Definitley May

 

Oilseed Rape

May seems to have brought us four seasons in as many days, including a traditionally cold, wet Bank Holiday, but things are warming up. Bright blocks of yellow oilseed rape fields colour the horizon, dandelions daisies and buttercups add charm to lawns and meadows.

Buttercups and a Burdock

Hawthorn is in blossom; the hedgerows are full of campions and other wildflowers. This floral profusion brings with it the insects, including everyone’s seasonal favourite, the vivid butterflies. Ransoms and Wild Garlick are still available, adding flavour to your cooking, along with Alexanders and other umbellifers belonging to the Apiaceae family.

Hawthorn Blossom

If you are interested in common umbellifers, beware of the deadly poisonous and terribly common, Hemlock and Hemlock Water-Dropwort – AKA Dead Man's Fingers or Fools Parsley due to the similarity of the leaves. If you are new to foraging, spend time (allow four seasons) identifying the different stalks, leaves and flowers, before eating anything you are unsure about.

Butterfly

We should not be surprised that nature has many toxins, and you should only ever eat things that you are sure about. This is one reason I focused solely on fruit and nuts when initially foraging with my son and daughter, when they were young. They were, however, soon able to spot Elderflowers, from a distance.

Elderflower (background) and Hemlock Water Dropwort (foreground)

Elder is truly the gift that keeps on giving. It is fascinating for many reasons but my main interest in May, is the blousy flowers and sweet citrus aroma. I make Elderflower Champagne every year, while my daughter always make Elderflower cordial. These drinks are simple to make, delightful to drink and last throughout the Summer months as a thirst-quenching sunshine staple. Later in the season I harvest Elderberries and make Port wine, to last throughout the Winter months.

Elderflowers

Time flies when you’re having fun, and it seems unlikely that, in the next month, we will be  celebrating Midsummer, while eating delicious ripe, black Cherries, plucked from trees, but I assure you, we will.

Celebrating Midsummer 2025

Finally, I note that NASA has spent billions and billions of dollars, to send a rocket around the far side of the moon, but it was a bit too dark to see anything. A simpler, more affordable way to be the first human to witness something unique, is to bite into a freshly picked, zesty apple (or even one bought in a supermarket). It constantly surprises me; how few people have not eaten fresh fruit straight off a tree. Go now! Do it yourself, and celebrate the miracle that is nature.

Campions and Ransoms

Purple Reign

Bluebells

March filled our world with vivid shades of green. April now introduces a different colour pallet. Birds are more vocal, singing to attract mates or proclaim territory, and starting to build nests.

Wisteria

This month is more commonly known for enchanting woodland displays of Bluebells, and wisteria wrapped cottages, but you cannot eat these plants.  

Cherry Blossom (White)

April also brings us Apple and Cherry Blossom. If you are familiar with these trees, you can be sure of where the first fruit (Cherries) will turn dark red and ripen in June. Similarly, with Apple blossom, you can easily spot where the trees are, but they might not be ready to pick until later in the year, around September.

Apple Blossom (Pink)

Japan is so famous for its cherry blossom season that it has created a tourist over-population problem. Fortunately (for some perhaps) in the UK, most people don’t even notice it ;-)

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Incidentally, the song, Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White – is quite misleading! Cherry trees with pink blossom are often ornamental hybrids, bred purely for the flowers not the juicy fruit we all desire.

Jack by the Hedge

More significantly, my favourite foraging edibles in April are Wild Garlic, Ransoms and Jack by the Hedge, commonly known as Garlic/Mustard. These tasty plants are often easier to detect by their pungent smell, particularly in woodland settings. The leaves are very simple to collect and make easy additions to cooking. The flowers or buds can be pickled to make tasty capers. You should not dig up the bulbs but leave them for next year.

Rhubarb

Our purple sprouting broccoli is looking and tasting very nice too. Also, I’m now on my fifth Rhubarb crumble! I noted that the stalks in the garden were quite thin this time, so I gave the plot a copious watering. We’ve had three months of rain followed by three months of no rain at all, making gardening more complex. We should be recognising signs of Climate Change, as well as signs of Spring.

