foraging - The Bridge Cottage

Cooking with Wild Garlic. Recipes and Tips

March 7, 2021/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

The smell of wild garlic takes me back to the day we moved to Bridge Cottage. As we drove along with a car full of boxes, marvelling at the beauty of the Northumberland countryside, a pungent pong wafted through the car window. Wild garlic. It was growing in abundance along the roadside. Imagine our delight when we discovered it growing along the banks of the burn that runs through the garden. Food for free, and delicious at that.

Here in Northumberland, it is the beginning of March when the wild garlic is poking up, ready to pick. It may well be February if you are in warmer climes. The fresh young leaves can be picked and added to a salad. We planted some salad leaves in the greenhouse in the autumn, and are reaping the benefits now.

Not only is it tasty, but wild garlic is also good for you, proven to reduce blood pressure. Wild garlic has all manner of health benefits too.

Why wild garlic is good for you

I need to check the freezer. We made lots of wild garlic pesto last year. There may well be some packs lurking in the back. I’ll pop some recipes below, and add them to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page.

wild garlic and nettles

By far the favourite recipe of last year was for wild garlic and blue cheese scones – delicious with a bowl of soup. – you can also add nettles to many of these recipes, but be careful to pick with gloves and take note that nettles will still sting until wilted or cooked. Don’t do what a friend of mine did, and use nettles in pesto without wilting first. She, unfortunately, tasted a spoon of nettle pesto and stung her mouth and throat. It could have been a lot nastier than it was. I’ll write more about nettles in a month or so, when they’re properly up.

Blue Cheese & Wild Garlic Scones

Blue cheese and wild garlic scones

Ingredients

225g plain or spelt flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt, half tsp English mustard powder

50g cold butter

125g blue cheese (or any strong cheese)

2 tbsp washed & chopped wild garlic (nettle tops and chives work well too)

60ml cold milk

1 beaten egg

Method

Scones are best handled as little as possible. I use a food processor, but mixing by hand is fine

Sift flour, baking powder, salt & mustard. Grate in the butter, cheese, & mix with wild garlic and nettles. Mix in egg & milk with a clawed hand, adjusting the amount of liquid to give a soft, slightly sticky dough. (Scones are better on the wet side rather than dry).

Tip onto a floured worktop and handling as little as possible, knead gently then press down into a flat shape about 3cm thick. Cut into shapes, top with a little cheese or egg & milk from the jug you used.

Bake at 220 deg (200 deg fan) Gas 7 for 12 minutes.

Serve with butter. Delicious with some wild garlic and nettle soup.

Pesto

Add a couple of good handfuls of wild garlic to about 200ml of olive oil, a handful of nuts (eg walnuts, cashew or pine nuts), 50g grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and blitz in a food processor.

Add your pesto to pasta for a simple but tasty lunch or rub onto chicken. Wild garlic and chicken go very well together.

I like to make several batches and freeze them in small bags. There is nothing better in the depths of winter than to go foraging in the freezer and finding little bags of spring wild garlic pesto to use for lunches.

Salads

Wild garlic leaves can be added whole to salads or chopped according to taste. Use instead of spring onions for a mild, oniony taste, but with the added zing of garlic. They make an interesting addition to a cheese sandwich married with a touch of mayonnaise.

Salad dressing can also be made more interesting with finely chopped wild garlic leaves or add to mayonnaise or butter.

Tomatoes

In his iconic foraging guide, Food for Free, written many moons ago, Richard Mabey tells us that wild garlic goes handsomely with tomatoes

Richard tells us to take advantage of their size and lay them criss-cross over sliced beefsteak tomatoes’. I like to chop them finely and add to chopped tinned tomatoes for a quick and tasty tomato sauce that can go with pasta, or as an accompaniment to fish cakes.

Alternatively, make simple tomato salsa, by chopping fresh tomatoes with finely chopped wild garlic, and fresh deseeded chilli, and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

wild garlic and nettle soup

Wild garlic can be used with young nettle tops for a healthy, delicious soup, or for the meat-eaters amongst us, simply add to chicken stock and blitz for a delicious wild garlic soup.

