Walking the Mendip Hills and West Country

Join me each season, as I add more photographs to record each new season’s edibles, in my Wild Food Walks Diary. Always remember never to pick wild food unless you are absolutely certain of its identification. All photos and content are copyright Adrian Boots. All rights reserved.

Important Note: The emphasis is always on careful and thorough identification of plants that are safe to eat. Never eat a plant unless you are 100 percent confident that you have made a positive identification and that it is safe. In addition, it is worth considering the condition and location of the plant (e.g. not next to a busy road or dog-walking area).

	October 07. Rosehips. Used as a dessert fruit during the middle ages, particularly when other fruits were scarce. Packed with Vitamin C, great for rose-hip tea or syrup. The beautiful white or pink flowers are edible in their own right and I think they look particularly pleasing as a decoration on a fruit salad.
	October 07. Apples. Cider (one of my favourite drinks) has been made for thousands of years and the origins of the Saxon ‘wassail’ can be traced to our forebears looking forward to a good apple harvest. Many stories and traditions have grown up around the apple trees and the apple. It is considered the fruit of love, fertility and the tree of life in many European cultures.
	September 07. Blackberries. Everything about the humble bramble fascinates me. It makes very good cordage for binding laid hedges, the flowers, of five white or pink petals, make an attractive finishing decoration to a wild food meal.Combine them with apples in the quintessential Blackberry & Apple pie or marry them with foraged wild raspberries and elderberries in the classic summer pudding, with lashings of cream of course!
	September 07. Rowan Berries. Rowan berries should be cooked, and are most often made in to a jelly or sauce that is good with gamey meat such as rabbit, but they can also be brewed into a beer.
	August 07. Meadowsweet. In medieval times, meadowsweet flowers were used to flavour mead and even took the place of honey as a provider of sweetness when honey itself was in short supply. They add an aromatic bouquet to many sorts of drinks, alcoholic or not!
	August 07. Rosebay willow-herb. Not to be confused with Foxglove which looks superficially similar from a distance, is a common sight along roadsides and hedgerows. They produce a staggering quantity of seed ‘fluff’ at the end of the summer, which makes great tinder for getting the woodburner or bonfire going. I find that simply steaming or blanching the young shoots as a vegetable is best, particularly if well seasoned with butter & pepper.
	July 07. Elder. Our Anglo-saxon ancestors named the shrub Elder aeld, meaning ‘fire’ because they used the hollowed branches to blow air into a fire to increase the flames and possibly used the dried, straight sections to create fire by friction. Elder flowers are another great wild food to eat on their own or a refreshing drink can be made by adding the flower heads to a bowl of boiling water, adding sugar or honey, and leaving to cool before sieving.
	July 07. Ground Ivy (not to be confused with Ivy, the evergreen woody climber) is a low creeping perennial herb commonly found in woods, hedges and disturbed ground. The leaves are kidney-shaped, blunt toothed with soft hairs and purple-blue flowers. It was used by the Saxons to flavour and clarify beer, and was known as ‘alehoof’ before the introduction of hops. Again the leaves make an acceptable spinach or when dried, a herbal tea.
	July 07. Comfrey can be found on waste ground, riverbanks and waysides. It is a very common plant with dark green, hairy, spear shaped leaves and clusters of bell like flowers in a variety of colors: white, cream, pink or purple. The leaves can again be boiled as spinach, which also removes the fine hairs. Like Ground Ivy, these make a delicious addition to omelettes or a side dish!
	June 07. Lime tree leaves. Pollen analysis tells us that from about 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, much of England was covered in a great forest, known as the ‘wildwood’.Whilst the wildwood most likely contained many giant oak trees, a large proportion of England was covered by lime woods with local variations including areas of oak, ash, elm and hazel woods, particularly in the south west. Lime leaves make a great snack on their own, but I like them in a warm (chicken, bacon) salad as a lettuce substitute with a few tasty ramsons or the slightly milder hedge garlic leaves. The flowers of the lime tree (in July) make a beautiful tea.
	June 07. Hedge garlic, garlic mustard or jack-by-the-hedge may well have inhabited the edges of the wildwood. Today, it can be found on verges, waysides and along hedgerows. It has unmistakable glossy, bright green, deeply toothed leaves that, when bruised, have a delicate smell of garlic which are nice chopped in a salad or a sauce. The flowers are small, bright white and the petals of each flower head are arranged in groups of four.
	June 07. Bilberry or whortleberry can be found in upland moors and coniferous woods. It is identified by oval, slightly toothed leaves, short woody green stems and attractive pink globe-like flowers which first appear in April and can last into June. Bilberry is most noted for its dark berries (which I will talk about later in the year), but is mentioned here as the flowers are a little known delicacy in their own right. They have a sweet, cherry-like flavor which is quite delicious. I prefer just to pick and eat them!

	May 07.


	April 07.

	Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) new growth suitable for tea and making into a soup with onions and potatoes!
	Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) new growth suitable for tea, cooked as a spinach or in soup.
	Ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) located in our meadow. Cooked as a spinach or eaten raw.
	Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis), a perennial herb, leaves are great picked young, ideal for a winter salad, cooked as a spinach or in soup. The roots are good too! Has diuretic properties.
	One of my favourites, Common Sorrell (Rumex acetosa), has a taste reminiscent of a fruity vinegar but is very good as part of a winter salad or in soup. Contains oxalic acid, so best not to eat too much too often. Found abundant in our meadow.
	New growth of Cleavers / Goose grass (Galium aparine). Great as a winter tonic for cleansing the liver from all the xmas excess! Found in the bottom of a hedgerow.
	Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria), dandelion, and ribwort plantain. Another favourite, unfortunately it is too early to harvest the small potato-like tubers.
	Young Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvetris) or wild chervil. The closest wild relative of garden chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium). Found on a wide verge adjacent to a hedge. Fantastic on a winter salads, soups and casseroles. Do not confuse with other poisonous umbellifers such as hog weed (Heracleum sphondylium) or hemlock (Conium maculatum).
	Daisy (Daisy Bellis perennis L) – wild food in the garden!
	Chick weed (Stellaria media L). Found on disturbed ground, where the chickens used to be! Good in salads.

WALK THE MENDIPS

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All web site content copyright Adrian Boots 2005, 2006, 2007. Photographs of Blagdon, Burringon & Lakes with many thanks to Dave Parke.