Foraged Food Friday: Shepherd's purse

I've known this plant for as long as I can remember, on account of its cute heart-shaped seed pods.

Shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) seed pods

Seeing it coming up all over my legume bed (it's doing rather better than the peas and beans, if I'm honest), I was struck by its similarity to brassicas. Looking it up, I found that it is indeed a brassica, and all parts of the plant are edible. Apparently the young leaves are very good in early spring, but I've missed the season for those as they're not so good once the plant has flowered. Some people use the seeds, either as they are or ground into meal, but I suspect the only people who do that are those who have small children to employ in the harvesting of said seeds. The seed pods have a peppery taste and can be used as seasoning.

I picked one and tried it and sure enough, it had a distinct peppery bite. Harvesting even the pods turns out to be quite fiddly as they're so small and the stalks are wiry and tend to come off the plant with the pod, so need trimming off afterwards (or more careful picking in the first place). I have to admit, when I cooked a handful of these in a stew, I didn't notice the flavour, but then I wouldn't particularly notice pepper if I'd added it to stew. I'll persevere with this plant; I think it's probably one worth knowing about.

Also harvesting this week
Vetch
Tiny potatoes
Pak choi flower shoots
Plantain flower heads
Mint
Sorrel
Bay

Also eating
Dried (and rehydrated) kelp

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

Foraged Food Friday: Plantain

I'm late again, but resisting the temptation to skip a week entirely, because then I'm sure the foraging challenge would just fizzle out after that. This is another one I learnt about on the foraging course, and we're not talking about the relatives of bananas, but the common weed. I had some reasonable photos, but unfortunately left them on my phone, which is now dead (contacts corroded completely, so impossible to charge or connect to computer) so I just went out to take another picture...

Slightly blurred ribwport plantain (Plantago lanceolata)

... which is a little out of focus because I was being viciously attacked at the time by these guys:

Evil midges intent on eating me alive. Also out of focus.

Anyway, it's the flower heads that I'm talking about this week, which Jade told us taste a little like mushrooms. Hmm, yes I guess so, a little. Not liking the fuzzy texture very much, I decided to try them as a base for soup, so picked a fair quantity and boiled them up to make stock. It kind of worked. There's certainly a decent savoury flavour, but there's also a certain amount of bitterness. Maybe I used too many, or maybe I didn't trim off the green stem carefully enough...
These have potential to be a useful flavouring, if I get the hang of using them properly, but I'm not immediately impressed.

Also harvesting this week
Vetch
Mint
Sage
Thyme
Bay
Rosemary
Wild garlic (this is pretty much over now, even here. The flowers are setting seed and the leaves are yellowing, but I picked a couple anyway).
Tiny potatoes ("volunteers" from last year, dug up to make way for squash plants)

Also drinking
Heather ale
Rosebay willowherb and bay leaf ("Bay herb") ale
Sloe wine

Also eating
Crab apple and rowan jelly
Carrageen-set ice cream (second attempt much the same as the first: Poor texture but still delicious)
Carrageen not-set chocolate panna cotta (the chocolate stops it setting, which is interesting, if a little annoying when you have guests)

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

Foraged Food Friday: Pignuts

I've slipped even further behind with this week's post, which is particularly annoying as the actual foraging took place almost a week early. I was all ready to write it on Friday, but was busy with the Wild West Wales website (still not finished, and some of what I did is now unnecessary as one of the musicians had to cancel due to health problems), then ran out of time. The gig on Friday night was fantastic, though, in spite of the power cut. Then work and gardening took up the rest of the weekend, and...

Enough rambling - on to pignuts. These are a tricky subject for a foraging post. They've been on my to try (via learn how to identify) list for some time, but if they're growing wild it's actually illegal (in the UK) to harvest them. This isn't specific to pignuts; whereas picking leaves and fruit is permitted, destroying plants is not allowed. This means that any root crop is technically illegal to harvest unless it's growing on your own land (or you have the landowner's permission). Things like dandelions are so abundant that I can't see anyone seriously objecting if you dig a few of them up, but pignuts aren't quite in that invasive category.

