Adventure 48: Rub of the Green

First proper outing of 2015 and a foraging adventure beheld me. Trusty hoody? Check. Bags to collect thing in? Check. Some gardening gloves and secateurs? Check. What was I looking for? I was not entirely sure. Six months have gone by since I have been out and about. I was eager to smell the damp spring earth, feel the sun on my face and enjoy the abundance of growing things all around. Never do I feel more alive than when I have the wind in my hair and a mind for foraging.

Being late in the afternoon, I headed to my favourite foraging spot by the river near my house. It's so peaceful there with the river rushing over the weir and the sea gulls soaring above. It's usually pretty quiet there save the odd dog walker. I didn't have a particular plan as such. Mindful of the fact that I won't be round much over Easter, I thought my time would be best spent playing a kind of game: seeing how many plants I could identify (taking a few leaves from each plant home to check) and seeing which new ones I could find.

Ones I could identify (ignoring the many dandelions):

1) White Dead Nettles

Looks like real nettles but doesn't sting. Related to mint, thyme and majoram. Mabey suggests cooking with a little butter and spring onions. Else I've read somewhere you can make it into a soup with onions and garlic.

2) Dock leaves

These particular ones are curled dock, very common and a bit bitter (you should boil them a few times to remove the astringency) and can be eaten as greens. Mabey* suggests eating with bacon and a dash of vinegar.

3) Nettles

I've written and done stuff with these before. It's a bit like spinach and boiling them removes the sting. Spring is a good time to pick them while they're young and not past-it.

4) Hawthorn

The glistening red haws come in the autumn, but the young leaves can be eaten straight off the tree - known traditionally as "bread and cheese". I have tried these before and though cheese does not spring to mind, they're not bad. Certainly what I plan on living off during the apocalypse.

5) Goose Grass

We always used to call this one sticky weed for obvious reasons. Boiling removes the stickiness. According to my new book by David Squire**, it's high in vitamin C and was used to keep scurvy away in days gone by. Who knew?

New things I've learned:

1) Ground Ivy

Now I've seen loads of it about for years but always assumed it was Common Mallow (apparently they can be easily mistaken for one another). This pretty little plant has cute little purple flowers and Mabey has some interesting things to say about it. For example, it can be used as a herbal tea and in the past it was used to flavour and clarify ale before hops, hence its nickname 'alehoof'. It's apparently rich in vitamin C and Galen used it in preparations to aid 'inflammation of the eyes'. My favourite forager, Robin Harwood, has a recipe for Ground Ivy Tempura which I'm dying to try.

2) Yarrow

I've found two types (I always assumed one type was fever few... oops) both wild and fern-leaf types. It's an old plant found in the Iliad, where Achilles uses it to staunch bleeding (hence its Latin name Achillea, the English name comes from the OE gearwe). Mabey recommends stripping it from its tough stems and boiling it for 20 minutes before simmering in butter.

3) American Burnweed

Also known as fire weed (it appears after fires) this plant is related to dandelions and chicory. It is also found in ancient Greek traditions when Athena sought out Hephaestus, the lame forger, when seeking some new weaponry. He was so overcome by her beauty he tried it on with her. She struggled but nonetheless, some of his man stuff (ahem, pardon) got on her thigh. She scraped it off and it fell on the Earth, the goddess Gaia.  Gaia gave birth to a son, Erichthonius, whom she presented to Athena. Erichthonius is apparently in Ancient Greek from erextho (trouble), combined with xthon (the ground) and so this weed was sprung. Cooking allegedly makes it smell less bad. I think I might give it a miss.

AND FINALLY...

I hit the jackpot. Wild garlic - flipping tons of it all over the river bank. And I wasn't even the only person sniffing about it. I met a charming couple and their terrier armed with carrier bags. "What are you going to do with yours?" I asked the small brunette (I'm always looking for new ideas). "I'm blending mine and sticking it in ice cube trays", she replied. And so, I'm going to try this out in a couple of weeks (in the meantime  it's safely in sandwich bags in the freezer). In the meantime, I plan on dreaming of all the garlic butter, oil and pesto I plan on making with it. I must say, I've really had the rub of the green today. 

* Richard Mabey, Food for Free (Glasgow, 1972)
** David Squire, Foraging: Self sufficiency (London, 2011)