ground elder

Wild greens worth doing

Margaret Lear Status Flora, Vegetables, Wild Food, Wild Food & Wild Things Tags: , , , , ,

So, there I was sitting at the picnic table with a mound of burdock stems in front of me, ready to set about the tortuous job of peeling away all the stringy, indigestible outer layer, to leave the delectable, succulent inner core, which would be sauteed with butter and water for dinner.

An hour later, or thereabouts, I stopped.

The huge mound had dwindled to a tiny portion which would degenerate further on cooking. The problem is, when you take off the stringy bits, there sometimes isn’t much burdock stem left. Moreover, when it arrives on your dinner plate you find that you never got them all in any case, and only 50% of what you’ve cooked is tender. Nothing wrong with the flavour, but was it really worth the hassle? Especially the hour peeling away, while gazing longingly across the garden at my wee plantation of Sutherland Kale, whose tender green sprouts and leaves could have been gathered in 3 minutes!

So I thought, given you can grow really delicious vegetables pretty easily, how about listing my Top Ten really worthwhile wild greens – the ones whose flavour, abundance and/or ease of preparation make them worth the effort. Opinions will vary, but here’s my choices:

  1. Nettle tops. Obviously. No shortage, and the number of things you can do with them easily counterbalances the need to wear gloves.
  2. Ramsons (wild garlic). Equally obvious – easy to pick and packed with flavour and many uses, raw and cooked.
  3. Good King Henry. Anything in the spinach family is good, even better when it’s so packed with flavour.
  4. Garlic Mustard. You can’t go wrong with the attributes of both garlic and mustard, and the leaves are big and available so early in the year. The biggest ones are nice stuffed with rice and beans and things.
  5. Bistort (Pudding Dock). Easy to pick and use, and essential for Dock Pudding of course.
  6. Hogweed flower buds. Big round balls of unopened flowers, delicious fried, with or without batter. Dead easy.
  7. Comfrey. Some people say it should not be eaten. I love the young leaves as a tender, succulent vegetable or soup. Not much toxin in them at that stage, if any.
  8. Sea Beet. Another spinachy thing, and easy to find and pick if you are in the right part of the country. Wish I was! (In some ways.)sea beet
  9. Solomon’s Seal. Caution, because it’s not so common in its true wild form, though there are plenty of garden escapes. Another one to take in moderation, but as a wild asparagus substitute, the flavour is superb and it isn’t even stringy.
  10. Ground Elder. Oh I know. But I am not winding you up. The flavour is great, the abundance is legendary, and it’s always good to east your weeds.

Before anything’s ready in the veg plot, a combination of nettles, bistort, ground elder , ramsons and comfrey provide us with spring greens that are a joy to taste.

What are your favourites?

Long slow spring…..

Margaret Lear Broadleaved Woods, Cider & Ale, Flora, Fruit, Mountain, Seashore, Spring, Uncategorized, Vegetables, Wild Food & Wild Things Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Today heard the first cuckoo, in the woods fringing Glen Garr. Was with HNC Countryside Management atudents and the last time I dragged them for a walk we saw the first swallows down on the Tay Estuary – so I think the class are my lucky spring charms. They do seem to expect

Long time no blog – winter went on and on, nothing much to report and I realise I am about to repeat everything I wrote about last year if I don’t watch out. Will try to be selective….. the apple mountain finally petered out late February, with the blackbirds getting the last of them. Andrew borrowed the Carse of Gowrie cider press and the crucial crusher and made 11 gallons of cider and perry – we are still drinking it and mist of it is truly excellent. We have added to the fruit trees in our garden about 11 apples, 3 or 4 pears including the famous Perthshire Jargonelle, and a couple of plums and a damson. They are all leafing out nicely.

Have made wild garlic pesto and earwigging to Radio 4 and the like tells me the whole world is making stuff with wild garlic these days! It’s much in demand from customers too. Bistort, nettles, ground elder, comfrey and ladies mantle have all been et – both in and out of Dock Puddings, and Solomon’s Seal has produced its delectable shoots. Magnificent!

