Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

AKA Wet-the Bed, Piss-a-Bed

Where: Everywhere, especially disturbed soil and waste ground. Throughout the UK.     

What: Leaves, flowers, roots.

When: Anytime, though autumn better for roots, spring for the flowers.

The Dandelion is unmistakeable – the bane of gardeners and colonisers of every corner of every back garden – it grows just about anywhere, and at any time of year (though obviously favouring spring and summer). What we know as a Dandelion is actually over 200 sub-species, but it is not really important that we know the difference between them – by all means go ahead and research if you want to – as they are all edible and all taste the same.

There are 3 crops associated with the Dandelion – the leaves, the flowers, and the large tap root.

The flower, when it appears, is bright golden or orangey yellow and made up of multiple individual petals in a bunch measuring up to 5cm wide and occurring on a single stem. It is possible to find flowers all year round, but they are extremely common in the spring and summer, when they should be picked on a sunny day around midday – they close up at night, even after they have been picked, so use them quickly. That said, the unopened young buds are edible, boiled briefly or pickled in brine. Traditionally, the Dandelion flowers to be used for wine are picked on St George’s Day (23 April), although in reality any time will do. Their flavour is slightly floral and sweet, but also bitter – actually rather pleasant.

The hollow stem upon which the flower sits is a light brownish-green (darker near the top), up to 0.7cm wide and usually up to 20cm tall (though impressively up to 50cm), and exudes a bitter white milky fluid when cut, as do the leaves.

The leaves grow low to the ground in a rosette measuring up to 50cm across, from the centre of which the stem grows. Individually they measure between 10 and 20cm in length (rarely longer) and up tp 5cm in width, and are characterised by their spear shape and sharp-pointed backward facing teeth, hairless surface,  and a well defined central ridge running along the length. The leaves are a fresh, but strong, bitter flavour – not unpleasantly so, but can be overpowering if used on their own – better to add them to other leaves in a salad or blanch them. The older leaves will need to be blanched, steamed or boiled (see below), as they can be tough.

Directly below the stem is the tap root. Though small in smaller plants, it reaches almost carrot-size in the larger well established examples. They are tough to dig out and have a nasty habit of breaking if you pull too hard, but are well worth it. Pale grey/brown in colour, they are long and thin – measuring up to 20cm (perhaps 15cm when ‘topped and tailed’) long and 5cm wide. They have a bitter taste, but also sweet, not unlike the parsnip – scrubbed and prepared, they can also be treated like a parsnip too – roasted or mashed. These are best collected during the end of autumn or into winter, as the tap root is where the nutrients are stored to see the plant through the lean winter period..

The seed of the Dandelion is the well known and perfectly spherical ‘clock’ - white in colour and comprising thousands of dark brown individual seed with fluffy heads.

There is a large amount of “Old Wifery” connected with the Dandelion and its ‘miraculous’ ability to heal. The most commonly cited remedy is that it can cure warts, a ‘cure’ mentioned in several supposedly ‘serious’ books on the subject. Yeah, it cures warts in the same way it can make you fly – it can’t – and anyone who says differently is talking complete rubbish. However, note well, Dandelion is a powerful diuretic – it did not earn its nicknames “Wet-the-Bed” or the more vulgar, “Piss-the-Bed” for nothing. This has a basis in science, as the plant contains large amounts of potassium, but as long as you don’t eat Dandelion and nothing else, you’ll be fine. However, it does contain significant amounts of Vitamins C, A and K, protein, calcium and lots of Iron, so is not only plentiful, but is really good for you… just don’t eat too much!

There are a many different ways in which Dandelion can be used as a food, it really is quite versatile. Obviously the younger leaves are perfect served raw in salad – I personally wouldn’t use them on their own as they are a tad bitter, but add them according to taste instead – as you do with Rocket. The older leaves need wilting in the same way spinach does – rinse, and use the water left on the leaves in the pan. Done this way they are perfect served Greek style (Horta) - with a little olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Lots of people make fritters from the flowers – dipped in batter and shallow fried – but I have to say I’m not a huge fan. A far better use for the flowers is Dandelion wine – a subject I will be covering, in some detail, later in the spring.

