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The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
I'm feasting on the contents of hedgerows like a horse in plimsolls – and I've never felt so healthy
I had a daughter during one of the bone-cold early months of this year, which means that my full-time job is now to produce a yield. Between the hours of dawn and midnight, with a few lactic minutes in between, I am a feeding machine for a new person. And it is this, perhaps, that has led to my somewhat strange new eating habits. Pregnancy may traditionally be the time associated with cravings and aversions – the old cliches of sardines and jam, coal and creosote, bread and crackers. But here, in my postnatal feeding frenzy, I'm eating nettles by the handful. I am chomping on sticky weed. I have been biting the heads off dandelions (bitter – like really serious dark chocolate) and sucking the nectar from inside honeysuckle. This recent chlorophyll gala has, of course, coincided with England's greatest month: May. Some of us love the look of May, some of us enjoy the smells. But for me, this year, the greatest heady, verdant, leaf-rich pleasure of my life is to eat May by the bushel. The sheer amount of dilute dog pee I'm ingesting must be through the roof, I suppose, but I don't really care. The number of edible plants and flowers in Britain right now is dazzling. My latest love is a plant called hedge garlic. Or, if you're in the Midlands like me, Jack by the hedge (he sounds like the villain from a Grimms' fairytale, or the kind of singer-songwriter we all regrettably slept with in our twenties). Alliaria petiolata, to give it its Latin name, is a wild member of the brassica family and has a thin, whitish taproot scented like horseradish, triangular-to-heart-shaped leaves and small white flowers. Friends, once you see it, it's everywhere. You can eat it from towpaths and bike lanes and public parks if, like me, you're not embarrassed to be seen bending down beside a lamp-post and pulling up your lunch. If you don't live in the sort of lush, woodland world where wild garlic covers the ground like concrete then hedge garlic is a fantastic alternative; the taste is oniony, garlicky and even a little mustardy. Of course, like absolutely everything that grows wild, it has a toxic lookalike in the form of lily of the valley. In fact, once you start Googling, pretty much everything edible seems to have a potentially dangerous twin, from mushrooms to flowers to roots. Buttercups are extremely poisonous, as are daffodils. So please make sure you are referring either to an expert or a very well illustrated book before you start to chow down on your local undergrowth, and it's a good idea to wash anything you pick in salt water to get rid of insects, as well as dog wee. But to be extra safe you could stick to these few, extremely identifiable friends: nettles (both the leaves and the seeds), dandelions, clover, sticky weed (that plant that people squished against your school jumper when you were little and is sometimes known as cleavers) and daisies. A friend of mine serves up slices of bread and butter topped with daisies to her small children as a mind-bending treat. She is yet to be burned as a witch. Of course, I am in the incredibly privileged position of living somewhere in which food is, to a greater or lesser degree, widely available. I am able to boil rice and buy eggs and stock up on strawberries because I am a relatively wealthy woman living in a country that has not quite, as yet, cut itself off entirely from global food markets. I am not eating undergrowth out of necessity, and for this I am grateful every day. Am I worried about the sewage in our rivers and the microplastics in our soil and the pesticides leaking into our ponds? Of course I am. But it is also true that Britain right now is a lush and emerald salad bar that I cannot hold back from. Pesto, bhajis, soups, salads, pizzas, pakoras, fritters, sauces – I'm putting these plants in everything. I'm literally mowing down the greenery around my house, munching through the stalks and leaves like a small, pink horse in a pair of plimsolls and I don't care who sees. Because my iron levels are up, my skin is good and it's all gloriously free. Just imagine what I'll be like when the apples and blackberries arrive. Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author
CBC
10-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- CBC
P.E.I.'s spring vegetation presents opportunity for foragers, says biologist
'A few basics is all you really need to know' Springtime is a great time of year to forage for local plants and vegetation, says Kate MacQuarrie, a naturalist and biologist on Prince Edward Island. "Everything is starting to emerge, and all that fresh growth is so delicious and nutritious," said MacQuarrie. "There are some things that we can only find this time of year, and so much is coming on tap that all my spare time is spent eating wild." Foraging has grown in popularity in recent years, MacQuarrie said, noting that interest has been especially high since the COVID-19 pandemic. Political uncertainty and movements that support eating local ingredients have also gotten more people interested in foraging, she said. MacQuarrie said that about 1,000 people participated in her workshops and field courses last year, which provide education about foraging. Media Audio | Island Morning : Foraging grows in popularity amid high grocery prices Caption: Islanders who may be feeling the pinch of grocery prices might want to give foraging a try, according to Kate MacQuarrie, a naturalist and biologist on P.E.I. We speak with her about getting out your foraging gear this season. Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Foraging 101 Foraging doesn't have to be complex, MacQuarrie said. "A few basics is all you really need to know," she said. MacQuarrie said, noting that it can be as simple as picking up a tasty-looking plant while out on a walk. Always, always verify with a human before you consume something — Kate MacQuarrie Foraging doesn't require much investment, but there is one essential component, MacQuarrie said. "Knowledge is the only thing that you need to take with you," she said. While there are apps that help identify plant species, MacQuarrie said it's not a good idea to rely on them. "The best apps for plants have been shown to be about 85 per cent accurate," she said. Plants to look for on P.E.I. There are a variety of plants on P.E.I. that are good for foraging. Some of the highlights in season now include fiddleheads, cattail shoots and watercress, MacQuarrie said. "One of the things I've been using a lot lately is alder pepper," she said. "Alders grow all over P.E.I. and those male catkins that appear in spring — you take them, you dry them, they've got an incredibly complex piney, citrusy, peppery, spicy scent and flavour. It's just amazing." MacQuarrie said one of her favourite things to forage for are service berries, which are also known as Saskatoon berries — though they won't be in season until later this summer. While it's true that P.E.I. plants can be delicious, MacQuarrie said it's important to keep the environment in mind and not over-harvest an area for a particular kind of vegetation. "I recommend not taking more than one in 10 of whatever you find. Leave lots for reproduction of the organism and for other foragers that may come after you," she said. "Sustainability is really part of the core of foraging."
