For those of you who took inspiration from my previous two posts you'll know how foraging for edible greens can make you socially unwelcome as well as rather itchy. But if like me you've become addicted to scanning the floor for other delicious snacks then I have some good news, the 'warmer' weather is offering up yet more tasty morsels to the forager's table.
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| A common sorrel leaf |
A good mate of mine has wood sorrel growing in his front garden and ever since I first identified the pretty little creeping green I've found it hard to resist eating more and more of his flowerbed. With heart shaped leaves and delicate little white flowers adorned with pink stripes, wood sorrel's pretty appearance hides it's sinister side. It contains a toxin named oxalic acid which charmingly goes about forming calcium oxalate in the kidneys of any unsuspecting forager. In plain English you'll get kidney stones!
"So how much is too much?" I hear you ask, well as long as you don't consume the predicted median lethal dose of 375 mg/kg body weight (about 25 g of pure oxalic acid for a 65 kg person), then you should live to forage another day!
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| A little bundle of zingy zangy common sorrel leaves, just don't get greedy and OD! |
However it's the oxalic acid that produces the wonderful acid-lemon flavour of wood sorrel. The same taste can be discovered hiding in the leaves of common sorrel (pictured) growing amongst nettles on many field edges. I gathered a few young common sorrel leaves yesterday and made leek and sorrel fritters for breakfast this morning (a simple recipe from Dennis Cotter's 'Wild garlic, Gooseberries and Me' exciting cook book). If the sound of this scrumptious snack doesn't secrete saliva then try using shredded sorrel leaves to liven up a salad, or to give some zing to an omelet or, better still, to garnish a fish dish... if you wish!