Have not found any St. George’s mushrooms yet. We found a red Peziza type fungus the other day – Scarlet Elf Cup – which we’d not seen before. Inedible but very pretty. Nearby we found a lizard out basking, which reminds me – on a student trip to the Rhinns of Galloway a morning walk at Portpatrick yielded a BEAUTIFUL adder by the path, fulmars and nesting ravens, and a stoat.

 Well, a new season dawns, and my “pet” early potatoes called Bonnie Dundee (but labelled Claverhouse out of badness) are coming up….

Dock Pudding – a potato recipe

Margaret Lear Diary entries, Estuary/Wetlands, Flora, Fritters, Spring, Vegetables Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Here is a recipe I used the other day for a Dock Pudding using mashed potato instead of oatmeal or barley. Oatmeal’s better, but I can’t have it at the moment because of the beeping Lent challenge, oddly enough I never grew a field of oats last year, perhaps I should try this year in case I ever have a silly idea like this again. The “docks” in question are, of course, Bistort (Polygonum bistorta).

15 Bistort leaves
8 comfrey leaves (should have been stinging nettle tops but the ducks have been grazing them)
6 Ladies Mantle leaves (Alchemilla xanthoclora)
6 ground elder leaves
1 chopped leek

Wash and cook all the above together like spinach. Drain, chop and add to mashed potato (think I had about 4 medium tatties). Beat in one egg, and seasoning to taste. Press into a pudding basin and place in a pan of water; simmer for about 25 minutes. (think you could also microwave it, but haven’t tried). Loosen in bowl and invert onto a plate. Garnish with primrose flowers or broom buds (or anything else edible I guess). It’s really nice, even if not oatmeal based.

I’m still feeling rough. Muttered to friend Janet about the odd cystitus symptoms which seem to be getting worse. “Have you been eating too much spinach” she asked. Ummmm….. yes….. It turns out spinach, rhubarb and probably most of the greens I’ve been living on cause a build up of oxalic acid, which CAN cause crystals in the bladder, which can cause infections….. looks like something I have to be careful of, if its not too late… going to see the doctor tomorrow. If I can’t eat greens, it’ll get even more boring.In the interests of my kidneys, I’ve drunk 6 pints of water today, think I actually prefer it to herbal teas!

Anyway, feasted on Solomon’s Seal shoots tonight; they’re bound to be bad for you because they are DELICIOUS. My son who’s a great cook, is home from Uni, which makes me wistful for one of his curries and envious of his dinners ( to be honest, I rarely envy my partner his meals, rice pudding straight from the tin does nothing for me!).

Reed Mace by the Tay EstuaryTried something new in the wild food line – came upon reed mace (Typha angustifolia) by the Tay and extracted some young shoots. They were nice – a bit like asparagus, but tough outer layer needs to be removed. I think I’ll collect some more when they are taller, should get more for the effort. Typha’s an invasive, suckering plant, so no risk to wild population from taking a few shoots. Apparently the root is edible too (and indeed the flowers and even the pollen later), but roots looked a bit fibrous to me.

We’ve set dates for our Plants with Purpose Wild Food Rambles and workshop this week; you can get the details from http://www.plantswithpurpose.co.uk, or you will be able to once I’ve updated the webpage.

Oh yes – first goose egg tortilla tonight…..

The “Humble” Potato and Respite from Spinach

Margaret Lear Flora, Fritters, Fruit, Hedgerow, Nuts, Salad, Spring, Teas & Tisanes, Vegetables Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Ian from the church (who has previously cheered my dietary life with a bag of apples) has given me a big bag of potatoes from his farm! Suddenly I don’t have to eke out tatties for the rest of Lent – I have plenty. This is reassuring, and potatoes aren’t known as versatile for nothing. Having an abundance of them and very co-operative hens just now, I made a pile of savoury potato bubble and squeak “pancakes” – mashed potatoes, combined with beaten eggs, herbs, seasoning, onion and assorted greens, and fried. Very tasty – as a meal, accompaniment to breakfast, or a snack. Cottage pies of various  types come to mind – had I enough fat left I could even make crisps (but then I’m forgetting I don’t actually like crisps).

