I came across some edible wild flowers on a walk, and they reminded me of my wife, so I brought a few home for her to brighten up her desk. Pretty flowers for my gorgeous wife, Samantha.
So hopefully they’ll provide some inspiration whilst she works; and if she gets peckish, she can have a little much on Forget-Me-Not and Greater Stitchwort.
Given the time of year, we all know that the countryside is full of green and flowers, I was out looking for edibles when I came across these edible hedgerow beauties, so I thought I’d share these spring flowers with you.
First up is the Wych Elm. This tree, with one of the prettiest flower bunches over also has a great many uses. Sticking with the edibility, the young leaves are edible (raw or cooked), the inner bark has been dried and used to thicken stews, and the seeds are also edible.
Greater Stitchwort is one of those anonymous white spring flowers in the hedgerow or on the side of the road that largely gets ignored. Until you take a closer look, that is.
The flower is made up of five white petals, lobed so deeply that they look like ten petals. Five green sepals support them, and the stamens are yellow tipped, growing from a green centre. The green parts look very much like grass before the flowers open, apart from the fact that the edges feel quite rough; As does the stem, which has a square cross-section.
The green shoots, flower buds and flowers are all edible raw and cooked. You can chop them straight into a salad.
Forget-me-nots are tiny blue spring flowers which you could easily walk by, if it wasn’t for the striking contrast of the blue against a green background.
Forget-me-not covers about 74 species, but the flowers are usually pink/purple in the bud, turning blue when they open. The flowers have five petals, five sepals, yellow centres and are under one cm across. The leaves are long, thin, and unstalked. The stems are hairy, and the leaves are also hairy sometimes.
The flowers are edible and you can eat them as a walking snack, to decorate cakes, and in salads.
Sometimes, with these wild flowers, it’s hard to believe that they’re not cultivated because they look so perfect, and in my opinion, the Primrose is one of those.
Easy to recognise, Primula vulgaris has a rosette of crinkly, tongue-shaped leaves that are so wrinkled that they look old even when new. Each flower grows from it’s own stem (which has fine hairs) and has five pale yellow petals, with a darker yellow centre. Sometimes, the darker yellow centre forms a pentagram.
WARNING: I’ve eaten the flowers raw, and the leaves both raw and cooked, yet some people have reported that the leaves have caused a rash. It’s worth checking first, and if the leaves do cause a rash or any kind of contact dermatitis, definitely do not eat it.
Strictly speaking, this post isn’t about foraging as such, more like plant identification. The key point is this: You need to be able to positively identify plants in order to be able to forage for them. However, if you don’t live near the great outdoors, you can practice your plant ID anyway.
For example, just around the corner from my house is a small patch of ground in front of some houses. It’s not owned by any of the householders, and the local council probably can’t justify looking after it; So it’s left to get overgrown for a few years, then stripped back to almost bare earth. The following spring is a great time to go looking, as all the low growing ‘weeds’ get a chance to sprout.
I wouldn’t forage from this spot because it’s too close to a busy road and a residential parking area, and therefore likely to be polluted.
Well, quite a lot as it happens. Good thing too really, or this whole post would have been pointless!
Firstly, there’s one of my favourites:
Crow Garlic. A great addition as a salad leaf and a garlicky flavour for soups and stews.
Then Burdock. The young, first-year leaves can be eaten, but will be quite bitter, the flower stem can be steamed, and the roots have been used for many types of drinks, not to mention all of the traditional medicinal uses.
Cleavers: The young leaves can be used in salads, the dried seed balls can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute, and the juice has been used in traditional medicine.
Common Mallow: The leaves and young shoots can be eaten raw and cooked as greens. The leaves are mucilaginous, which means that they thicken soups and stews nicely, the immature seeds are also edible raw, but so small as to not be worth the effort.
Dandelions are just starting to become prolific again, with those bright yellow flower heads popping up everywhere; Every part of the plant is edible.
Dock is great as a cooked leaf (like spinach) and can be used in pesto, and is high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C). The root is great for teas and medicinal uses.
Speedwells can be used to make a slightly bitter tea, which apparently, has good medicinal properties.
Ground Elder, pick the youngest, freshest shoots and they can be steamed or gently fried.
Stinging Nettles are one of the best natural resources out there; High in nutrients and as many uses as you can think of as a leaf, herb, flavouring, and for cordage.
Purple Dead Nettles are a little hairy compared to stinging nettle leaves, so use them sparingly as whole ingredients.