I’m off to pick some wild garlic to use tonight with simple mayonnaise to have with our chips.

Happy foraging, but remember to forage responsibly – leave plenty for others and for wildlife.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

March 7, 2021/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food/by Sue Reed

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

Wild Garlic, Allium ursinum, also known as: ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear’s garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland. It can be grown in your garden, or foraged for, for free!

The smell of wild garlic takes me back to the day we moved to Bridge Cottage. As we drove along with a car full of boxes, marvelling at the beauty of the Northumberland countryside, a pungent pong wafted through the car window. Wild garlic. It was growing in abundance along the roadside. Imagine our delight when we discovered it growing along the banks of the burn that runs through the garden. Food for free, and delicious at that.

Here in Northumberland, it is the beginning of March when the wild garlic is poking up, ready to pick. It may well be February if you are in warmer climes. The fresh young leaves can be picked and added to a salad. We planted some salad leaves in the greenhouse in the autumn, and are reaping the benefits now.

Not only is it tasty, but wild garlic is also good for you, proven to reduce blood pressure. Wild garlic has all manner of health benefits too.

Why wild garlic is good for you

I need to check the freezer. We made lots of wild garlic pesto last year. There may well be some packs lurking in the back. I’ll pop some recipes below, and add them to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen page.

wild garlic and nettles

By far the favourite recipe of last year was for wild garlic and blue cheese scones – delicious with a bowl of soup. – you can also add nettles to many of these recipes, but be careful to pick with gloves and take note that nettles will still sting until wilted or cooked. Don’t do what a friend of mine did, and use nettles in pesto without wilting first. She, unfortunately, tasted a spoon of nettle pesto and stung her mouth and throat. It could have been a lot nastier than it was. I’ll write more about nettles in a month or so, when they’re properly up.

Blue Cheese & Wild Garlic Scones

Blue cheese and wild garlic scones

Ingredients

225g plain or spelt flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt, half tsp English mustard powder

50g cold butter

125g blue cheese (or any strong cheese)

2 tbsp washed & chopped wild garlic (nettle tops and chives work well too)

60ml cold milk

1 beaten egg

Method

Scones are best handled as little as possible. I use a food processor, but mixing by hand is fine

Sift flour, baking powder, salt & mustard. Grate in the butter, cheese, & mix with wild garlic and nettles. Mix in egg & milk with a clawed hand, adjusting the amount of liquid to give a soft, slightly sticky dough. (Scones are better on the wet side rather than dry).

Tip onto a floured worktop and handling as little as possible, knead gently then press down into a flat shape about 3cm thick. Cut into shapes, top with a little cheese or egg & milk from the jug you used.

Bake at 220 deg (200 deg fan) Gas 7 for 12 minutes.

Serve with butter. Delicious with some wild garlic and nettle soup.

Pesto

Add a couple of good handfuls of wild garlic to about 200ml of olive oil, a handful of nuts (eg walnuts, cashew or pine nuts), 50g grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and blitz in a food processor.

Add your pesto to pasta for a simple but tasty lunch or rub onto chicken. Wild garlic and chicken go very well together.

I like to make several batches and freeze them in small bags. There is nothing better in the depths of winter than to go foraging in the freezer and finding little bags of spring wild garlic pesto to use for lunches.

Salads

Wild garlic leaves can be added whole to salads or chopped according to taste. Use instead of spring onions for a mild, oniony taste, but with the added zing of garlic. They make an interesting addition to a cheese sandwich married with a touch of mayonnaise.

Salad dressing can also be made more interesting with finely chopped wild garlic leaves or add to mayonnaise or butter.

Tomatoes

In his iconic foraging guide, Food for Free, written many moons ago, Richard Mabey tells us that wild garlic goes handsomely with tomatoes

Richard tells us to take advantage of their size and lay them criss-cross over sliced beefsteak tomatoes’. I like to chop them finely and add to chopped tinned tomatoes for a quick and tasty tomato sauce that can go with pasta, or as an accompaniment to fish cakes.

