The Off the Wall Wildfood of the Month

Sometimes you just feel plain stupid.  You walk past a plant hundreds, nay thousands of times, before you realise not only that it's edible, it's tasty too and extremely good for you.

There was me yesterday putting the finishing touches to my book, checking through various reference books to see if I missed anything glaringly.  So I picked up a slim volume written by a local guy on the edible greens of the Lunigiana and the Val di Mara, i.e. our local area, and I came across a plant known as Parietaria in Italian (parietaria officinalis).  It looked kind of familiar so I googled it and found out that in English it's called Pellitory of the Wall, which I had never heard of either.  The German name of 'Aufrechtes Glasskraut' didn't enlighten me either.

Then I started reading up on it, and woah!  Not only is that stuff edible, but it has huge health benefits too.  But first I had to go and find one, so I said to Eddie the Beagle, I said: "Eddie, we're on a mission!".  So I put my shoes on, donned my camouflage gear, explorer helmet, butterfly net and hunting rifle, put my trusted hunting beagle on his lead and stepped through my front door into the great wilderness.  It took me a total of about 10 seconds before I spotted the first one simply growing out of our own wall!

and some more:

I looked at the reference book and at the plant... I think they may have taken the photo on my very front door you know, it was a definite match.  As the name suggests it grows along and out of walls.  It's common throughout most of Europe with the exception of Iberia and Britain apparently.  The leaves are maybe 5cm long coming off creeping red stalks and if you look closely at the inconspicuous flowers you'll see the family resemblance: it's part of the true nettle family.

"Now what do we do with Pellitory of the Wall?" I hear you ask.  Well actually pretty much the same as you would with stingy nettles.  The taste is similar too.  Just use the leaves and young shoots and boil them for a side veg, add them too soups or risottos or any other way you'd use green veg for.  A Torta di Verdura, vegetable tart would be nice too I reckon.  It has a mild flavour, but it doesn't fall apart too quickly when cooked.

And as for health benefits?  To quote from my own book:  "This plant has long been valued as an excellent diuretic, increasing urine production to clear the system.  Combined with stingy nettle the effect is increased.  Drink an infusion of 2 tablespoons of dried herb per litre of water 3 times a day or make an infusion and take 40 drops three times a day.  This  is helpful to combat metabolic illnesses, including obesity, diabetis and cellulites, rheumatic illnesses, such as gout and arthritis, illnesses of the urinary tract, including gallstones and kidney stones as well as renal inflammations and cystitis and illnesses of the circulatory system, such as high blood pressure and water retention.  Externally is used as a wound dressing as disinfectant."

We shall gather a whole load and dry some.  Cousin Bart has some arthritis and maybe it'll help him some.  The only word of caution, Pellitory is one of the main contributors to hayfever when in flower.  If you are a sufferer it maybe wise to avoid direct contact, i.e. let someone else do the picking.  Even I got a slightly sniffly nose yesterday when cooking with them and I don't normally suffer allergies at all.

Eureka! and Hooray to Helpers

Remember I asked you lot a few days ago what this plant is?

Well I've finally cracked it!  It's Fool's Watercress or as our American cousin like to call it, European Marshwort (apium nodiflorum).  It was no coincidence that we found it in a damp ditch, that's where it likes to be.  In Italian it has various common names, mostly more descriptive than the English names: Crescione (big cress), sedanino d'aqua (little water celery) or erba canella (cinnamon herb).  the latter two names really describe the flavour of this plant.  They do say it makes an excellent addition to a salad, however they should only be picked from near clean waterways and should be thoroughly washed as they might harbour parasites harmful to humans.  Another unexpected addition to the book, it's getting longer and longer!

Meanwhile back at the farm... we've had two cycling Americans all the way from Arizona helping us out.  They've been really hard working and, like us, have a keen interest in permaculture.  They've been bravely beating back the encroaching jungle, helped us plant out stuff, made us a lasagne bed, shifted leaf litter and topsoil from the woods below our 18 terraces and dragged it all to the top and they've dug a new compost toilet.  It's all been mighty impressive!

Here a few pictures of Becky and Nick in action.  First Nick dug a really deep hole for the compost toilet:

Then all that earth went in bucket 2 or 3 terraces down:

...to cover a previously prepared lasagne bed, i.e. layers of different types of organic material on top of some cardboard to keep the weeds down and add organic material to the soil:

...and did you notice?  They were still smiling!

