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Scientist develops project to highlight the lost wild flavours of Scotland
Project seeks opinions, feedback, folklore and recipes
Perthshire-based scientist, Dr Marian Bruce, has created The Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel to enable people to rediscover the lost tastes of wild Scottish ingredients and encourage greater understanding and use of wild plants.
Dr Bruce is now seeking community collaboration to make available the stories, recipes and opinions of the people of Scotland to create an online library of Scottish wild flavours.
The project is part of work seeking to understand how individual people experience and describe wild flavours and use Scotland’s wild species.
The wheel identifies fifty Scottish species – from more familiar plants like elderflower to seaweeds and fungi – and divides them into ten flavour profiles. Ingredients like pignuts and heather are placed into the Earthy category, while nettle and ground elder are in the Bitter section, for example. Other categories include Forest, Berry, Seaweed, Fungi, Fresh, Spice, Hedgerow and Floral.
The project seeks opinions, feedback, folklore and recipes, which will be collated into a new online resource, available for everyone to use.
Dr Bruce said:
“There are wild flavours all around us but so much of our knowledge of this is at risk or needs to be rediscovered. Broadening everyone’s understanding of this is a way of enhancing the richness of our world and reconnecting with nature. We want as many people as possible to rediscover these lost flavours of Scotland.
“Flavour is somewhat subjective and often hard to describe so we’re asking everyone to take part in the further development of the wild flavour wheel. This collection of community resources will be made available to everyone and help us to better understand these national natural flavour assets. The more people leave feedback about how they perceive the flavour of different species, the better understanding we’ll all have of this.
“I’m looking for a wide range of contributions, particularly the community of foragers. This input could take the form of words for flavour, descriptors of species on the wheel, family recipes, stories or folklore around the species and suggestions for new additions. This community collaboration will bring the flavour wheel to life. The Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel will expand with more information, become more interactive and is an evolving resource and tool for people to enjoy, use and be part of.”
To view the Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel and provide your feedback, visit https://highlandboundary.com/pages/wild-flavour-wheel.
The Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel was launched at the Scottish Wild Food Festival https://www.scottishwildfoodfestival.co.uk/ which tooks place on 17th and 18th May 2025 at Tir na nOg in Stirlingshire.
The Wild Scottish Flavour Wheel is protected under a Creative Commons Licence, which allows use of the wheel for non-commercial purposes only.