Illegal or not, I still wanted to learn to identify pignuts, and was very pleased when Jade pointed them out to me (with cautions about digging up) when I was on the foraging course. Then last weekend we visited our friends Adrian and Ellie in their new home. While the boys went off to an airshow, Ellie and I spent a lovely day exploring the nearby countryside and peering at wildflowers. I spotted some pignuts. Then I spotted some more, and then they were everywhere! With such an abundance, I decided that it would be OK to dig up just one, to try.

I didn't have my camera with me, but Ellie did and kindly lent me hers, so here are a couple of pictures. From the flowers you'll see it's an umbellifer, meaning, Take care not to confuse this with poisonous relatives.

Pignut (Conopodium majus) flowers, bearing some similarity to hemlock flowers

Close-up of the leaves, almost needle-fine and very forked

I carefully dug around the base of the plant and found the small, nut-like tuber, not buried as deeply as it might have been (they can be several inches down). I didn't get a photo, but it looked very much like a hazlenut (the bit you eat, not the shell) and once I'd scraped the skin off and tried a nibble, tasted somewhat like a fresh hazlenut, too. Ellie tried it and commented on a hint of radish flavour as well. I'd certainly like to eat more of these, so what I need to do now is find some locally, keep an eye on them for the ripening seeds, then collect some and plant them in my garden, so I can dig them up without worrying about disturbing their natural distribution or, indeed, breaking the law.

Also harvesting this week
Bracken
Nettles
Sorrel
Pak Choi flower buds (they're all bolting)
Dulse (to dry and in soup)
Kelp (to dry)
Mint

Also drinking
Heather ale
Dandelion wine

Also eating
Crab apple and rowan jelly
Blackcurrant jam
Knotweed chutney
Blackberry and bilberry jam

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

Foraged Food Friday: Common Hogweed

What with getting distracted by seaweed last week, I almost missed the best time to harvest this one, as it's the young shoots that are favoured, and they're already turning into stalks of grown-up leaves.

Leaf of common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

I haven't tried this before, but spotted some plants last year and noticed recently that they're coming up again. I went out this evening to cut a few leaves for dinner, deciding to take some from the busier, closer road rather than walking further to a quieter road, as dinner was already cooking. Having brought my bounty home, I then spent a slightly panicky twenty minutes looking up how distinguish this edible plant from its dangerous relative, the giant hogweed. At this time of year they're not very giant, so quite difficult to tell apart. Giant hogweed has sap that, in combination with sunlight, can cause nasty blisters and permanent damage to your skin. I'm not going to try and tell you what the difference is - I'd rather not take that responsibility - but do look it up for yourself if you're tempted to try eating (or even touching) this plant.

Having satisfied myself that I had indeed picked food, not a monster, I put my leaves in the steamer and set it over the simmering stew for about ten minutes, by which time they looked fairly cooked. Like many foraged greens, these have been described as tasting like asparagus. They don't. Nonetheless, I quite liked them. The texture's not great - a bit fuzzy - but they have a strong-ish flavour that isn't the usual grassy or bitter green. Worth harvesting again, I think.

Also harvesting this week:
Rose bay willow herb stems
Pak choi
Tulip petals
Sorrel
Wild garlic leaves and flowers (all these in one salad - very pretty!)
Beech leaves (for wine)
Mint
Nettles
Rosemary
Bay leaves

Also eating
Carrageen ice cream
Dulse (in cheese straws)
Blackcurrant jam

Also drinking
Dandelion wine
Dandelion flower tea (from dried flowers. Although the dandelions are still flowering at this time of year, they close up in the evening, which is when I tend to want herbal tea.)
Heather ale
Bay herb ale (that's rose bay willow herb tips and bay leaves, and it's only half brewed at the moment)