Anyway on a final note our cat seedlings have done particularly well this year:

of Mystery Wild Food and Odd Weeds

Working on my book I've come across two wild foods which I have never actually collected and I'm therefore unsure of how to identify them: alexanders (smyrnium olustratum) and the Ground Elder (aegopodium podagraria)  On pictures of reference books they look very similar.  On passing in the car on a wee country lane nearby I thought I had spotted one or the other the other day, so I decided to go on an expedition to find said greens.  This is what it looked like:

 It was growing in large clumps in a damp ditch next to some cultivated land near the river.  It grows to about 3 feet tall, but no sign of flowers yet.  I picked a leaf and it smelled good.  I popped it in my mouth and it tasted even better.  I cut the stem and nibbled it and woah!  It has a delicate sweet celery taste with a hint of vanilla on a long aftertaste.  Not a hint of bitterness.  I'm convinced this is edible.  It tastes far too good not to be! 

But... it doesn't fit the description of either ground elder nor alexanders.  It says about alexanders that they are solid stemmed and this...

 ...evidently isn't.  If it was ground elder it should have flowers at this time of year, but no sign of them.  Also the taste of them is said to be debatable, whilst this stuff is simply delicious.  You couldn't dislike it.  Now I'm sitting here at my desk with a wilted sample of this plant and a dozen reference books around me and I can't work out what it is.  Anybody got any idea?

Anyway, we've been using some brief breaks in the rain to start sorting through the jungle that is our land.  Help has arrived in the shape of a couple of helpXers from Arizona who are also into permaculture.  Broad beans are in full production, hmmm my favourite, and the first wild strawberries are ripe:

Below are the sub-terraces we built on the slope below the caravan from the left-overs of an old wardrobe. 

The idea was to plant out the majority of my tomatoes along there this year, plus some onions and herbs.  Somehow, having used our own compost as well as a whole collection of organic materials, all sorts of other unplanned things have started gowing there.  An elder branch and a hazel branch which were rammed into the ground to support the terraces have started sprouting.  And the amongst the tomatoes all sorts of other stuff started sprouting:  Yarrow

Jerusalem artichokes

and hundreds of little tomato seedlings as well as... possibly Swiss chard:

 

I don't think I ever need to sow out Swiss chard ever again.  It goes complety crazy on my land and pops up EVERYWHERE!  Just as well we like it and have a constant supply of it 12 months of the year.

Spring Green Smoothie

Here's a nice video by fellow forager, Fergus.  Check out his blog

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Wild food of the month - Of Jack and David

It's been a funny old month once again.  No time for posting and even less time to look at all your lovely blogs.  The weather has been plain crazy this year.  After a warm winter the cold had arrived in February with a bang.  But in March it became almost summery and I optimistically planted my tomatoes out early this year, at least a large part of them.  Then in April we had nothing but rain, except for the last 3 days when summer made another brief cameo appearance with rain and wind following again today.  Needless to say we are hopelessly behind on the land and the weeds, loving all this rain, are taking over big time!

So I thought it might be time to take up the wild food of the month feature again.  I have a new camera and I have been busy taking pictures for the book.  The trouble about this book is that I seem to find new edible plants almost every week and it's taking on encyclopedic proportions.  Anyway, to get back to the sub-heading of today's post, first let me explain about David.

I did another wildfood walk a couple of days ago and was hugely honoured to have a very special participant, the famous botanist David Bellamy.  Those of my readers not from the UK may not have heard of him, but in Britain he is something like the David Attenborough of botany.  He has hosted hundreds of TV programs on botany and has written 56 books in his long an illustrious career.  Here we are inspecting one of the last few tiny aspargus shoots of the season:

Obviously I was a little nervous to be lecturing such a distinguished expert in his own field.  I'll take on any Master of Wine at a wine tasting any day, but botany is just a wee hobby of mine.  However, it turned out we completely complemented each other, me talking about edibles and David pointing out rare orchid species, telling us how fern got its Latin name and how cherry trees attract ants to defend themselves from other insects.  On a couple of occasions he dived into the undergrowth and returning with some plant or other and he was asking me what they might be.  At first I thought he was trying to test me!  I must say it has given my confidence levels a huge boost.  I am now very much hoping he will be writing a foreword to my book.

Now to Jack...  Jack-by-the-Hedge to give him his full name.  I'm torn whether to use this lovely poetic name for this plant in my book or the more descriptive common name of garlic mustard.  Anyway, this is what he looks like:

The plant grows to about a metre tall with largish round slightly serrated leaves topped by delicate white flowers and grows all over the place along the sides of pathways and wastegrounds.  The leaves are very thin and wilt quickly after being picked and when rubbed give out a distinct mustard and garlic aroma, giving it it's other common name.  It is a member of the mustard family and therefore belongs to the brassica group (hey, you can tell I'm not a botanist!).