Alternatively, make simple tomato salsa, by chopping fresh tomatoes with finely chopped wild garlic, and fresh deseeded chilli, and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

wild garlic and nettle soup

Wild garlic can be used with young nettle tops for a healthy, delicious soup, or for the meat-eaters amongst us, simply add to chicken stock and blitz for a delicious wild garlic soup.

I’m off to pick some wild garlic to use tonight with simple mayonnaise to have with our chips.

Happy foraging, but remember to forage responsibly – leave plenty for others and for wildlife.

Wild Garlic. Foraging & Cooking Food for Free

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Elderberry Tonic – Autumn Foraging

September 22, 2020/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food, The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Elderberry Tonic

The autumn equinox is a time for gathering and preparing for the winter, and what better way is there than making some super healthy elderberry tonic to ward off winter colds and flu?

It’s easy to make and tastes delicious. Drink it neat in shot glasses, or hot with warm water added or cold in fizzy water.

Elderberries are high in vitamin C, and elderberry tonic is a staple in our house.

More info about the health benefits can be found here, – Health benefits of elderberries – but rather than buy commercial elderberry tonic, why not make your own with our simple recipe?

Elderberries

Elderberry Tonic Recipe:

Collect a bag of ripe elderberries, and then once home, wash and pop off the stalks with a fork, into a saucepan.

Add water until just covered.

Add a cinnamon stick, good chunk root ginger, chopped, and some cloves & star anise.

Bring to the boil & simmer for 20 mins.

Strain through muslin, or a clean tea towel inside a colander. Squeeze all the juice out.

Add a good dollop of honey to taste and bottle into clean containers.

I freeze some in plastic bottles for the depths of winter and keep a bottle in the fridge door for daily slurps.

Cheers! Keep Healthy and Stay Safe 🙂

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can subscribe to the Bridge Cottage Way on Substack to receive regular newsletters straight to your inbox.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tim & Sue in the Bridge Cottage Way garden

Rosebay Willowherb Tea. Late Summer Foraging.

August 27, 2020/0 Comments/in Foraging for Free Food/by Sue Reed

Rosebay Willowherb growing in Northumberland

Rosebay Willowherb is known as Fireweed in North America, after its tendency to spring up as an early pioneer on burnt land. In second World War Britain, it sprang up on bomb sites in London, and elsewhere, rising like the Phoenix from the ashes. In Clydebank in Scotland, it grew the bombed Singer Sewing machine site and was nicknamed Singerweed. Here in Northumberland it grows rampant along the roadsides and we even have a large patch alongside the burn in the Bridge Cottage garden.

Foraging for Rosebay Willowherb

You may need to go further afield, and if you do, always remember to forage responsibly. Take only as much as you need, leaving plenty behind for wildlife, and do not go where you are not supposed to go.

I’ve mentioned my youngest son before, a lad full of surprises. Imagine my delight when I got a What’s App message from him, with photos of leaves he’d picked and a link to how to make Ivan Chai, or fermented Rosebay Willowherb tea. I’d heard that the leaves of the Rosebay Willowherb made a great green tea but had not heard of Ivan Chai.

A spot of research later, and I discovered this tea is a traditional drink and domestic medicine in northern and Eastern Europe. In Russia, its fermented leaves are known as Koporye or Ivan tea, while in Alaska, the flowers are a valuable source of nectar for honey and are made into jellies and syrups. I already had some dried leaves but thought this fermentation process sounded interesting yet simple.

Consulting my book about hedgerow herbal remedies* I read that Rosebay Willowherb can be made into a syrup which is excellent for treating childhood diarrhoea or irritable bowel symptoms (see recipe below), and infusions of the leaves have also been used for heavy periods. Modern research into Rosebay Willowherb has focused on its role in treating BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), inhibiting prostate cancer cell growth in animals and by inference, in humans.

