A savvy mum with five years' experience of foraging for food is sharing her tricks and tips to help other parents, including how she packs her dinners full of nutrients.
Mum-of-two Kaye Wilkinson first started learning about foraging when chronic arthritis and ulcerative colitis left her unable to work, surviving on a small budget.
The 48-year-old began scouring nearby open fields for plants and vegetation that she could use in her cooking, avoiding expensive supermarket veg and limiting money spent on petrol.
A few of her favourite ingredients include nettles, dandelions, beech tree leaves, wild mushrooms and rose petals - which all makes its way into her kids' stomachs.
However, there are some dangers that need to be avoided, including dog urine.
The green-fingered mum has made spaghetti using foraged fungi, stir-fried rice using dandelions and dock leaves, and even added nettles to a birthday cake.
Kaye, from Colne, Lancashire, said: "I want people to realise that making this sort of food isn't a weird thing - it's something you just chuck in your everyday meals.
"I'd definitely recommend it. It's something that I'm really passionate about."
The nature enthusiast believes hand-picking food is a clever way to live, especially for any purse-string-savvy shoppers.
"It's a cost-effective thing to do, going out into the wild and picking things rather than buying expensive vegetables from the supermarket all the time," she said.
"At this time of year, there is so much salad stuff. When it comes to leafy things, you can almost bypass lettuce from the shops altogether."
She substitutes lettuce for young beech leaves and makes her own herbal tea using rose petals and nettles as it "just helps that little bit".
"You get vitamins that aren't readily available in shop-bought stuff. You don't get nettles in a supermarket, so that set of nutrients I get from the fields behind," she explained.
"It's something I've done for a long time. If I run out of spinach, I just use nettles.
"It's a case of look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, as the old saying goes."
The stay-at-home mum advises other parents to think about foraging if they're strapped for cash.
"I often feel like people just walk past free food. They're struggling along and it's like, 'you can actually eat this'," she said.
"It drives me mad that people are struggling to make ends meet when an awful lot can be found on a walk if you're looking in the right places."
Kaye says that she receives positive reactions from hungry family members and friends who get to enjoy her innovative meals.
"I regularly feed it to family and friends. It gets a positive reaction - people are just like, 'oh, I didn't know it tasted like that, that's interesting, where do you find it?'," she said.
"Some of the more unique fungi cost a bomb if you buy them or order them in restaurants. We dine like royalty during some seasons."
However, Kaye has taken care to warn fellow forages to only eat safe ingredients - and to watch out for areas that could be rife with dog urine.
"There is a skill to it, and you do have to be very careful and know exactly what you're doing. But with nettles and dandelions, you can't go wrong," she explained.
"You need to be careful to avoid dog wee. Nettles are quite often on waste ground, and places where people dump things. You have to be careful."
Do you have a parenting story to share? Get in touch. Email nia.dalton@reachplc.com.
