An invitation to forage

Get your greens from the wild: Part one.

I enjoy being outdoors not just for the fresh air, sunshine and exercise but also to supplement my diet in a exciting and sustainable way.

I have experience in sourcing seasonal wild edible plants.

Ramson:

Ranson is in the garlic family 

  


I have enjoyed eating this plant for a couple of weeks. Ramson is a Spring tonic, it grows in broad-leaf woodland - sometimes abundantly. 

Get your greens from the wild: Part two.

Linden or Lime Tree


The Lime tree of northern Europe is not a citrus tree, . it is so named because of a pronounced stringiness if the bark, which used to be used to make line , hence the name lime, or in German linden.. the blossom of the tree is very nectar rich and attracts bees. It can be collected for a flavorful nerve tonic tea. however i value this tree at this time of year for its edible Green leaves which have an excellent flavor and texture . . it remains good to eat longer into the summer than the other well known salad trees like beech hazel and elm which quickly toughen. it is mucilaginous indicating its relatively high protein content. All in all a very useful and accessible spring /summer addition to your daily salad.

Lime tree leaves

Wild oats and false oats

false oats

At this point some of you might be thinking that we are not going to satisfy our hunger with a few green leaves. Well, if you have a juicer you can concentrate nutriments from your green leaves. Further more you can exploit some extremely nutritious plants.

This weekend past, I was using my hand juicer to process that most nutritious of plants, the grasses, and I had great results with false oats and wild oats. This time of year while the seed heads are still green the juice has a milky quality. Somewhat reminiscent of packaged oat milk, but greener, sweeter and of course much fresher - definitely superior to the packaged product. 

I also made a good milky drink with other grasses, but some grasses were too fibrous to get through the juicer with ease, although the addition of nettles and chickweed helped. Also I put a few thistles through the juicer to good effect. Furthermore juicers remember this, there are no poisons grasses there are no poisons thistles, so if you want to be experimental with your juicer, this is a good place to start.