Dear Urban Herbies,  If you have followed this blog for the past few years you will know that I have been erratically working on a book which details herbology methods for people living in towns and cities. I have been building up my methods for herbal preparations and wild food recipes, teaching them to my apprentices and refining the descriptions. Now the time has come for me to ask if you any of you would be willing to help me out by testing? I need recipe testers for my Herbology Handbook and would be delighted if you could try out my recipes to make sure they work in all kitchens – whatever size or location. I want to be sure that the recipes are crystal clear and easy to understand by everyone, whatever level of culinary and herbal experience.

I am looking for people to test at least three recipes/methods (although more testing is possible if you would like!) and to give me honest feedback. I need you to tell me how clear or difficult the recipe is for you and what you think of the end product. Some of my recipes are a little time consuming, others are quick to set up but require a waiting time of up to 3 months. Others are simple, speedy and very straightforward. Hopefully none of them are too difficult and all should help to increase your knowledge of Herbology and wild food cooking. I will need you to make the recipes/preparations exactly as written, with no substitutions (other than those which the recipe explicitly suggests) which means they may require you to source some unusual ingredients.  Even so, I am very happy to hear about what you would have substituted if you were allowed, or how you would have changed the recipes.

A quick photo of the final product, would also be appreciated, to ensure that the final products are very close to what I have made and described. I want the Herbology Handbook to be thoroughly reliable, containing recipes that people turn to, because they know that they will work. Your photos won’t be used in the book or shown anywhere else, they are purely for research.

If you would like to test some of my recipes please email me at urban.herbology.lynn@gmail.com. Tell me your name, your location, your comfort level in the kitchen and your experience level with identifying and using wild herbs. Please also tell me if you have any dietary preferences (e.g. gluten free, vegan…) and if you have any recipe preferences (do you want to test wild food recipes or perhaps you would prefer skin salves/oxymels/lozenges etc). I will choose appropriate testing recipes, sending them to you with instructions on when and how to feedback.

Please understand that you cannot share my recipes with anyone until my book is published!  I will need the feedback quite soon (a month turn around would be perfect for most of the recipes and methods, two months for others) so do bare that in mind if you decide to be a recipe tester. I aim to reply to your email within two weeks, if you ask to be a recipe tester.

Finally, I am not able to pay anyone for testing my recipes. If that makes things difficult for you, I completely understand. If you do help me by testing some recipes, you will be mentioned in the book and I will be forever grateful! I hope this all makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions.