Wild Garlic + other free stuff

[Japveesix]

I picked lots of wild garlic this year as we have a local wood which really is carpeted in the stuff. So far I've used it in the following:

Wild garlic pesto, which was really excellent - http://foodfun.blog.co.uk/2007/04/07/making_wild_g...
Wilted (with parsley+seasoning) in butter and added into mashed potato.
Wild Garlic + nettle soup - yum yum, sooo green and irony and rich.
Fresh, roughly chopped and covered with balsamic + lemon juice as a simple salad accompaniment to meat.
Fresh mixed in other salads and as leaves in cheese/meat sandwiches.
In a nice veggie risotto for extra flavour

It's brilliant stuff, easy to pick, works in lots of dishes and it's free (can't believe I've not discovered it before). Just wondered if anyone else uses it and what for?

And on the same lines what other free/wild foods do people use and what are your best recipes?

I'm thinking of becoming a fulltime forager

[poo at Paul's]

They should have a new TV show..."Pikey Chef" with foragers cooking up roadkill, and stolen stuff! Then throwing all the waste in the hedge along withi their chemical toilet contents.


I'd watch it !

[Mobile Chicane]

Japveesix said:

I picked lots of wild garlic this year as we have a local wood which really is carpeted in the stuff. So far I've used it in the following:

Wild garlic pesto, which was really excellent - http://foodfun.blog.co.uk/2007/04/07/making_wild_g...
Wilted (with parsley+seasoning) in butter and added into mashed potato.
Wild Garlic + nettle soup - yum yum, sooo green and irony and rich.
Fresh, roughly chopped and covered with balsamic + lemon juice as a simple salad accompaniment to meat.
Fresh mixed in other salads and as leaves in cheese/meat sandwiches.
In a nice veggie risotto for extra flavour

It's brilliant stuff, easy to pick, works in lots of dishes and it's free (can't believe I've not discovered it before). Just wondered if anyone else uses it and what for?

And on the same lines what other free/wild foods do people use and what are your best recipes?

I'm thinking of becoming a fulltime forager

Loads here.

Also Google "Fergus Drennan" for more extreme foraging ideas.

[Japveesix]

Mobile Chicane said:

Japveesix said:

I picked lots of wild garlic this year as we have a local wood which really is carpeted in the stuff. So far I've used it in the following:

Wild garlic pesto, which was really excellent - http://foodfun.blog.co.uk/2007/04/07/making_wild_g...
Wilted (with parsley+seasoning) in butter and added into mashed potato.
Wild Garlic + nettle soup - yum yum, sooo green and irony and rich.
Fresh, roughly chopped and covered with balsamic + lemon juice as a simple salad accompaniment to meat.
Fresh mixed in other salads and as leaves in cheese/meat sandwiches.
In a nice veggie risotto for extra flavour

It's brilliant stuff, easy to pick, works in lots of dishes and it's free (can't believe I've not discovered it before). Just wondered if anyone else uses it and what for?

And on the same lines what other free/wild foods do people use and what are your best recipes?

I'm thinking of becoming a fulltime forager

Loads here.

Also Google "Fergus Drennan" for more extreme foraging ideas.

Book marked, nice looking blog. I'm crap with mushrooms so stuff like that really helps

[jas xjr]

Saw something on tv the other day. Horseradish grows all over the place

[Mobile Chicane]

Japveesix said:

Mobile Chicane said:

Japveesix said:

I picked lots of wild garlic this year as we have a local wood which really is carpeted in the stuff. So far I've used it in the following:

Wild garlic pesto, which was really excellent - http://foodfun.blog.co.uk/2007/04/07/making_wild_g...
Wilted (with parsley+seasoning) in butter and added into mashed potato.
Wild Garlic + nettle soup - yum yum, sooo green and irony and rich.
Fresh, roughly chopped and covered with balsamic + lemon juice as a simple salad accompaniment to meat.
Fresh mixed in other salads and as leaves in cheese/meat sandwiches.
In a nice veggie risotto for extra flavour

It's brilliant stuff, easy to pick, works in lots of dishes and it's free (can't believe I've not discovered it before). Just wondered if anyone else uses it and what for?

And on the same lines what other free/wild foods do people use and what are your best recipes?

I'm thinking of becoming a fulltime forager

Loads here.

Also Google "Fergus Drennan" for more extreme foraging ideas.

Book marked, nice looking blog. I'm crap with mushrooms so stuff like that really helps

Thanks. I keep meaning to update it, honest. Also, if you're anywhere near Surrey, I may do guided mushroom walks in the Autumn, in exchange for donations to charity.

[bazking69]

I keep nicking wild Rosemary from a neighbours garden. I really should get my own plant...

