9 simple steps to safe mushroom picking. Follow these and enjoy the gastronomic delights of wild mushrooms without poisoning yourself.
Also posted in features | Tagged edible, food, foraging, fungi, health, identification, mushrooms, poisonous, toxic, wild, wildfood |
Wild, natural plants and fungi can be dangerous, potentially causing immediate harm and even death. Read Poisonous Plants and Fungi to know what to avoid.
Posted in food from the wild | Tagged edible, foraging, fruit, fungi, health, mushrooms, number, oil, plants, poisonous, toxic, wild food |
For their sublime aroma and intense sweetness, and for the sake of our desperately declining cherry orchards, do whatever it takes to find and eat some British cherries in July. We’re losing our cherry orchards at an alarming rate and the only way to save them is to eat more British cherries.
Cherry plums are back in season, ripening on hedgerow and garden trees across Britain. The fruit are versatile and delicious. Taste and texture, like the colour, vary between trees, but most of the fruit are excellent eaten raw. They can be substituted for plums in jams, chutneys and other recipes, or pressed for their sweet juice.
Hedge Garlic (Alliara petiola) is one of the earliest fresh spring greens of the hedgerow, its bright green garlicky leaves appearing from February and at their best as the plant flowers in April and May.
Otherwise known as garlic mustard or Jack-by-the-hedge, it has a more delicate, but nonetheless distinctly oniony, aroma and flavour than the [...]
Also posted in food in season | Tagged Suffolk, wildfood |
Less well known than ceps or morels, St George’s are amongst the finest wild mushrooms, with a firm texture, appealing mealy smell and distinctive flavour.
One of England’s forgotten vegetables, Alexanders are at their most magnificent in April, their stately stems thick and tall on verges and grassy banks. Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) love the coast and often grow within a few miles of the sea, though isolated patches thrive even far inland. Cut and steam the stems and buds, ideally just before the flowers have opened, for an absolutely distinctive, even peculiar, vegetable, a little like celery or parsley.
The arrival of the cherry plum blossom in late February marks the turn of winter, the first promise of summer fruits
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