Bleating lambs fill the fields, fresh leaves bring colour to the naked trees and daffodils appear just in time for St David's day - spring has arrived! Well it has in sun-soaked Bristol, I can't speak for those further north who were still being showered with snow in early March!
This season of change is welcomed for many different reasons. As the temperature warms we pay less on heating bills, we migrate outside into our local beer gardens and a brave few even bare their long-hidden legs during a flip-flop parade around the first bbq of the year. For me spring signals the end of a foraging fast which began in early November after my last bounty of wild mushrooms. It's finally time to feast on nature's bounty once again.
Over the next few months I plan to receive as many strange looks from urban Bristolians as possible as I spend my weekends collecting various different 'weeds' from across the city for my culinary pleasure. And last weekend was no exception as my girlfriend and I walked through a typically snooty Clifton crowd with a bag full of freshly picked, pungent wild garlic.
Stinking Jenny, gypsy's onions, ramsons, Allium ursinum, whatever you call it wild garlic is a beauty and one of my favourite wild foods. Some know it as bear's garlic as it was said that hungry European bears awakening from hibernation in the spring would stuff their chops full of this leafy green in order to regain their strength and to cleanse their metabolisms. I'm not sure how much strength it provides but when you find a carpet of the stuff on a woodland floor it certainly cleanses your nostrils.  |
| It's not uncommon to find far more than is possible to collect! |
The leaves are mild enough to be eaten raw and like an excited 7 year-old at a pick-your-own strawberry farm I couldn't help but chow down on a few leaves right there and then. Not only does the plant taste great but it possesses anticeptic qualities and helps to lower blood-pressure and cholesterol. The plant contains antifungal juices as well as repellent properties which have been used to deter insects and moles.
Once home my horde was soon turned into a vat of pesto with the assistance of some freshly picked basil, a handful of pine nuts, a glug or six of olive oil and the added bonus of some year-old pecorino cheese I'd brought back from Rome a couple of weeks ago. Stirred into some fresh home-made spaghetti it made for a wonderfully tasty, healthy, cheap and aromatic meal. It seems those aforementioned repellent properties also worked very well on my girlfriend the following morning.
Next forage - stinging nettles!
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