5 Fantastic Recipes For Spring

Last year, I unfortunately missed out on an opportunity to contribute a recipe for the Forage London site, hosted and run by the very passionate wild food enthusiast and all round lovely guy, John Renston. John kindly emailed me earlier this year asking would I like to contribute a recipe this time round - absolutely I would! John has put together a super blog this month featuring 5 stunning recipes, by John, fellow foragers, Mark Williams, Peter Studzinski and myself. To view the recipes just click on the link: http://www.foragelondon.co.uk/5-wonderful-wild-spring-recipes/. While there check out the rest of Johns site, some great stuff to peruse.

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Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum).

'What did the Romans ever do for us' is a phrase synonymous with the UK. Many ancient tribes, cultures and societies have landed on these shores and settled here. Some came with peaceful intentions and others not so (the Romans). Contrary to what is/was reported, there are many members of these various tribes still scattered around the UK. Not only did they leave their genetic imprints behind but also many a plant. I'm not going to delve into the 'horrors of histories past' but I am going to delve into one of the plants of histories past.

Smyrnium olusatrum or as it is more commonly known, Alexanders, is a member of the Apiaceae or Carrot family. Native to the Meditteranean region, it was apparently introduced by the Romans (ta da!) and used widely & extensively as a fodder crop, pot herb and vegetable (all parts are edible and tasty), until it fell out of favour and was superseded by celery. Given the Romans occupied much of the UK, both inland and coastal ar…

Juniper - A Day In The Mountains, Months In The Making...

Foraging doesn't get much more hardcore than
climbing halfway up the side of a mountain in early winter in order to obtain your desired pickings and my recent trip to the Lake District saw me doing just that. My quarry, wild Juniper!

My first encounter with wild Juniper was back in 2010, on the very same mountainside I recently visited in the Lake District.
A low level mountain walk, coupled with introducing a friend to the delights of the Cumbrian Fells, resulted in the discovery of a small forest of Juniper trees, a pleasing encounter. I recall picking a small handful of those purple, black, aromatic berries, receiving many a spiked needle in my fingers while doing so, and eventually savouring their culinary attributes, mainly in the form of wild game dishes, hearty stews and the odd pickling experiment. Prior to that visit in 2010, my first encounter with Juniper was via a sketch in Monty Pythons' 'The Life of Brian', those of you who have seen the film will rememb…

Recipe: Potted Pheasant

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat... I'm not having goose for Yule, among various things me and my guests will be eating...
Potted Pheasant

500g Pheasant Meat - Breast & Upper Thigh 150g Streaky Bacon 1 Onion 4 Garlic Cloves 500ml Crab Apple Wine or Medium Cider 500ml Game Stock 50g Wild Duck Fat or Goose Fat 4 Sprigs of Thyme 5 Points of Star Anise 30 Peppeercorns 1/2 Tsp Ground Mace 1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves 4 Bay Leaves Sea Salt
Preheat oven to 120 degrees C. Finely chop the onion, grate the garlic and put into a pan with the wine, stock, sprigs of thyme & two bay leaves. Bring to boil and boil hard for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Remove skin from pheasant and chop meat into very small pieces, do the same with the bacon and combine the two meats together in a bowl. Using a pestle & mortar, grind the star anise & peppercorns. Add the ground mace, clove & 1/2 a tsp of sea salt, mix them together, add to the meats, add the duck fat …

Edible Leeds - Wild Food and Foraging Courses

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