Spring Foraging Course Review
The course was held in Solihull and started with a talk on foraging rules.
Don't worry if you are not local, they do courses in various locations across whole UK, you can check their FB page with upcoming events here.
๐ฒ And I also had a delicious nettle and fennel soup and others had wild garlic and hogweed soup. Yummy!
โค๏ธ At the end, we created a meal based on what had been found.
๐ง After the course, I received an email with course notes and recipes to help me remember everything I'd learnt.
๐ฐ And I also always wanted to taste some Pignuts (Pignut is a small umbellifer, with edible tubers, that is found in woods, hedges and grasslands.) They have edible roots, very much worth digging for.
They were still very small at this time of the year, yet again, Phil came ready and shared some with us. I'll be definitely looking out for them in summer season. It had an excellent radish-like crunch.
You can click here to see their lovely tubers.
๐ We had so much fun! Look at Phil, he's slicing Hogweed and Cheese Tart for us. He also prepared wild garlic and nettle pesto on the spot along with wild herbs salad which we picked along the way and added extra tasty Miner's lettuce in for us.
And what did we find on our journey?
I managed to take some pictures, see below. However, I don't have pictures for all plants which we have seen.
๐ง Wild Garlic ๐ง
Is in season, however, this year is particularly far behind. It's only started showing its leaves, which are still quite small to harvest. I'll give it another week or so. During the course Phil mentioned, we had apparently a fairly dry winter and most reservoirs are pretty empty. I think this has a knock on effect on foraging season.
You can read my blog post about "Wild Garlic Season" here.
๐ง If you'd like Cool Free Wild Garlic Recipe Booklet check the post above and you can see link there.
๐ฟCommon Sorrel๐ฟ
We picked some young leaves and enjoyed their sharp and citrus flavour in our salad later on. The taste was described by many as like apple peel.
You can see pictures here.
๐ฟWood Avens๐ฟ
This extremely common plant. Check your garden, I'm sure you'll find some clove root there. Another tip how to easily identify this common beauty; the seeds are in the form of a burr which you have probably found attached to your trousers, socks and dog ๐ after a woodland walk.
Find more about Wood Avens in my previous blog post here.
๐ฟHairy Bittercress๐ฟ
Is extremely common and strong tasting little plant. If you have a garden, you'll have it there. You can find out more about this plant here.
Btw, it's not hairy nor bitter! ๐ God knows, who's coming up with those names.
๐ณElder๐ณ
We talked briefly about Elder which leaves are just emerging.
You can find out more about Elder in my previous blog post here and also here.
โ ๏ธ Never try to climb an Elder tree, the branches are very brittle!!!
๐ฒYew Tree๐ฒ
โ ๏ธ Yes, the deadly poisonous one! Yews are thought to be the tree of the dead and can often be found in churchyards and cemeteries. They were plenty of them in this area.
Yew contains taxines which are very toxic. This also applies to any mushrooms growing on or under the tree as there is the possibility they may take in the taxines.
๐ ๐๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ง๐ต๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐๐ถ๐ณ๐๐น ๐๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐
โ ๏ธ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ โ ๏ธ
๐ง ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ง
๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ข๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐ช๐๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ข๐ฅ๐ง!!!
โ ๏ธ This is the most poisonous plant in the UK and very common along most of our waterways.
๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ผ๐ด๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฟ
๐ฃ๐ผ๐๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ณ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
โ ๏ธ Giant Hogweed!
This is a very dangerous plant with phototoxic sap which will burn your skin extremely badly if exposed to the Sun.
This is no idle warning, if you want to see how bad the burns can get a simple google search should do the trick. Trust me, those pictures are pretty bad!
๐ฟ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐น๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฟ
๐ฟ It's highly invasive weed and tastes like sweet parsley only better.
๐ You can't say I haven't told you???!!!
A little update from me, I finally managed to find my Ground Elder foraging spot and I could enjoy this spring beauty.
You can also watch video on YouTube about this Cursed Weed below.
๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐น๐ฒ๐/๐ช๐ถ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐น ๐ฟ
โ ๏ธ This plant is edible but only with extreme caution.
โญ Phil also showed us a few Fairy Rings, which are naturally occurring rings of mushrooms and are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands.
It doesn't guarantee the mushrooms which will grow there are edible, but it's a good watchout what to look out for. You can find out more about them here.
Wild Food Recipes
Nettle Pesto - Replace the wild garlic with young wilted nettle tops.
๐ฉโ๐ณ Hey presto! Another pesto done!
๏ปฟ๐ See you on Summer Foraging Course!
๐ And I'll be definitely doing one in autumn/winter time which is focused on Mushrooms.
I hope it inspires you.๐ฅฐ Happy foraging! ๐๐ถโโ๏ธ๐ถโโ๏ธ
From my heart โค๏ธ to your heart.โค๏ธ
