butchering a rabbit. This is a unique experience in that the entire process of hunting, foraging and eating are brought together in one day.

The lunch served will use ingredients sourced during the day, and also those from the hotel’s four acre walled garden. The food miles will be a matter of a few hundred yards, and the day will champion the fresh and delicious ingredients that can be sourced in the immediate surroundings of Swinton Park and the Yorkshire countryside.

The Hunter Gatherer days will take place on 21st and 27th August 2011 and cost £95 per person.

For more information, visit: swintonpark.com