Things running out:
All freezer vegetables
home made soft cheese
hazelnuts
Fresh onions and leeks (beetroot and celeriac already gone)
Venison fat

Things still plentiful:
Meat (alive or otherwise)
Frozen soft fruit
Donated apples and potatoes
Herbs, dried and fresh

New foods appearing:
Comfrey, Ground Elder and other weeds for greens
Orpine, wild garlic and other wild plants for salads
MINT!!!!  and other aromatic plants at last for teas – which have suddenly become more palateable

The now rapid growth of spring greens (even seedling brassicas that I’ve sown are coming on now) means that I can have a rest from spinach. There’s still some in the freezer, but not much else veg wise, so I’m ekeing it out. With four weeks to go, I am nearly half way through Lent, and I think my body has now adjusted to the change in diet. My thinking has changed a lot – no longer panicking about what I am going to eat, no longer really thinking about it very much either. Sometimes I manage to make something really enjoyable like the potato pancakes, sometimes I think “oh no not another egg”, but I’m not craving other people’s food all the time now. I just know I can’t have it and so long as I’m not hungry Im not bothered. This is a new experience for me!

I realised I am still eating apples in mid-March from last autumn’s harvest, and enjoying them. OK so they have to be peeled and are a bit wizened and spotty – but perfectly edible. Normally I’d have fed any apples still hanging around by now to the hens. Now I value them and will be looking for varieties to grow that are good keepers.

Confess your sins Margaret. I nearly slipped today – the other half asked me to test his rice to see if it was ready and it got right to my mouth before I realised what I was doing. And then I needed to fry a potato pancake to go with my vegetable stew, and as the venison fat is running low, I decided it was both practical and allowable to fry it in the pan in which HE has just cooked a chop….. well it saved some fat, but the pancake did taste faintly and delightfully of pork…..

Spring Greens – and Winter Returns!

Margaret Lear Flora, Hedgerow, Spring, Teas & Tisanes, Vegetables Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It has been icy today – a freezing wind, with snow and sleet. The sycamore is refusing to draw up any sap at present and I don’t blame it. But because I am worried about running out of frozen veg (that’s all the beans gone, most of the courgettes too) I decided it had to be wild spring greens today.

I dredged the largest of the little shoots of comfrey out from under the hedge and laboriously picked tiny leaves of ground elder wherever they were to be found (this covers most of my garden actually, but the best bits are round the compost heap!). Still noy enough, so I added several young dock leaves. I’ve stood up in front of numerous SWRIs (Scottish Womens Rural Institute) and stated that dock is edible at a pinch, but this was the first time I’d tried it. I boiled them all quickly together and had them with a slow-roasted cock (au vin, elderflower to be precise) for dinner. Last night’s dinner was adventurous too – eggs florentine, topped with my home-made curd cheese. Stomach must be shrinking – I couldn’t manage it all and had some for breakfast this morning.

Not much else to report – still bored to racking sobs with every “herbal” or weed tea I try; I went for gold with an infusion of dried apple and lemon balm, a favourite garden herb that smells overpoweringly of lemons and can be used in cake-making (when one is allowed flour) and let’s say it DID taste of something, but I woke early this morning from a glorious dream of REAL TEA with milk…… ah well less than 5 weeks to go now……

Andrew returned from the sunny south today and was delighted to find the peach coming into leaf and the apricot in flower bud – this is unexpected good news as he told me he wasn’t going to let it fruit for another century (or something). And I love apricots almost as much as I love tea. He didn’t bring me any wild food from Devon or any filched vegetables from his brother’s garden (difficult on a megabus anyway) but did bring me some Somerset apple juice and a couple of sponsors (Thanks Di and Betty!)

Food or First Aid? March 6th

Margaret Lear Diary entries, Flora, Hedgerow, Herbal Remedies, Salad, Spring, Teas & Tisanes Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

A couple of uneventful days up till now. My wild salads consist of: ground elder, miners lettuce, rocket, hairy bittercress (not too bitter this time of year), fennel leaves from the greenhouse, lemon balm from a pot I have put above a radiator to produce rapid leaf growth, and Brooklime (Veronica beccabunga), an aquatic weed I have growing in a small pondlet which makes good watercress. A couple more days and shoots of Orpine (Sedum telephium) will be added. As there’s not much green, I have added chopped apple and beetroot – but down to my last half beetroot unfortunately.

