Foraging for food.

Some of the tastiest food you ever eat can come out of the hedgerows and countryside. 

At most times of the year you can pick up something very tasty to put in the salad or make into a delicious pudding. Now that we have the fast summer plant growth we can go foraging.  We might have to wait a while to get certain fruit. Crab apples, sloes and rosehips are still too young yet, but hawthorn leaves are out in abundance.  It might surprise you that these young leaves are extremely tasty and make a great addition to any salad. The berries later on in the year are also edible and are very high in vitamin C.

A few plants to look out for ..

Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica).  We have just had our first stinging nettle soup of the year and delicious it was too. 

Ransoms (Allium ursinum), -also known as wild garlic.   It will complement any dish.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus).  This thorny plant makes a beautiful backdrop to the hillsides of Inishowen as it burst into intense yellow blooms. The plant's flowers are intensely flavoured and make a colourful (and tasty) accompaniment to any salad or wine ingredient. Just be careful how you pick them!

Bogland heather (Calluna vulgaris). Young tips can be used to make mead or ale. The flowers are also edible and make a colourful addition to a hedgerow salad or a boiled pudding.

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) and Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinal ) Both have tasty flower heads for a salad.

Garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata) This common hedgerow plant has tasty leaves full of vitamin C that make an excellent addition to any salad. The leaves also have antiseptic qualities and can be added as a preservative to stews or sauces that you want to freeze.

Sheep's Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) These leaves are very common around the peninsula. The leaves and stems of the plants are edible and can be eaten both raw or cooked. However, like all the sorrel family the plant is high in oxalic acid which is mildly toxic and interferes with digestion. However, cooking the plant by blanching in hot water leaches out the chemical and renders it safe for consumption, it will remind you of spinach.

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Wild Garlic
written by froom, April 21, 2011

All you ever wanted to know about wild garlic....

http://wildandslow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Wild_Garlic.pdf

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