[Simpo Two]

jas xjr said:

Saw something on tv the other day. Horseradish grows all over the place

Ooh, that reminds me - with vinegar and mustard you can make weapons-grade horseradish sauce!!

[anonymous-user]

I do loads of foraging! I've made a salad for later which has garlic (flowers and leaves), sorrel, wild chives and some fennel!

I had some pig nuts last week that I roasted with a few other veggies!

I am also lucky to have acess to a small spring fed pond which has some rather nice wild brown trout and eels in!

[Kays vRS]

Wild garlic is great on cheese sandwiches. As is wild thyme, sorrel, clover ... (as you can tell I have my lunch outside alot).

I also eat lots of watercress

I'm planning to progress beyond sandwiches this year.

[anonymous-user]

If anyone lives near a rocky coast try and find some rock samphire, sea beat or maybe pick some sugar kelp and make some kelp crisps! The Alexanders are coming on good too, though I still can't make my mind up on them yet!

[Mobile Chicane]

MonkeyMatt said:

I do loads of foraging! I've made a salad for later which has garlic (flowers and leaves), sorrel, wild chives and some fennel!

I had some pig nuts last week that I roasted with a few other veggies!

I am also lucky to have acess to a small spring fed pond which has some rather nice wild brown trout and eels in!

As a matter of interest, what 'started you off' wild food foraging? Is it something you've always done, or recently got into? Who are your influences?

I've been mushrooming from an early age - it's a European 'thing' - however I'd never have considered eating wild greens, snails, or roadkill for that matter until H F-W suggested it.

There's a carrier bag full of nettle tops in the kitchen, waiting to become nettle and feta filo pie. Interesting smell these have - closest I can think of is ganj.

[anonymous-user]

Mobile Chicane said:

MonkeyMatt said:

I do loads of foraging! I've made a salad for later which has garlic (flowers and leaves), sorrel, wild chives and some fennel!

I had some pig nuts last week that I roasted with a few other veggies!

I am also lucky to have acess to a small spring fed pond which has some rather nice wild brown trout and eels in!

As a matter of interest, what 'started you off' wild food foraging? Is it something you've always done, or recently got into? Who are your influences?

I've been mushrooming from an early age - it's a European 'thing' - however I'd never have considered eating wild greens, snails, or roadkill for that matter until H F-W suggested it.

There's a carrier bag full of nettle tops in the kitchen, waiting to become nettle and feta filo pie. Interesting smell these have - closest I can think of is ganj.

Been doing it for years! Grandad always used to tell me about the countryside and I developed an interest from there! Was given a copy of the 'sas survival' handbook and the book 'food for free'(richard mabey). Went out om a cook what you caught day with Fernley Whittinstal and Nick Fisher and was a great day! I ended up being a helper for the day!

[Simpo Two]

Kays vRS said:

Wild garlic is great on cheese sandwiches. As is wild thyme, sorrel, clover ... I also eat lots of watercress

Ruminants!

[AndyAudi]

I'll go out side and fetch dandilion leaves to add to a sandwich if no salad in the house (but only since our male dog died).

Come berry season I'm off for brambles & raspberry's and also elusive blueberrys (Scottish not American).

[anonymous-user]

AndyAudi said:

I'll go out side and fetch dandilion leaves to add to a sandwich if no salad in the house (but only since our male dog died).

Come berry season I'm off for brambles & raspberry's and also elusive blueberrys (Scottish not American).

We have some wondefull billberies down here (blueberries, billberies, blaeberris)! made some 'mucky mouth pies last year!

[kiteless]

Dandelion and gorse flowers.

First harvest of the country wine season, and we've got two demijohns of each bubbling away.

[anonymous-user]

kiteless said:

Dandelion and gorse flowers.

First harvest of the country wine season, and we've got two demijohns of each bubbling away.

Does the Gorse wine have that lovely coconut smell like the flowers!

[Mobile Chicane]

MonkeyMatt said:

kiteless said:

Dandelion and gorse flowers.

First harvest of the country wine season, and we've got two demijohns of each bubbling away.

Does the Gorse wine have that lovely coconut smell like the flowers!

Gorse smells wonderful.

And as the old saying goes, "When gorse's out of bloom (it almost never is) then kissing's out of season."

[Japveesix]

Woo, so there actually a few people on here who manage to get out and find things to eat in between trips to M&S How refreshing.

I've picked berries for years to make crumble, jam, sauces, Sloe Gin/Vokda (the vodka is brilliant) etc but picking greens like garlic is quite new to me as a lot of things can be tricky to identify or difficult to find.

For the experts, after wild garlic and the obvious berries (blackberry, sloe, elder etc) what else is edible, tasty and fairly easy to come across and collect? What should I be looking for next?