Spear Thistle roots taste like Jerusalem Artichoke when cooked, apparently, and you can eat the flower stems as a vegetable.
Clover can be used in small amounts to add variety to a wild salad.
Finally, Common Yarrow is edible both raw and cooked, but I just found out that apparently, it can be used in place of hops for flavouring and preservatives in beer! Guess what I’m looking forward to trying…
Some of you already know how I feel about litter in our beautiful countryside, so this litter rant won’t come as too much of a surprise to you. I went out for a quick walk in the Lee Valley Park this lunchtime and the litter was appalling.
It was only a short walk, out and back; So on the way out I saw all the litter and when I turned around I decided I’d do something about it. As I’ve said in the past, the new addition to my kit is a bin bag, so out it came.
Within twenty minutes, my bag was half full. Discarded gloves, cans, bottles, crisp packets, energy bar wrappers, and finally… Bags of dog mess! Really? You can be bothered putting it in a bag, but you can’t be bothered taking it to one of the many bins provided? Also, all of this was collected from within a foot of the path; I didn’t even have to stray very far for any of this.
I spoke to a Lee Valley ranger who happened to be in the car park, and apparently they have considered litter bins; But unfortunately this leads to overflowing bins which they can’t keep up with.
My proposal would be that if everyone who visits collects 2 pieces of litter while they’re there, it’ll soon all be under control. What do you think?
If you read all there is on the internet about Chickweed, you could be forgiven for expecting to trip over the stuff every few minutes. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky, but apart from having a tiny patch pointed out to me in January, I’ve seen none of it.
On my way to Mudchute park today, I spotted it growing in several places by the side of the road. Fairly easy to spot when there actually is some!
Simple, because on the way back from Mudchute park, I found its hiding place:
Halfway up a London Plane tree!
Whilst the London Plane tree is of no use when foraging for food and drink; And as far as I’m aware, not especially useful for bushcraft; given that it accounts for probably half of the large trees in London, I think it’s worth being able to identify, if only for the purpose of elimination. Environmentally speaking, they are very useful as they grow very tall and have a natural ability to absorb pollution from the air (no wonder they’re planted so much in London!)
I was in Island Gardens when I found myself surrounded by them. Apparently Berkeley Square is also a good place to see them.
Luckily, it is one that is pretty easy to identify, even in winter. The bark is the thing that stands out the most, being a sort of urban camouflage. It is a smooth, but flaky bark, with the flaky scales often being coloured mottled green, brown, olive and grey. When the tree gets older, the lower parts of the trunk can appear more fissured/grooved, but the usual pattern will continue higher up.
As well as the bark, the fruit often remain on the tree through to spring, and they are small, spiky balls of 2 to 3 cm diameter.
I’ve been on the lookout for pesky Alexanders for a while now. Mostly because I’ve read about how widespread they are, and about how they came to the UK with the Romans as a food stuff. Anyway, I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought I have them, but then I’m not sure. The difficulty is that they’re not in flower until April, maybe late March, but definitely not in January and February.
So anyway, I was reading about making Gin Alexanders and getting irritated this weekend. After I’d given up I was reviewing my photos from last week, where I’d laid a broken ash twig on some weeds as a contrasting background. Guess what those weeds were? That’s right, and a great big pile of them too; And I’d seen them growing in quite a few different spots in the park.
As if that weren’t frustrating enough; I was chasing our pet rabbits away from the flower bed, as usual, and guess what I spotted growing in the corner behind the Elder tree? Yep, pesky Alexanders again!
It could have been worse, at least I know I can find it now.
Please note: This article was originally posted on www.totallywilduk.co.uk
Identifying trees in Winter is hard. It isn’t too bad in Spring, Summer and Autumn; But during the winter, when there are no leaves, flowers or fruits on show, it’s pretty awful.
The obvious reason is that some have edible parts. The fruit of Sweet Chestnut, Acorns (after processing), and Apples for example. But there’s a secondary reason too. Trees can point toward other edible resources. For example, Cattails (or Greater Reed Mace) grow in water and are available all year round as a food source. Willow and Alder trees also like to grow near water. So, if you can spot weeping willow and/or alder trees in winter, there may be Cattails nearby too.
Honestly, part of me doesn’t really care that much (I know, you’re horrified, right?) But seriously, unless I’m in a survival situation, they’re no use to me in the Winter, and I can always come back later and identify them when it’s easier. That said, maybe you’re out and about and you want to know whether it’s worth coming back in the productive seasons. So, here are a few things that can help.
