River Cottage online courses have been designed specifically for online learners and for people unable to come to the courses we hold at River Cottage HQ.
Each course contains high quality video tutorials from Hugh and the rest of the River Cottage team of experts. These will help guide you through your chosen subject. Each topic is broken down into easy steps, which can be printed out so that you can digest them at your leisure. Along the way are little quizzes to help you test your knowledge.
There are also great resources, like recipes from the River Cottage team and lists of suppliers and helpful organisations.
These courses contain a large amount of video, so you need to have a broadband connection and the latest version of the free Flash player in order to enjoy them. To start, please go to our online courses and log-in at the top right-hand corner of the website. You’ll need your River Cottage shop login and password and have purchased access for the courses. If you haven’t done this please purchase your course from the links provided below.
All courses free with River Cottage Membership
Why not purchase River Cottage Annual Membership for £35? With this (and many other benefits) you’ll get free access to all the online courses, which normally cost £20 each for over eight hours of interactive learning.
Online Edible Seashore
At River Cottage we like our food fresh and wild, so what could be more exciting than the bounty of our windswept coastlines? From the edible plants that cling to the crags in our cliffs to the slimiest of seaweeds and the juiciest of molluscs and crustacea, there’s enough tasty fayre on our beaches and shorelines for everyone and the best bit is, it’s all free.
Online Edible Hedgerow
Discover your inner hunter-gatherer with the River Cottage guide to the edible delights of the great British hedgerow. Here’s where you’ll learn to identify some of the tastiest plants, berries, fruits and nuts our countryside has to offer. So don your boots and your gloves and get ready for a foraging adventure.
Online Catch & Cook
The tastiest fish you’ll ever eat is one you’ve caught yourself - and our online Catch and Cook course is designed to help you do exactly that. We’ll give you the practical information you need to know how to catch, clean, fillet and cook a selection of the finest inshore fish, plus a selection of our favourite recipes.
Online Preserves
Learn how to make the most marvellous jams, jellies, marmalades and the cheekiest of chutneys, lively fruit liqueurs and piquant pickles. You’ll also discover how to achieve great consistencies and textures every time, how to bottle and seal your preserves and which tools of the trade are worth investing in. Your store cupboard will never look the same again!
Online Mushroom Magic
If you’re not already a mushroom fan, you will be by the end of this course. They really are a magical food. Quite apart from the delight you’ll get from eating what you find, foraging for fungi is a lot of fun – and all you’ll need, whether you're a beginner or experienced forager, is a few bits of equipment and a smattering of River Cottage knowledge to be on your way.
Online Game
We hope you will enjoy this foray into the wild which Hugh's put together with my friends Ray Smith and Nick Fisher to celebrate the fantastic role that game and wild meat play in the River Cottage repertoire. We think you’ll find everything you want to know about preparing different sorts of game for your table – including deer, squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, duck and pigeon, plus a collection of our favourite recipes.
Online Bread
Bread is such a familiar part of our everyday diet that it’s sometimes easy to overlook - why bother making your own when it’s so readily available in every supermarket? In Online Bread we’ll show you how to make a simple white loaf and some easy everyday variations on the theme, we’ll look in-depth at the key ingredients used in bread-making and show you how to use them with confidence.