The leaves and flowers can be used as a salad ingredient and give a lovely spicy punch.  My favourite way of eating them was apparently also a favourite with Henry VIII, namely as a herb sauce.  I just make a simple bechamel with butter flour and milk and just as thickens I throw in some finely chopped leaves and flowers and a handful of grated cheese.  Delicious on new potatoes or as we had it at the last wild food walk, on some trout!  The seeds can also be used.  Simply crush them together with some coarse sea salt and use as a condiment.

Wishing you all a happy May.

A busy month

 

Happy Easter to you all.  It's been a busy old month.  First of all I was busy finishing my wild food book for the end of March.  I have sent off the first draft, but additions have been requested, so it will continue to keep me busy for a while.

Susan's mother died in the middle of the month and we went to belfast for the funeral, keeping us away from home for a week.  She was 97 and had a long fullfilled life.  Of course we were busy with the usual spring preparations of sowing and planting during the month and last but not least I had to organise the guided wild food forages.  

If on that subject I may have a brief rant: It is really annoying, infuriating if not to say downright bl&%$£y rude to agree to come to an event with strictly limited numbers to then cancel with less than 24 hours notice or even none at all, unless you have very good reason.  Rant over.

Saying that, those who did attend the 3 events had a whale of a time and we were lucky with the weather all around.  It's a great time of year to foraging, before the farmers start strimming their fields and with all that lush green coming out everywhere.  Here a few impressions of plants we found:

 Asparagus.  This was taken on the last forage when champion asparagus spotter Carmelo had grazed the route almost bare.  Incidentally the 'mock asparagus' that all the locals here identify as hop shoots are actually the shoots of black bryony.  All other parts of the plant a poisonous, but the shoots are edible and good.

 Borage

 Mint

 Wild strawberries

 Wild onion







Wood Sorrel

Many fruit trees were in bloom adding to the pleasure of the roam:

Returning back to base the team got to clean the salad ingredients:

...and sat down for the feast:

This was the menu: 

...and this is what it looked like:  The antipasti:

The Borage ravioli with wild garlic pesto and wild sage and butter

 

The wild asparagus and black bryony shoot frittata:

 

with a mixed salad:

and finally the spring tart:

and even Eddie, the Beagle had some company:

All photos courtesy of Carmelo Gallo and Tom Connally.  I have a camera again, but the courier company somehow manage to loose the battery re-charger that went with it.  I'm now waiting for a replacement.  

Anyone else wanting to participate in one of these please let me know.

Wild food walks near La Spezia

This is mostly adressed at people who live in easy reach of us.  After 8 years of tasting my way through the wild greens of our surroundings and my book on the subject nearing completion, I finally feel confident taking a group around on a guided foraging walk.

The idea is meeting up in Ponzano Superiore and I'll show you around some of my favourite haunts followed by a gourmet multiple course meal prepared by my cousin Bart.  The provisional dates (depending on numbers and weather) wil be: Sunday, 18th March, Saturday 31st March and Friday 6th April.  We'll set off about 10 am and wander around the hills.  At that time of year, apart from it being the height of the asparagus season, we should spot at least 50 different edible species.

The menu will include one or two antipasti, two primi, a soup and some borage stuffed ravioli with butter and wild sage, a secondo of an asapargus frittata with a wild food salad and some wild greens, finished off by my legendary Spring flower tart.  All accompanied by a glass or two of wine.

The cost will be €17 a head all inclusive.  Participants will need to bring decent walking shoes, a basket / bags to collect stuff in, a knife and a trowel.  Numbers are strictly limited, so let us know as soon as possible if you want to participate.

For those who are not nearby and can't come, here one more morsel.  Some of you may remember that about a year ago we went on a wild food walk organised by the local council.  Below was one of the things we had found, but I hadn't caught the name of it properly and hadn't been able to find out what it actually was.

Well I have finally been able ti identify it.  It's known as common brighteye or French scorzanera.  The leaves make an excellent lettuce substitute as they have no trace of bitterness, in fact they have a certain sweetness.  The roots look like min-parsnips and can be crunched raw or cooked.  A really valuable find amongst all the bitter tasting salad crops.

Quick Update: It occurred to me that I should have put a contact e-mail here as well so you can book.  It's heikover at libero dot com.  Should you see this blogpost after the event, get in touch anyway and I'll see what I can arrange.  The middle date, the 31st, is now booked out, but there are still spaces available on the other 2 dates as of today (6th March).

Update 12 March: Due to a grievance in the family I have to cancel the event on the 18th March, appologies for those already booked.  I'm thinking of re-scheduling for Sunday, 1st April as the event on the 31st March is slightly over-subsribed anyway.  I know it won't suit everybody who signed up for the 18th, but hopefully we'll get 2 walks done that weekend.