I have the “British Trees” app from the Woodland Trust, and that’s quite good. I also use the Collins Gem “Trees” book; Mostly because it’s small and easy to carry around. There are many other tree reference books that you could refer to at home when returning with lots of pictures.
That’ll be all the parts you can see, and sometimes, where the tree is. Including: bark, general shape/outline, twigs, leaf buds (which are present throughout Autumn and Winter, not just in Spring), any remaining fruit and/or seeds/cones, any remaining leaves/needles, and any remaining flowers (some catkins remain through the winter). Also, don’t forget to look down; There could be leaf litter and other evidence on the floor around the tree.
Probably the most obvious place to start would be whether it has leaves through the winter or not. If it does, then you have leaf shapes to look at too, such as the needle-like leaves of conifers, or the spiky, shiny leaves of holly for example.
The location of a tree can be helpful in identification. As I mentioned before, certain trees like to be in wet, marshy ground; Or Scots pine, for example tends to be found in poor soil, rocky areas, and generally where other trees don’t like to grow.
The shape of a tree from a distance can also give you a starting point. If your tree is in the middle of a forest, this isn’t so easy, but if you can see the whole thing you may be able to begin with trees that grow tall and thin, or short and wide, warped and twisted, etc.
The bark of a tree is there year-round and can be a key identifier. Birches with their white, peel-able bark, cherries and plums with their shiny, red-ish bark with horizontal lenticels, poplar with their creepy, eye-like markings, and so on.
Twigs can be hairy or hairless, slightly different colours, with or without glands, fine and delicate or more substantial, and the arrangement of buds on the twigs can be useful too.
Contrary to popular belief, the leaf buds on trees are generally there throughout winter and are quite different between tree species. For example, Beech buds are long (up to 2 cm), slender, very pointed, red-ish brown, with obvious scales; Oak are shorter, egg-shaped, orange brown, and form in clusters at the shoot tips.
Some trees have other features which you can look out for too. For example, common alder cones tend to remain on the tree into the next season; Common hawthorn has short, sharp thorns throughout; blackthorn has long, vicious-looking thorns throughout and so on.
I hope you’ve found this helpful. It’s not meant to be a guide to identification, just a few pointers to help you get started. Happy tree hunting!
On one of my now frequent visits to Epping Forest, I had no intentions of foraging, just out for exercise; However, I just happened to come across quite a lot of tree fungus in Epping forest this time. Both easily identifiable, and (at least for me) unidentifiable.
So the first thing I cam across was a dead Birch tree, which had quite a lot of Birch Polypore (Pitptoporus betulinus). Piptoporus comes from the latin meaning ‘pores cast down’ and betulinus from its host tree, the birch.
It’s easy to identify. It’s brown on the top, and white on the bottom. From the name, unlike other mushrooms, it doesn’t have gills on the bottom for spreading its pores, it has lots of tiny holes instead. It’s only found on dead or dying Birch trees, and it erupts directly from the truck in a bracket shape (also a horseshoe shape at one stage in its development).
It turns out that Birch Polypore is an amazing resource when it comes to found food; It is edible, but can be a little bitter, however, it is much more useful as a medicinal item. The Birch Polypore makes an immune tonic which is anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour, anti-parasitic, anti-septic, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, styptic. I’ve written a separate and full article about the health benefits here…
I’ve been keeping an eye out for these for ages now, and not had any luck. They grow on Elder, and my favourite garden plant is our Elder tree. I’ve had plenty of use out of the flowers and berries. Also, on my first guided foraging walk, the instructor showed them and told us all about them. On top of all that, I knew that there were a fair few Elder in and around Epping Forest.
I was actually rushing back to the car, having stayed a little longer than expected, so I apologise for the poor quality of the pictures.
Apparently, the politically correct name for them now is Jelly Ears, but I know them as Jew’s Ears so that’s the name that I’ll be using.
Like the Birch Polypore, this one is quite easy to identify and not easy to confuse with anything else. It has a slightly rubbery, jelly-like texture, and turns in on itself like an ear. It’s a sort of leathery-pink colour (a bit like skin) and as far as I’m aware, it’s mostly found on Elder trees, so that’s a good giveaway.
If you’ve ever eaten Chinese food, there’s a good chance that you’ve eaten these in a meal. They can also be picked, wiped clean and eaten raw. They’re fairly tasteless, and a little chewy, so quite useful as a natural gum to chew on. I’ve done a more in-depth article about them here…
On a huge fallen oak, I saw this rather unattractive fungus.