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

Coastal Foraging Course

Hedgerows, fields and railway embankments are all familiar territory to me. I grew up in the middle of England and often went for walks in the countryside, where my parents would point out various plants to me. This made a good foundation for learning about which wild plants are edible, and how to find them. The seashore, on the other hand, is somewhat more alien territory. Although I've had seaside holidays throughout my life, and have vague memories of different shellfish being pointed out, a rockpool just doesn't have the familiarity of the hedgerow. When I look at seaweed, that's all I see: Seaweed - an undifferentiated, rubbery mass.

I know seaweed can seem unappetising - I read a comment on this somewhere (sorry, lost the source): Since most people's only experience of seaweed is when it's rotting on the beach, it's hardly surprising they don't want to eat it. If the only apples we saw were the ones that had fallen from the tree and were rotting on the ground, we wouldn't be too keen on eating them, either. However, I'm aware that seaweed's edible - indeed, I've eaten some in oriental dishes - and would like to learn more about it. I felt a bit out of my depth, though, and didn't know where to start. Then I saw Wild Pickings' coastal foraging course advertised. That would be the ideal introduction!

I signed up to the course and went to meet Jade at the foot of Consitution Hill, at 1pm as arranged. Unfortunately, my timekeeping is appalling and I hadn't accounted for bank holiday weekend parking, so I ended up parking at the wrong end of the promenade, at ten past one. I tried to call Jade to let her know, but she had no phone signal. In the meantime, she didn't check her list too carefully, thought she had everyone, and set off. This was just as well, as I wouldn't have wanted to hold everyone up.

I decided to try and catch them up. I knew where we were heading, so I hurried up the hill, joined the coast path at the top, and set off at a brisk pace towards Clarach Bay. It was a beautiful day and a very pleasant walk (after I'd recovered from the hill), but no sign of Jade and her group of foraging students. As I looked down at the beach, still no sign of them, but I went down anyway and wandered about a bit, then decided to sit and eat my picnic lunch. At this point I looked at my watch and was surprised to see it was only 2pm. The foraging walk was advertised as a four hour event. Somehow I must have got ahead of them, I thought, and decided to wait. After lunch I pottered about the rock pools a bit...

Rocks at Clarach Bay

... then spied a group of hippies looking purposefully into pools. I hurried over to join them and sure enough it was Jade and her students. They'd taken a detour into the woodlands on the way, which is how I'd missed them. Although it was halfway through the afternoon by the time I caught up with them, I still got to learn about seaweeds, which for me, was the whole point of the course. There was also a picnic on the beach, for which Jade had prepared several of the seaweeds (washed/dried/cooked as required) so we could taste the finished foods. She recommended not eating too much at a time, as it can disagree with the digestion, especially if you're not used to it, so most of the foods had just a little seaweed in, almost as seasoning. On the way back she showed me a few of the plants that I'd missed on the way out, which was very kind and an added bonus for me.

I realise I've just written a blog post about how rubbish I am, rather than what I learnt on the course. I'm going to leave that for now, partly because I didn't get many photos (but do look at Jade's beautiful pictures on her facebook page), but mostly because I'd like to introduce the seaweeds one at a time in my Foraged Food Fridays series. I've already written the first of these, it being Friday, so you can read about my first experiments with seaweed here.

Foraged Food Friday: Carrageen

For some time, I have harboured an ambition to make cheap ice cream. I have made various ice creams from various recipes, and they all tend to involve real cream and possibly eggs too. The result is rich, luxurious, and rather expensive. Since we quite like the cheap stuff we grew up with, I started wondering how to make that at home. What could I use to pad out the expensive ingredients? What do the commercial producers use?

A study of ingredients lists revealed something called carrageenan. What's that, then? A bit of googling gave me the answer: It's seaweed. More precisely, it's derived from seaweed, but it's possible to get an extract without any fancy processing. What I need then, is the right kind of seaweed.