The root has traditionally been used to make a caffeine-free coffee substitute, and I have to say the taste is quite similar – bitter and earthy (although, as a coffee addict, I cannot say I prefer it!). Another interesting way of serving the tap root is in the style of parsnip. Choose the largest Dandelions and excavate the root, remove the leaves and rinse the soil off. Scrub the skin and trim, and then place in a roasting tin with a little oil and seasoning and cook until soft and tender. Honestly, they work – they retain some of their bitterness, and are actually quite edible

I’ll post the Dandelion Coffee recipe at a later date, and the Dandelion wine recipe will go up a little before St George’s Day, when the flowers are traditionally picked.

Above is a recipe for Dandelion leaves cooked as greens that I’ve called Dandelion Zing because of the lemon/chilli explosion. 

Some musings

Just spent a bit of time in the back garden preparing the ground for the planting of vegetables - turning over and trimming the overhanging Ivy. Actually, it was still frozen out there so it was quite hard going. Beautiful sunshine though, and surprisingly warm if you actually stand in the rays - bloody freezing if you are in the shade! All the hills around are snow covered, and it is a perfect day for hiking. The patch of ground for planting is not large - 1.5m x 5m -  but will be used thoroughly! If anyone has any recommendations about what to plant, drop us a line.

The previous owners of the house had pretty much removed all the plants/flowers that were here previously, so there was nothing of interest from a foraging perspective other than a single, small and somewhat bedraggled Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) so today's post will be on that most common and quite tasty weed.

The Forager's Guide - Rebooted!

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I last posted!
So much has been going on that the time has just flown by.

We have finally moved from West Yorkshire to the wonderful town of Glossop in Derbyshire, nestled in the Pennines and surrounded by incredible countryside, rolling hills, beautiful valleys, secluded spots, and wonderful forests - a forager's heaven.

In the intervening period I have started up a new venture - Green's Woodcraft. I have always had a love of woodcarving - bowls and especially spoons - and this is the main purpose of the venture, and you can now buy or commission pieces, or simply stop by and chat about woodcarving and associated crafts.

The big news is that The Forager's Guide now has a proper website - www.foragersguide.co.uk. This will be the main hub of the concept behind the Forager's Guide, and will provide a place to stop by and check out wild food, recipes, chat, and share knowledge. At the moment the website is full of Green's Woodcraft stuff and is just a rough outline, Kate is working very hard and rather excellently at building the proper version which should be online very soon. The website, along with the blog, will be the main part of who we are at the Forager's Guide, with the blog posting very regularly (we're aiming for several times a week) about wild food, recipes, and associated stuff that may be of interest... as well as keeping up with what we are doing!

Keep in touch, and expect a new post in the next day or so - the reboot will be a continual barrage of wild food information. Now that we are fast approaching the end of January, things will be picking up in the world of wild food as nature starts to awaken from the Winter. It all starts here folks, so stay tuned.

Tim and Kate

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

AKA: Bread and Cheese, Maythorn, Quickthorn

Where: Hedgerows, especially along woodland. Common throughout UK, except far north. 

What: Berries, flowers, leaves.

When: Leaves: April – July; Flowers: April – June; Berries: July – November, possibly later.

Hawthorns are very commonly encountered as they make up a large proportion of the hedgerows once you get away from the privet wastelands of suburbia. They are easy to spot, either as a hedge or as a freestanding, usually ancient looking, individual tree.

The tree can reach a height of 10m or more, but is more commonly found at 4m or thereabouts in the hedgerow, depending on the maintenance. It has a woody stem, gnarled and twisted, greyish brown in colour with broken skin.

The leaves are fairly thick and tough, appearing in early spring. A glossy dark green in colour (young leaves are a lighter green), deeply lobed into 5 segments some 2-3cm across, and looking a little like a maple leaf. The young leaves are very edible and taste like, well, leaves – slightly bitter, but also slightly sweet – several sources recommend putting them on a sandwich, but they are good on their own or in a salad. Older leaves become a bit chewy and straggly and are perhaps best avoided.

