In the world of fine dining and wild food, certain names carry the weight of authority and expertise. For years, “Alysia Vasey” was one of them—the woman behind Yorkshire Foragers, a trusted supplier to some of the best chefs on the planet. But in early 2025, viewers of Saturday Morning with James Martin witnessed a delightful correction. When host James Martin introduced his guest as Alysia Greenwood, he paused, acknowledging his long-time habit of calling her by her previous surname, Vasey .
“What can I say? Better foraging name, Greenwood,” Alysia joked, flashing her wedding ring .
The lighthearted moment on a popular ITV show confirmed what many of her followers might have missed: Alysia had married. While James Martin quipped that the new surname was more fitting for a forager, the reality is that behind the sequins and the machete is a deeply personal story. The man who is now her husband, Chris, has not just been a spectator to her extraordinary life but an active participant in it.
To understand who Alysia Greenwood is today—and the partner who stands beside her in the brambles and mud—we must first journey through the lush, dangerous, and history-soaked world that defines her.
The Reluctant Professional: From Helicopter Engineer to Michelin-Starred Supplier
Alysia’s path to becoming the “Yorkshire Forager” was anything but linear. As she once told a reporter, “It all seems a bit surreal when you just pick weeds for a living” . Her career began far from the woodland floors, in the structured and high-tech environment of the Royal Navy, where she served as a helicopter engineer . After five years of service, she pivoted dramatically to academia, studying law and politics at the University of East Anglia. She was even named “Lawyer of the Future” in a national competition, a testament to her sharp intellect .
But the pull of the outdoors, ingrained in her since childhood, was too strong. After a stint in social care, the idea of professional foraging took root during a seemingly mundane trip to the hairdressers in 2005. Obsessed with truffles, she would spend weekends hunting with her mother and a notoriously ineffective truffle-hound .
It was a photograph of a giant puffball mushroom, posted on a fungi forum, that changed everything. A contact she dubbed “Mushroom Martin” placed a large order and introduced her to Aiden Byrne, at the time the youngest chef ever to receive a Michelin star .
This was the catalyst. Alysia realized that her hobby could pay the bills. Her timing was perfect. The culinary world was in the throes of the “New Nordic” movement, championed by chefs like Rene Redzepi of the four-time world’s best restaurant, Noma. These chefs were seeking out hyper-local, unusual, and wild ingredients—and Alysia Vasey became their go-to supplier in the UK .
A Survival Instinct: The Grandfather Who Taught Her Everything
Alysia’s encyclopedic knowledge of edible plants is not something she learned from a textbook. It is a survival skill passed down through her bloodline, a gift from her Polish grandfather, Dan Szperka. To understand Alysia’s obsession with foraging, one must understand Dan’s story—a harrowing tale of escape and endurance during the Holocaust.
Dan Szperka was a teenager living in Poznan, Poland, when the Germans invaded in 1939. He and his younger brother Ted were railway apprentices. The Nazis began using the railways to transport people to concentration camps, and the brothers were forced to work on these trains. In quiet acts of rebellion, they would pass food and water to the prisoners or undo the locks on the carriages to let them escape . Eventually, they were caught by the SS and sentenced to death. However, on the way to the camp, a fight broke out among the guards, and in the chaos, the brothers fled into the vast, unforgiving forests of Poland .
For nearly a year, they survived in the wild. They slept in caves, drank from streams, and evaded capture by relying solely on the land. They ate young pinecones, ash keys, berries, and nuts. As spring arrived, they found wild garlic and a fungus known as “chicken of the woods.” They crafted fish traps from willow branches and snares from their bootlaces . This was not a hobby; it was a fight for life. Dan eventually made his way to the UK via a displacement camp in Italy, settling in Yorkshire, where he met and married Winnie, a local woman from Barnsley .
Money was tight in post-war Britain, and Dan returned to foraging, not for survival, but to supplement the family larder on his way home from night shifts at the carpet mill. He would take his granddaughter Alysia and her brother on walks across the moors, teaching them which plants were friends and which were foes. “Ever since I could walk I’ve been fascinated by nature.
By the time I was seven or eight I could identify every tree, plant, flower, animal and bird that we came across,” Alysia recalled . The tragic early death of her policeman father when she was just a child cemented the bond with her grandparents, making those foraging walks a cornerstone of her upbringing .
The Man Behind the Forager: Enter Chris
So where does Alysia’s husband fit into this narrative of naval discipline, legal academia, and ancestral survival? His name is Chris, and according to multiple interviews and profiles of the forager, he is very much part of the machinery that makes Yorkshire Foragers run .