I was delighted, therefore, that Saturday's foraging course included carrageen, otherwise known as Irish Moss. I was even more delighted when I went to the beach a few days later to put my learning into practice, that the first seaweed I spotted and identified was also carrageen, and there was plenty of it. I snipped a few strands into my foraging box, brought them home, and rinsed them thoroughly (always essential with seaweed, to remove sand as well as salt).

Carrageen (Chondrus crispus), also known as Irish Moss, in a rock pool

Having gathered and washed my seaweed, I needed a recipe, or at least some clues about how to use it in ice cream. Googling drew a blank. Many pages made reference to its use in ice cream, but none told me how to do it. What I did find was a traditional Irish pudding made by boiling the seaweed in milk and cooling until set - essentially a blancmange (I haven't had that for years!) or milk jelly. Maybe I could try making that and freezing it, with the usual ice cream-making trick of stirring at intervals as it freezes.

Recipes varied considerably in how much carrageen was required, from 1/8 oz to half a pound per pint of milk. To make matters worse, they mostly used dried carrageen, whereas I had fresh. I'd just have to guess, then. I used this much:

The long pod at the top is vanilla

I added about a pint of milk and heated to just simmering for about 20 min. It needed a lot of stirring to keep it from sticking, which I took to be a good sign. I should probably also mention that there was no hint of seaweed smell; all I could smell was hot milk and vanilla. After 20 min I poured the mixture through a sieve then stirred in a rounded tablespoonful of sugar. I poured a little into a ramekin to set in the fridge, just to see what the traditional pudding was like. The rest went into the freezer, and got stirred every half hour or so throughout the afternoon. That was more frequently than it needed, but I couldn't leave it alone!

First, the traditional pudding:

Carrageen pudding.
I added a little cinnamon - probably should have added it in smaller pieces

Well, it certainly set. Indeed, you could even describe the result as elastic. This wasn't the easiest pudding to get out of the bowl. On the other hand, it was delicious. I feel an investment in jelly moulds coming on.

As for the ice cream...

Seaweed ice cream

It tasted good enough when tested while it was freezing, which isn't very surprising as it was the same stuff as the pudding. It showed similar gelatinous qualities, too, and promised to be a very soft ice cream. This would be a big bonus, as home made ice cream usually needs to be taken out of the freezer some time before serving, to soften. However, the texture wasn't right: In spite of all my stirring, it formed very large ice crystals. It was soft when I served it in the evening, but by lunch time the next day (when I took the photo. I had to have more to get a photo by daylight) it had hardened, so it wasn't even that easy to serve. The large ice crystals puzzled me, as carrageenan - the commercially used extract - is an emulsifier, so I'd have thought it would prevent big crystals forming.

I was a bit disappointed, but I suppose I shouldn't be very surprised that my first experiment didn't come out quite right. This is definitely worth persevering with. The traditional pudding was delicious and the ice cream has potential. Next time I'll use a little less carrageen and maybe try adding an egg. That's still not terribly extravagant. I'll also try using carrageen in place of cornflour to thicken gravy, and perhaps other sauces if that goes well.

Also harvesting this week
Dulse (seaweed - dried for future use)
Rosebay willowherb stems (in salad)
Rosebay willowherb leaves (for ale)
Bay leaves
Wild garlic
Ground elder
Navelwort
Tulip petals
Nettles
Mint
Oregano

Also drinking
Heather ale

Also eating
Garlic
Knotweed chutney (you're supposed to leave it for three months to mature, but I keep thinking of things I want chutney for)
Blackcurrant wine (in stew, so this counts as eating, not drinking)

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

Foraged Food Friday: Rosebay willowherb

After several attempts last year, I learnt how to get the best out of rosebay willowherb: When the young plants are shooting up all over the place, as they are at the moment, lose the strong-tasting top section and the woody bottom section, and peel the middle part of the stem.