The blossom arrives in late spring (April/early May) and continues until June. Measuring c2-3cm across, it consists of 5 white petals with a pinkish tinge, with a central part of white stamens with a pink end. It is very characteristic and very pretty and is produced in massive amounts, and is also edible! Actually, it’s a very powerful sweet taste, sometimes sickly sweet, and is not to everyone’s liking, but it makes a good syrup, and an interesting addition to spring salads. The unopened flower buds are also edible – get them in spring and eat raw, or in salads (the Hawthorn is often referred to as ‘bread and cheese’ – the bread is the leaves, the cheese is the unopened flower buds)

The most characteristic aspect of the Hawthorn are the haws, the bright red berries that arrive in summer time (July), and can persist until December. The tree is a member of the apple family, and the haws look like shiny red apples in miniature, measuring just 1cm across, and having a single large seed inside, with surprisingly little flesh covering it. Be advised, the Hawthorn is covered in sharp hard spines – the clue is in the name – so be careful when collecting. They can be eaten raw (they are sort of fruity, but plain) but are much better made into a jam or preserve, or better mixed with other fruit and made into a leather. They also make a really good country wine.

Lookalikes: None really, it is fairly easy to spot and there is nothing to confuse it with. 

Hazel (Corylus avellana)

AKA: Cobnuts, Kentish Cobs

Where: Woodland, Hedgerows. Common throughout UK

What: Nuts only

When: August – October

The wonderfully versatile Hazel Nut is a major win for foragers – tasty and useful, and they keep well.

Hazel is a commonly occurring shrub-like small tree, often reaching a height of about 8m but seldom more, and which can be found just about anywhere in the United Kingdom. It has a shiny greyish-brown bark, with horizontal pores and vertical cracks in the older examples. The leaves appear in early spring - hairy buds at first, then small leaves, growing until they reach their mature size in high summer. These measure c.10 x 8cm, and are a rounded or oval shape, broad and coming to a point, hairy and clearly marked with deep straight veins coming from a central rib.

The classic aspect of the tree is the catkin, the cylindrical male flower hanging down in groups. Yellow in colour and made up of tiny sepals, they measure up to 10cm long, and appear in early spring, before the leaves arrive, along with the tiny (0.3cm) red female flowers hidden in buds.

The nut arrives in August, emerging in groups of up to 5, each enclosed in a leafy green ‘cup’, often with reddish highlights. They are rounded or oval in shape with a round rough spot at one end, measure up to 2cm, and are very hard and shiny with striations running down the length of the body – actually very pretty to look at. The immature specimen is a pale green colour, shiny and hard, but these mature into the classic brown nut.

The immature pale nuts are also edible, being vaguely fruity in taste and milky in texture – the advantage here is that animals don’t seem to like them, so they are all yours for the taking. Eat them at once as they don’t keep well in nut form, or process them further, possibly into a pesto, to enable them to last. However, by late September the nuts will be turning that classic Hazel colour – a beautiful deep brown, with a taste to match. Collect them as soon as they are ripe or you will be fighting the whole animal world for them, particularly the squirrels which prize them highly. Sometimes the nuts that the tree produces will be empty, so it is worth opening a few as you go along as a representative sample – if they are empty, move on to the next tree.

They are a very versatile food, very tasty and as they are up to 60% oil, they are a prized foodstuff for animal and forager. If they are left in their shells and stored in a dark dry place, they will keep for up to a year, so used sparingly (or taken in a huge harvest) they will last until next season.

                                                                                       

Hazel Tree 

Hazel Leaf - Close-up

Hazelnuts - Immature

Mature Hazelnuts - This is what you are aiming for!            

Cakes!

Before adding a new post about Bilberries, I thought I’d quickly give a shout to my awesome friend’s blog – Boocakey (both friend and blog are awesome).

Mrs H and myself have been friends for years, and her blog is amazing – she is a cake obsessive (and bakes a mean angel cake) and is now sharing this through the internet now.

Check it out for recipes and tips from all that is hot in the baking world (pun very much intended).

We're back...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately... we have been away - to Devon and Northumberland. Oh and Cheltenham. Little chance to do much foraging. Devon is full of eating apples, but technically, when the tree is in someone's garden, it's less foraging more, well, scrumping! (or, depending on the person, "stealing apples, your honour"). Saw masses of fruit from the car, which leads me on to the next topic. Everything seems to be arriving early this year - Apples, Plums, Bilberries, Blackberries, even Elderberries, are all available NOW! Seriously, now is the best time of the year for fruit - pick enough now and in the following months, save it and store it, and you can last right through 'til spring time.

Go forth and gather people - information on various fruits to follow soon starting with the Bilberry... ahhhh, the Bilberry. This is hands down my favourite fruit, and we shall be picking it by the wheelbarrow load as soon as we can!

See you in a bit.

Tim & Kate