Wild Garlic is in Abundance

For three to four weeks in March, nature gives us one of its most amazing edibles, wild garlic otherwise known as ramsons, cowleek, buckrams, broad leafed garlic, wood garlic (our favourite) or bear garlic!

A member of the Allium genus (Allium meaning Garlic in Latin), wild garlic is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amrayllidaceae.

You can find wild garlic in abundance in damp woodland. We have been foraging ours in woods on the banks of Witton Brook that runs adjacent to Marbury Country park. It is happiest in this exact setting and it shows as the banks of the brook are carpeted with plants. Its hard to mis-identify Wild Garlic as it smells of garlic! Just do your own research and be confident, as you would with any foraged edible, that you are totally satisfied what you have found is what you think it is. For this reason we pick individual leaves, never handfuls as there may be other plants growing in between the garlic.

And we are not alone in enjoying this harvest. There are folk tales of brown bears coming out of hibernation and gorging on the bulbs resulting in the name bear garlic. The modern vernacular of cow leek is associated with the fondness that cows have for the plant, resulting in the urban myth of the Devon farmer having to dump his herds milk as it tasted of garlic. So planting wild garlic around pasture land could be the subtlest form of animal activism ever!

Wild Garlic Recipes.

There is nothing difficult in any of these recipes, indeed they are essentially common recipes with the wild garlic added to pimp the colour and taste of the dish (if in fact dish is even applicable, ingredient is more applicable to our first ‘use’)

Wild Garlic Salt

Ingredients

120 grams of wild garlic leaves washed and dried

800 grams of coarse sea salt

BBlend or finely chop the garlic and 100 grams of the salt until it becomes a ‘sludge’. Mix this with the remaining salt until it becomes an even colour. Then spread this mixture as evenly and thinly as space and equipment allow. We dried ours in the oven, not with the oven lit, but space is a bit of an issue on our narrowboat, Oddstruck Belle.

After 24 hours, just check that your new wild garlic salt is dry and then decant into a jar. The salt should keep for 8-12 months.

A note of caution, use only half the amount of your wild garlic salt that you would use of normal salt, ours is very strong, so just play with it as an addition to your cooking as my first attempt at the next recipe was a disaster as it was too salty!

Wild Garlic Hummus

Two tins of Chick Peas (pan heated until soft, keep the water)

2 heaped tbsp of Tahini

100 grams of Wild Garlic leaves washed and dried

1 level tsp Cumin

1 level tsp Wild Garlic Salt (ordinary salt will do)

1 level tsp of Ground Black Pepper

Chick pea water incrementally by the tbsp until your hummus is of the consistency you prefer

Blend everything together in a blender, dish and add a drizzle of sesame oil to serve. It really is that easy to create amazing hummus.

Wild Garlic Pesto for Two

Another favourite and easy recipe is the pesto. This is such a beautiful accompaniment to pasta, but found in your local wood not your local supermarket!

200 grams of Wild Garlic Leaves washed and dried

300 ml Olive Oil

4 heaped tbsp Nooch/nutritional yeast

4 tbsp of toasted walnuts

1 level tsp of Wild Garlic Salt

1 level tsp of ground black pepper

Best to use straight away but will keep in a sterilised jar topped with some Olive Oil for 4-5 days in the fridge.

If you make any of these recipes, please let us know what you think in the comments below

Love Yourselves

Chris, Shell and Luna xxx

Wild Garlic Three Ways