Preparing rosebay willowherb (Chamerion* angustifolium)

I'm not sure how to describe the flavour, but I quite like it. It's a fiddle to extract the tasty bit, so I wouldn't bother gathering much. I think this is best as a snack when out walking, rather than trying to collect enough for a significant contribution to a meal. I'm glad I found out how to eat it, though.

Also harvesting this week
Oak leaves for wine
Ground elder
Mint
Nettles
Bracken
Dandelion flowers
Vetch
Tulip petals
Wild garlic

Also drinking
Heather ale

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

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* Also known as Epilobium angustifolium.

Too many projects!

If things have seemed a bit quiet here lately, it's because they've been very busy in real life. I feel that I am not one of life's multi-taskers; I function best when I have one project at a time to throw myself into. If only I could manage to keep this state of affairs, I'd be happy as anything.

Currently, I have four major projects: Garden, solar panels, village hall consultation, and Wild West Wales. The last of these could just as well go on the list of ongoing responsibilities, which include the foraging challenge, running the philosophy group, admin for book club, getting food on the table every day, working at the falls and of course, writing blog posts (including this one!) I've also decided to go to the conference I was considering, so spent a large part of yesterday booking trains, planes and hotels. I can also add, Sort out computer as it's currently taking about half an hour to start up and runs too slowly for watching videos.

I have lots to tell you about and I'll do my best to get round to it, but bear with me while life goes a little crazy. In the meantime, check out this video of Funke and the Two Tone Baby. He played here on Saturday and he was awesome!

Foraged Food Friday: Hawthorn leaves

Fresh new leaves are bursting forth on all the trees, including hawthorn.

Hawthorn leaves, slightly blurred because it was windy.

I've tried these before and found them rather tough raw, so this time I cooked them (steamed, over pasta) and added them to cheese sauce. I've heard they go well with cheese. Hmm... they didn't really taste of anything much. Considering how small and fiddly they are to harvest, and how much else is around at this time of year, I don't think these are worth bothering with.

Also harvesting this week
Wild garlic (for pesto - delicious!)
Ground elder
Japanese knotweed* (made into chutney)

Also drinking
Blackcurrant cordial
Dandelion wine (the last bottle of last year's, saved for when this year's was in the demijohns, which it is)

Foraged food challenge summary page here.

* If you pick Japanese knotweed, you must destroy any pieces that you don't eat, otherwise they will grow into new plants. This is the most invasive plant on the planet (or something like that), and propagating it, which you could do by just dropping a piece, is a criminal offence.

Home made firelighters and a rack to dry them on

After hacking back an unruly leylandii or ripping out brambles, it's nice to be able to put the bits to good use and, as it happens, both of these make excellent firelighters.

Bundles of bramble and coils of leylandii drying on the wheelbarrow

The trouble is, they take a long time to dry (which is why I make them in spring for use next winter) and they can't sit on the wheelbarrow for that long. I needed a better drying rack.

I went down to the workshop and hunted out the wire shelves that originally came from a cheap plastic greenhouse, before being used as store room shelves, which collapsed catastrophically a couple of years ago. I found three shelves - I thought there were more than that - and applied string.

Three-shelf drying rack hanging in the conservatory

So far so good, but that's almost full and I have more brambles. I found a piece of chicken wire that was last used as a bin for making leaf mould - completely ineffectively, as it was too small and all the leaves blew out. That was about twice the size of a shelf, so I cut in in half. It wasn't rigid enough for shelves, so I fetched some metal poles from the same old, cheap greenhouse, and wrapped the wire round them a bit before tying it all together with more string.

Five-shelf drying rack

That basket of dandelions doesn't really need to be on the rack, as the basket itself allows quite good air flow, but it might as well sit there until I've made more firelighters. Bundles of brambles are just as prickly as you'd expect them to be but once dry, they do go up well.