I grew up in Mombasa, Kenya, in a house that had a 2.5-acre garden. It was right in the city but, as soon as you went through the gates, you were transported into the wild. My “pets” included a 40-year-old tortoise, a grey parrot called Kasuku, and Pecky, a bad-tempered ostrich – all rather different from my British friends’ animals. The garden was a tropical paradise of orchids and rare plants collected on my mother’s travels around the world.

As I was growing up, plants were a constant in my life. My mother is a herbalist and would treat us with plants: mulberry leaves were chewed for toothache, a blend of turmeric, honey and lemon was the only cough syrup I ever had, and aloe vera was used to treat everything else. That’s where my love of foraging and plants began.

The first thing I ever foraged was a fruit whose name translates as “cat poop”. It always made me giggle.

Leeds is the perfect combination of rural and urban. There are so many green spaces, community orchards and gardens – and it’s a short drive from the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and even the Lake District. I came in 2007, to study for my PhD at Leeds University, and soon discovered the Green Action Food Co-op in the Students’ Union. For the first time, I saw an organisation whose motivation wasn’t to make money but to help students access affordable, organic, ethically produced food.

The city has many amazing initiatives aimed at bringing the community together, such as Fork to Fork and Hyde Park Source, which are community food-growing projects, and the Real Junk Food Project, which recently opened the UK’s first food-waste supermarket.

First rule of the Foraging Club is never to talk about your foraging spots! But with Leeds, any park will yield food. Hyde Park (also known as Woodhouse moor) is in the middle of the city and often overlooked for foraging but it’s good for all sorts of things, including fungi. Otley Chevin forest park is further out but is worth a visit for great views, and it’s also the best bilberry spot in the area.

This city is an urban forager’s paradise. Many think you need to trek off into pristine wilderness to find amazing wild produce but actually, urban spaces create microclimates that allow wild plants to flourish all year round. People do find it odd that a Kenyan woman is teaching (mainly) English people how to forage in England! But it’s the stories and love of nature that I share with them on my courses that they remark on.

In spring, I find nettles for soups and linden leaves for salads. Cleavers make healthy smoothies and wild garlic is great in pesto. I make elderflower Turkish delight, rose-petal elixirs and sleep-inducing red poppy potions. In late summer it’s all about seeds, berries, fruits and of course, there’s a dazzling array of fungi. The best part is that I don’t need to go far from my home to find these things. I’ve led my Forage and Feast events in Leeds for nearly 10 years and always in parks within a bus ride of the centre.

I once found morels growing in the woodchip outside a newly opened Waitrose. I also remember picking blackcurrants from a forgotten orchard on a housing estate and being asked by a young boy if I was picking them because I was poor. He ended up joining me, and bringing some friends.

When I started foraging here, I mainly did it for myself. But one woman cannot consume 200 jars of jam, so I started selling it at my foraging walks. I make a huge range of foraged preserves (quince marmalade, honeysuckle syrup, elderflower curd) and gluten-free baked goods to sell at my local farmer’s market, Kirkstall Deli Market. I also cook with foraged ingredients at home and for guests at my wild B&B. In November, I’m opening Leeds’s first gluten-free bakery in Meanwood, combining foraged produce with my love of baking.

Top of my list of restaurants in Leeds is 2 Oxford Place. It’s a gluten-free restaurant, with great pies and pancakes. Nichols Vegetarian Delicatessen in Chapel Allerton does an exquisite lemon drizzle cake and Mill Kitchen in Farsley has friands and almond biscuits to die for.

Foraging helps bridge the gap between abstract concept of “nature” and our food. Since I started offering foraging trips, the number of people I’ve been getting on my walks has increased and the demographic has changed too. It used to be students investigating this “new” food source. Now I get office workers, doctors, even TV stars – all with a love of food and a desire to know where it comes from.

• Visit msitu.co.uk and wildcraftbakery.com for Mina’s courses and workshops. Jini Reddy is author of Wild Times: Extraordinary Experiences Connecting with Nature in Britain (Bradt, £14.99). To order a copy for £12.29, including UK p&p, visit the guardian bookshop