When Alysia speaks of her business, she describes it as a “family affair.” For her, foraging is not a solitary pursuit but a shared adventure. Her husband Chris joined the team alongside her mother, Barbara (now in her 70s), her two teenage nephews, and their beloved four-legged colleague, Fred the chocolate Labrador . Chris is not just a supportive spouse waiting at home; he is an active forager, spending up to nine months of the year traversing the diverse Yorkshire landscape with Alysia.
The couple’s routine is a far cry from the typical 9-to-5. Their “office” stretches from the coastal cliffs and mudflats of the Humber estuary to the sub-arctic conditions of the Yorkshire moors. They scour ancient woodlands behind their Doncaster home for beechnuts and sweet woodruff, and brave the elements to gather coconut-scented gorse from the banks of local castles . Chris is right there with her, battling the elements, hauling the haul, and sharing in the quiet satisfaction of discovering nature’s pantry.
In an interview with AroundTown Magazine, the image painted is distinctly domestic yet wildly unconventional. Alysia, applying a slick of lipstick and grabbing her wicker basket, heads out the door not for the supermarket, but for the woods, with Chris by her side . He is her partner in crime, her co-pilot on this journey through the seasons.
While Alysia is the charismatic face of the operation—the one wearing sequins and charming Michelin-starred chefs on James Martin’s sofa—Chris is part of the essential support system that allows her to do it. He shares the load of the physical work, the early mornings, and the meticulous process of harvesting up to a tonne of wild garlic in a single week during the spring .
A Partnership Forged in Nature
The relationship between Alysia and Chris is a testament to how shared passions can create a powerful partnership. Their life is dictated by the seasons, not the calendar. In spring, they are immersed in the pungent aroma of Ramsons (wild garlic) in the ancient woodlands of Barnsley. Summer is a transitional period, watching the landscape shift. Autumn sparks a frantic flurry of activity with the arrival of the fungi season—from Jew’s ears to the prized St. George’s mushrooms .
Then, as winter grips the land, they face the harshest conditions, picking lingonberries and bilberries in sub-arctic conditions on the moors . It is grueling, physical work that requires resilience and a deep-seated love for the craft. Having a partner who understands the obsession, who doesn’t mind the mud, the early starts, and the sheer unpredictability of the job, is invaluable.
Their partnership extends beyond the physical act of picking. Alysia’s reputation hinges on trust. Chefs need to know that the wild garlic they are serving hasn’t been picked from a contaminated, former industrial site where chemicals have leached into the soil . They need to be certain that the beautiful mushrooms aren’t a deadly lookalike.
With thousands of different types of mushrooms in the UK, where ten percent are wonderfully edible and a critical two percent are deadly, having a trusted second pair of eyes is crucial . Chris’s role, therefore, is not just supportive but integral to the quality control and safety of the business.
The Greenwood Chapter: A New Name, The Same Adventure
The recent wedding and subsequent name change to Alysia Greenwood marks a new chapter for the couple. The announcement on Saturday Morning with James Martin was pure, unscripted charm. As James Martin struggled to remember the new name, Alysia’s quick wit shone through . “Married, better foraging name, Greenwood,” she laughed, making the host and audience smile at the playful logic . It was a moment that perfectly encapsulated her personality: deeply knowledgeable and professional, yet approachable and good-humored.
The name “Greenwood” is indeed poetically apt for someone whose life is so intertwined with trees and forests. But beyond the whimsy, the television appearance highlighted that marriage hasn’t slowed her down. Even while navigating the recent life change, she was still deep in the swamps, foraging for tangerine root to bring to the studio to create a Tangerine Crème Caramel .
The couple’s life continues to be one of adventure and discovery. Even the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated the hospitality industry and therefore her primary market, couldn’t stop Alysia. Instead of resting, she pivoted, starting a master’s degree in food consumer marketing and product development to steer the business in new directions . It is this resilience, likely supported by a stable and understanding partner in Chris, that defines her.
Conclusion: More Than Just a Name
So, who is Alysia Vasey’s husband? He is Chris, the quiet backbone of the Yorkshire Foragers, a man who spends his days traversing the wilds of Yorkshire not for a paycheck, but for a passion shared with the woman he loves. He is the unseen partner in a business that feeds the egos and menus of the world’s most demanding chefs. He is the modern-day equivalent of Alysia’s grandfather’s companion in the forest, proving that foraging, at its heart, is often a cooperative act of survival and discovery.
But the story of “Alysia Vasey husband” is ultimately a story about Alysia herself. It reveals a woman who has built a life so cohesive that her personal and professional worlds are one and the same. Her husband isn’t a separate entity; he is woven into the fabric of her unique existence. And as she starts her life as Alysia Greenwood, one thing is certain: whether she’s known by her former name or her new one, she and Chris will be out there, baskets in hand, labrador at their heels, searching the hedgerows and woodlands for the next great ingredient. The name on the order slips may change, but the adventure, now a shared one in the truest sense, continues.
