Resilience Workshops

“A little less carbon footprint, a little more action”

Fungi Foraging

Fermentation

Sourdough

Wine Making

Kitchen Garden 

Up-Cycling

Meditation & Mindfulness

Natural Remedies

Polytunnels & Glasshouses

Poultry

Shoreline Foraging

Want to try more than one workshop?

The Resilient Team

Recipes, Guides, Tips & Witchery


Saffron Milk – Caps My favourite foraged mushroom of this season is a beautiful apricot coloured gift from the forest, the saffron milk-cap. An unusual fungus but so versatile, offering a generous texture and taste to […]
wild garlic recipes
Wild garlic and rocket arancini with tomato sauce. After the Spring equinox on March 21, Nature opens her pantry doors and beneath our feet emerge fresh green leaf forms with their distinctive shapes, aromas and properties.  […]
wild garlic soup recipe
Wild Garlic Soup Tans Way Taking a long walk on A beautiful Easter Sunday from my mother’s house in Kent. The usual picture postcard scenes of lambs and bunnies bounding across bright pastures of greenness, yellow […]
wild mushroom lasagne recipe
Wild Mushroom Lasagne Recipe Last Summer and Autumn my partner James, a master mushroom forager, was enjoying a particularly bumper season, bringing to the kitchen table, the most extraordinary array of wild fungi. So much so […]
Hedgerow Wine Recipe: Makes 1 demijohn = 6 x 750ml bottles Ingredients: 1.5kg mixed hedgerow fruit – blackberries, sloes, haws 1.25kg sugar 4.5L boiling water 4 teabags (black tea) *1 tsp pectolase *1 tsp citric acid […]
self sufficiency courses
This recipe my mother used to make every year from the glut of apples from the old fruit trees in her garden. My sister and I used to moan about having to spend ages peeling and […]
self sufficiency courses
Krishnamacharya …. as stated by the grandfather of modern yoga, Kryshnamacharya was trying to make the modern world aware of what is true; yoga practice is not just a physical experience on the mat, it’s about using the […]
Chicken Of The Woods – A Visual & Culinary Delight Well what a year 2022 was! The summer seemed to roll on forever and with hardly any rain it made for what was to become the […]
pickling and fermentation lessons sussex
Last night I came home after a very long day at the work, Winter’s cold edges continuing to prickle the air and the evenings still very gloomy and dark. I made a quick stop at my […]
Friday 15th July. 2.15pm For the Festival of the Garden at Charleston Trust, the Resilient Life team discussed the benefits of nature’s living larder and outlined creative ways to balance our lives in harmony with the […]
My Dear friend Vicky, Thank you so much for your lovely letter, yes it feels like an age since we were in the woods camping and preparing food from our allotments. I love the way we […]
July 28th 2022  My Dear Tan, What a weekend we had in the woods…cooking feasts over an open fire, spotting forage for harvesting in the autumn – nuts and berries which the squirrels will undoubtedly get […]
self sufficiency courses
“… the true purpose of art is one of resilience… In other words, art expression and the creative process are really manifestations of the drive toward health and well-being”  –Cathy Malchiodi PhD I’ve always loved making things […]
yoga classes and retreats sussex
” . . . It has a charming garden, with a pond, and fruit trees, and vegetables, all now rather run wild, but you could make it lovely”.  Virginia Woolf  In the winter of 1916, the […]
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”― Robert Jordan The Resilient Life Workshops Being resilient is not just about being creative in the kitchen or having your […]
L J
2023-03-22
Tan & Vicky’s resilient life workshop was blissful. Full of authentic creativity, sustainable ideas in the kitchen & garden led with a peaceful bearing on spirit. We continue to enjoy many bottles of home foraged wild wine accompanied by the punchiest of sauerkrauts! The friendly company as we shared ways of working together felt like an ancient treasure, secretly healing. Thank you 🌎💚✨Laura
Adele King
2023-03-16
Time well spent is definitely a time worth living and the Resilient Life Course, will not disappoint you. Set in the beautiful East Sussex countryside. The welcome on arrival was warm and welcoming, I immediately felt relaxed. Our first day was Yoga with Tanja, in the Thereshing barn at Charlston house. Tanja's teaching is gentle and effective, she has a voice like butter, and she had so many gems of wisdom thrown in along the way. I wanted to take her home with me, as my personal teacher. Lunch was served, homemade, home grown or locally produced, to an exceptional standard. Day 2, we arrived at a glorious farm house, with a kitchen that will make you feel like your stepping back in time, we all gather around a huge wooden table, which really adds to the ambience of the making of Sourdough Bread and Sauerkraut. Vicky's teaching is clear, forget measurements, this is how Grandmother's did it, by eye, feeling and nurturing (The Baby) Vicky"s has the ability to make things fun, and give you the confidence, so as when you leave, you will feel inspired and equipped to be proficient in making bread and Sauerkraut. There was lots of time for tea, coffee, biscuits and laughter, not forgetting a fabulous lunch. Day 3, Wild Wine making, which will surprise and delight you. Informative and faultless in all it delivered. We left upright. This was followed on with a fabulous time talking and being amongst the chickens. A must for anyone thinking of keeping chickens. All the people that I have met that teach on the Resilient Life workshops, all have one thing in common, a love and passion for what they do, and a desire to share there skills to make a difference in our lives and for future wellbeing. For me it was the ultimate gift on many levels. Thank you 😊 I highly recommend.
Rachel Carter
2023-03-16
Wonderful yoga escape from everyday life. Highly recommend for a nurturing day amongst other women.
Elliot Higgins
2023-03-15
We came foraging with The Resilient Life. My wife, our baby and I had the most wonderful time. Really fun and educational. James is a fantastic guide and looked after us so well. His knowledge of the forest and the varieties of mushrooms was incredible. He taught what to look for and what to avoid - always focussing in being safe. We took a full trug and James was great with tips for cooking and preserving. Really looking forward to the season starting again and booking another outing.
Perrin Horne
2023-03-15
Fantastic day out with James. We found an abundance of delicious and wonderful mushrooms. Some very unusual. We learned a lot and have become even more enthusiastic about foraging