Wild garlic (Allium ursinum)

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Wild garlic (Allium ursinum)

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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 12:57 pm Post subject: Wild garlic (Allium ursinum)

While out walking our surrogate hound yesterday and carefully studying the ground for Morels I found a large area of Wild Garlic or Ramsoms. It was quite easy to recognises, especially after seeing in various places but added to the waft of oniony garlic in the air I think it's hard to mistake.

Bugs and I tried a few leaves and I must say what a delicious plant!

I wouldn't say it was that garlicy, but it has a wonderful strong spring onion taste with a hint of garlic and it's a nice sweet taste. Definitely something I will look out for in future and I think we will buy some bulbs for our garden.

Unfortunately we didn't find any Morels, even after looking on numerous heaps of old wood chippings and several sites of old bonfires.

For reference wild garlic is no 6 in this article: www.downsizer.net/Projects/Wild_Food/Top_Ten_Wild_Foods_for_April/

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 2:20 pm Post subject:

We too went on a ramble yesterday - with the principle idea of finding some morels and wild garlic

Found the garlic - There was absolutely loads of it but sadly no morels however we did find a number of other fungus that we would love to identify

Firstly

This we think is King Alfreds Cakes - Totally inedible

Then

no idea what this is

also we saw these up a tree and would be interested to find out what they are

Cab - Any ideas?

We had a really good afternoon out

Joanne

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 7:12 pm Post subject:
Great photos Jo

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 7:37 pm Post subject:
The white one is inedible but I can't remember for the life of me what it's called! if you break a bit off it's tough as old boots.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 7:41 pm Post subject:
The middle one looks like an old birch polypore. The bottom one looks interesting, a bit like some creatures off the first Star Trek.

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 05 9:31 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Great photos Jo

Thanks Tahir - The OH will be pleased - He had a really nice time wandering around the woods with his digital camera

He also took a really lovely one of a wild primrose

and some sort of mayfly doing what they do

Joanne

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 12:04 am Post subject:
Working in the woods, after a while, the smell of wild garlic gets quite rank, but you're right, the taste is great. I munch them while working, and think they would be food to die for, chopped into a green salad!

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 7:42 am Post subject:
Top one is indeed King Alfreds Cakes. Middle one is a birch polypore, a.k.a razor strop fungus. Break a nice one in two and you can sharpen a razor blade on it. Not actually poisonous, but try digesting a whetstone. Bottom one is wierd; can't immediately place it. Rule for social survival number 24: If you're going to eat wild garlic, make sure that anyone you're likely to snog eats some too.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 7:58 am Post subject:
Gareth once roasted a whole sheep with a glaze of spiced bramble jelly and crushed wild garlic- it was very yummy. Have a plant in the garden but it isnt really happy, just waves one leaf at me every year and thats about it.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 8:14 am Post subject:
We had chopped wild garlic and St. Georges mushroom omelettes for Sunday lunch, with wild and garden salad (lettuce, rocket, sorrel, wild garlic, jack by the hedge, cow parsley, chickweed and innumerable other leafy things). Very tasty. Sally, your wild garlic wants some shade, is it perhaps too light where it is?

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 8:43 am Post subject:
Thanks everyone for the diagnosis - we had a great time trying to work out what stuff was - its harder than it looks As for the wild garlic I picked - it went very nicely into some Lemon and Coriander stuffing I made to go in the Pork Joint I bought from Hoghton Farmers market yesterday and I also used some in the Raita I made for the Curry we had on Saturday night. Joanne

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 9:01 am Post subject:

jocorless wrote:

and some sort of mayfly doing what they do

Joanne

They're a bit eager, it's only the middle of April

Platypus

Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Posts: 56
Location: Hampshire

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 05 12:07 pm Post subject:

We had a great walk this weekend, just over six miles round the outskirts of Stansted Forest, Hampshire, where we found and ate Ramsons, Oxalis and young Hawthorn leaves.

It was the first time I'd tried Oxalis and I was very pleasantly surprised, a real fresh almost citrus like flavour, even the kids liked them

We took a small handful of Ramson leaves home and cooked them in an onion tart - Lovely

To be honest I didn't go much on the Hawthorn, very slightly nutty but otherwise just chewy greenstuff

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