Actually a bit worried about running out of stored and frozen veg before Easter. I remembered today (in the course of chasing the ducks off them) that I have some celeriac in the ground still- pretty minute but packs a lot of flavour. Spotted comfrey coming up today which is a great relief as it produces lots of leaf and is quite filling, but unless we get a week or so of warm sunny weather it won’t grow very quickly. Yesterday it snowed again, and the frosts are fearfully hard just now.

This morning I put some of my curd cheese in my omelette; thanks to the garlic and herbs it was most tasty (not exactly gourmet cheese mind). Hens churning out eggs well, ducks and goose show no signs of activity. They should remember I quite like roast duck. Anyway, whilst peeling celeriac for yet another stew (this one I nearly burnt and rescued by chucking in some fish stock I had in the freezer – tasted good!), I peeled deeply into the top of my thumb. It was excruciating and bled copiously. With a big pile of washing up to do and food to both find and prepare, it had to be stopped and from past experience I know the remedy. Yarrow.

Out to the nursery to see if any had come up yet – yes, it had! Then I remembered that yarrow tea is pretty acceptable compared with rosemary and wild strawberry – do I save it for tea, or stop the bleeding? (never mind the customers, their time will come). I chose healing. Made a poultice  by grinding the yarrow, applied it to the cut  and bound it with cotton wool and tape. Then donned a disposable glove to get everything done.

As is the way with yarrow, the pain stopped almost immediately, though the blood soaked the cotton wool. When I changed the dressing an hour later, the cut had very nearly sealed over.  It should by rights be throbbing, but hey, this is one old hippy remedy that WORKS. It’ll be fine tomorrow!

One Week on….. March 4th

Margaret Lear Diary entries, Flora, Spring, Teas & Tisanes Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Had a bad day yesterday – no matter what I ate it didn’t satisfy my cravings. I had a busy day at work, and by 11am despite a breakfast of mackerel fillet (the last – oh dear!) and poached egg, I could think of nothing but thickly buttered crusty bread. Lunch was at least as much as I normally have, of pheasant and spinach stew, and several equally bland herbal teas, but by 3pm there I was hungry again. A trip to Edinburgh to see the children and move a cat was made difficult by cold sleety rain, heavy traffic and Rowan not getting back till 5.40pm, by which time I was calling myself every name under the sun for being so stupid as to start this challenge, and wondering how on earth I could ever have imagined it was possible. Walking up and down the street passing food shops, an Indian takeaway and a fish and chip shop didn’t exactly help. I filched some rosemary from a tenement garden and when the daughter finally appeared made tea, with the rest of the stew and some scrambled eggs I’d taken down. I think I may be eating too many eggs, but still enjoying them!

But even then, on the long drive home I was feeling desperately unsatisfied and miserable. I couldn’t stand the thought of another 6 and a half weeks of this. Finally just before bed I had a teaspoon of donated honey…. and that did the trick. Carbohydrate craving – specifically, sugars. Ah well.

In general, I have survived OK so far, though I can’t say it has become enjoyable yet. Awareness raising maybe, but pretty boring. Today I have processed a load more apple rings, which are just so delicious, if chewy, and did something with the curd cheese. It smelt foul, tasted indifferent, so added plenty of garlic and herbs (dried from the garden last summer) with salt and pepper which I’m allowing myself. It might do for something! Possibly I am just not eating enough, possibly my stomach needs to shrink (few would argue with that!), and possibly when I really feel the need a spoonful of honey or sycamore syrup might be classed as medicinal? Adding my home-made chutneys and jellies to a meal might make them less bland as well. I am acutely aware how much I use food for comfort!

Taking ground elder now in tea – its not fantastic, on a par with cleavers and wild strawberry leaf. What I choose for a drink depends how far I want to go from the front door – if I’m still in my dressing gown its sage or strawberry.Last night I diluted some home-made raspberry and blackcurrant vinegar with hot water for a bed-time drink – a nice change.

Planning a many-egged Spanish omelette for tea, and about to go and forage for some salad greens to go with it.