I’ve marked it as Witches Butter, and I think that’s probably correct, but it could be either Exidia Glandulosa (Black Witches’ Butter, Black Jelly Roll, or Warty Jelly Fungus), or possibly Exidia Nigricans (Witches Butter). Either way they’re pretty disgusting looking. Apparently, they are edible similarly to Jew’s Ears in that they absorb flavours quite well in cooking. It could be a while before I give it a try.
This Jelly brain-like fungus on the same fallen oak, is also pretty nasty looking. I found a reference to a Ascotremella faginea, and that seems to match a lot of the pictures that Google has. There doesn’t seem to be too much information on the internet for it, so I’m going to steer well clear!
I suspect that these bracket fungus on an Oak tree were easier to identify a while ago before they started to break down.
There was a small pile of this in the leaves next to the tree. Probably an old Moon poo (yes, that’s really a thing!), but too far gone now to be sure.
Unfortunately, the picture is a little out of focus, and you can’t see the caps of these. All I can really be sure of is that they are not polypores, because I can see the gills! Looking at the tree bark, it could be some kind of Cherry maybe? A varied, maybe Oak leaf litter around the base. Possibly Oyster mushrooms, if so that would be great, but I can’t be sure from the picture. I may have to go back and have another look, or bring one home with me.
The Judas’ Ear fungus is one that I was on the lookout for, and came across it by accident. It’s quite unique looking and has been used in food and medicine for a very long time.
The common, but now unacceptable name “Jew’s Ear” probably came about as a corruption of the original “Judas’ Ear”; Which in turn, was probably from the belief that Judas hung himself from an Elder tree. Nowadays, it is considered not politically correct, so it is often referred to as Jelly Ear or Wood Ear. Other names it has had include: Ear Fungus, Common Ear Fungus, Chinese Fungus, Pig’s Ear, Black Wood Ear, and Tree Ear.
Judas’ Ear is safe to eat, and has a mild, even bland flavour. It has a soft, jelly-like texture, although older specimens can become quite chewy.
The fruit is used quite widely in Asian cooking, because although it doesn’t have a strong taste, it absorbs other strong flavours quite readily.
In the UK, it is mostly found on Elder trees, but has also been found on Beech, Ash and Spindle Wood. It can grow both singly or in a group and it reacts to the weather; After rain, the fruit swell up and look their most ear-like; After a dry period, the fruit shrivel and are much harder to find.
They can be pink, pale brown, often with a purplish hint when young, turning dark brown or even black when old. They’re between 3 and 8 cm, and ear shaped, sometimes cup shaped in young fruit. Often covered in downy hairs, sometimes the wrinkles resemble veins, making them even more ear-like.
They usually develop new growth in January, so late winter/early spring can be a good time to look for them; Especially after rain, as they tend to fill out a bit when wet.
Judas’ Ear has been recorded as having been used for food from ancient times in China, as well as other parts of Asia, Africa, and Poland. It is often cooked in soups and used dried to thicken stews.
This fungus has a much stronger background of folk medicine than as food. It has been used as a poultice to treat eye infections, and as a palliative to treat sore throats. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it would have been boiled in milk or steeped in beer to produce the throat medicine.
In China it was used as a soup to treat colds and fevers, and more recently, in Ghana as a blood tonic.
Some research has been done into the medicinal attributes of Judas’ Ear, the most noteworthy including: It was investigated for use as an anti-tumour, but the glucans extracted from it were ineffective1. However, a more recent study in the 1980s showed that they were effective2. A polysaccharide extracted from it has been shown to have a hypoglycaemic effect and could be used in treating diabetes. Other chemicals extracted from it have had anticoagulant abilities and have been shown to lower general cholesterol levels, particularly LDL cholesterol3.
As a “trail food”, that is, something you can pick off a tree, clean and eat, it can be quite a good gum substitute, and the anti-cholesterol properties are not to be ignored.
Dried, it can be added to all sorts of stews and sauces to thicken them, as an un-processed alternative to flours, because of it’s absorbent abilities.
My favourite use, second to chewing on them raw, is as an ingredient in Hot and Sour soup. If I ever find enough of them in a place where I’m allowed to collect them, I’ll let you know how it goes…
http://www.wildmushroomsonline.co.uk/Identifying-Edible-Mushrooms-The-Jews-Ear/1.php