To make Rosebay Willowherb tea:

Either dry the leaves and petals naturally (see post on drying herbs) or make your own fermented Rosebay Willow Herb tea, aka Ivan tea:

Rolling Rosebay Willowherb leaves to make Ivan Tea

Ivan Tea or Fermented Rosebay Willowherb Tea

Pick the leaves from the Rosebay Willowherb plant, near the top.
Leave to go limo overnight
Roll into balls (you can roll a few leaves together)
Put in a sealed container in a warm place for 24 hours. You can add rose petals for flavour
Dry in a cool dry place, or in an oven on the lowest setting til thoroughly dried out. (I like to keep the oven door open slightly to let the moisture out
Store in an airtight container once cool
Drink and enjoy!

Rosebay Willowherb Tea. Ivan Tea

If you’d like to see a video of how it’s made, I’ll get one made, but in the short term, here’s someone to show you how:
YouTube video: Full process of making Ivan tea

picking rosebay willowherb

Rosebay Willowherb Syrup*

20 flower heads

500ml water

100g sugar

Juice of a lemon

Bring flower heads and water to the boil and simmer until the colour leaves the blossoms, in about 5-10 minutes. Strain the juice and return to the pot.

Add the sugar and lemon juice and boil for 5 mins, allow to cool then bottle and label.

It will keep in the fridge for a few months.

This is a pleasant remedy for childhood diarrhoea and can be used for any case of intestinal irritation and loose bowels.

Give a tablespoon for adults, and a dessert spoon for children every few hours.

*Taken from Hedgerow Medicine: Harvest and Make Your Own Herbal Remedies by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal

I hope you have found this first post on foraging useful. Watch out for more coming up as we go into autumn, and our hedgerows become abundant with brambles and other fruit.

Please forage responsibly – here is a guide to Foraging Guidelines from the Woodland Trust.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Welcome to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen & Seasonal Eating.

June 28, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Kitchen/by Sue Reed

Welcome to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen and our introduction to Seasonal Eating. 🙂

Welcome Bridge Cottage kitchen

In this section of the website, we will look at seasonal eating to help you understand when different fruit and vegetables are ripe and ready. It is offered as a complement to the page, The Bridge Cottage garden, where we hold your hand as you plant and grow your crops. We will offer tried and tested recipes to enjoy home-cooked food when it is at its best, fresh and locally produced. We will also look at pickling and preserving to help your precious produce last into the winter months.

There is much food to be gathered from the hedgerows, foraged for free. We will discuss the ethics behind foraging, and how to gather food from the wild without impacting on wildlife.

Tomatoes ripening on the vine

Supermarkets with their year-round array of fruit and vegetables have taken seasonal eating out of many folks’ consciousness, and with it, the taste. I don’t want to eat tomatoes in January that have been ground under plastic in Almeria in Spain, neither do I want to eat asparagus that has come from Peru. I want to eat English asparagus in the small window that it is available in June, and will wait for my tomatoes to be ripe and ready before I eat them. I guarantee they will taste like a different vegetable to the one that has sat on the supermarket shelf, wrapped in plastic, after having been shipping halfway around the world.

homemade jam

Do you have memories of your grandparents pickling and preserving fruit and vegetables? Both my grandmothers made jam, one with a shelf in the fridge door of strawberry jam, and the other who filled tiny paste posts with homemade raspberry jam. Mine were from the wartime generation who had to learn to make the most of what they had, and I believe we need to take a leaf out of their books and go back to those days. I wrote over in the Sustainable Living section of this website about how the bubble had burst. I strongly believe we need to reduce our spending, reduce plastic waste, and for the sake of the planet, reduce our carbon footprints. If I can keep out of the supermarkets I will. Never has it been more important to try and grow and cook as much of our own food as we can, and eat seasonally.

Gooseberry and elderflower ice cream

Over the year we will be making jam, jellies and chutneys together, drying herbs and making herbal teas, freezing summer fruit, churning ice-cream and making out own cheese and yoghurt. When Christmas comes, we’ll look at ways to keep it simple and homemade. So get saving your jam jars, don’t throw any containers or bags away. You’ll be needing them for in the coming months.

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or one our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Tag Archive for: foraging