Ransoms

Spring Forward

One of Springs unexpected delights is the sight of Catkins, caught in sunlight, hanging in a hedgerow or dappled woodland, like golden rain. Catkins are tree flowers, commonly a Hazel tree, so later, around September there will be Hazel nuts to gather here.

Hazel Catkins 

The 2026 vernal equinox occurs on March 20, marking the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Equinox means equal periods of night-time and daylight; the tilt of the earth also brings us closer to the sun. We get longer hours of warmer sunlight up until the Summer solstice. Nature adapts according to the increase in temperature and the dwindling hours of night.

Plumb Blossom

One of my favourite and most apparent signs of Spring is the sudden blossoming of Plum trees and the related Blackthorn. Plum trees in city gardens and roadsides are suddenly filled with dramatic shows of creamy white flowers. The blossom also has a distinctive smell, which reminds me of marzipan (made from almonds, and also related), you can even taste it in a plum flower. One of my long time hobbies is the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun and this name translates as "Beautiful Springtime" and the plum blossom is a related symbol. The key thing with plum blossom is remembering where it is, plums in many varieties and colours could be there later in the season. Blackthorn, which is more common in countryside hedgerows, will supply us with Sloes later in Autumn, allowing us to prepare everyone's favourite Xmas liquor, Sloe Gin.

Magnolia Blossom

Another tree that flowers in urban gardens at this time of year, is the stunning Magnolia, their big blousy flowers are showy but also eminently edible, giving a distinctive tase of ginger. There are lots of different Magnolia recipes including various teas and biscuits.

Ransoms

Less showy but just as tasty plants that appear in abundance in Spring include Wild Garlic and Ransoms, which you normally smell before you see them, typically covering woodland banks or in damp hedges the leaves and flowers can be used in many cooking applications including salads, pesto or just for added flavour in a meal.

Alexanders

Alexanders are an often missed Spring hedgerow gem. Tasting akin and related to the carrot family, it has edible leaves and flowers. The delicious flowers can be fried in batter, the leaves can be fried in butter with wild garlic, a tasty supplement to any meal. A word of caution, you need to be very careful with plant identification, if you are unsure, don't pick it. Several very common but extremely poisonous plants (Hemlock and water Hemlock Dropwort spring to mind), can look very similar to the untrained eye. I spent a year observing the differences, through the seasons, before venturing into eating these plants.

Beautiful Springtime

Spring Blows Hot and Cold

February was playing games. It was frosty, it was foggy and it has also been unseasonably sunny and warm.

We have been out in hats coats and gloves and we have been out in shorts and t-shirts.

Plum Blossom is filling the hedgerows with a white bloom, Blackthorn and Hawthorn will soon follow. 

Meanwhile Daffodils and Crocus are painting the road sides and gardens. Flashes of colour to fill in between the new growth of trees and bushes.

We have been on some lovely walks, including down Hurst Spit and around the Keyhaven nature reserve. 

When the sun has been hot and the tide good, we have been messing about on the river with boats from St. Deny's Boat Club.

 

March looks set to start with a good old fashioned storm. How it will turn out after that, only time will tell, but I hope the prevailing wind stays Southwesterly.

Ransom Capers

Although we are often looking out for blossom, as a way of identifying useful fruit trees at this time of year, the first thing we pick is Wild Garlic. Last year we were lucky enough to dine in the Riverford Field Kitchen and, amongst the other delights we were served tasty Wild Garlic Capers with our meal. 

Of course, we decided to have a go at making our own. First we picked plenty of fresh seed heads from Ransoms, in a damp valley of the ancient woods, close to where we live. Wild Garlic is the gift that keeps on giving, you can eat the leaves, then the flowers, then the seeds! 

A week or so before, I had a go at pickling Ransom and Wild Garlic flower buds, I had heard about this process before. I ate a fresh one, still in its sheath, after one of the children dared me. It was very tasty, so we will see what they are like pickled, later.

While picking our Ransom flower/seed heads, we also spotted a vast amount of Skunk Cabbage, which is a strange and interesting swamp loving plant. Apparently it was used by native american Indians for various herbal purposes and to eat, when food was scarce, we left it well alone.

To make the ransom capers, is quite a lengthy process. Initially, we separated the seed heads from the main stalks, then, after getting home we removed the individual seeds from the heads, each one packs a zingy garlic punch and that night, I put a handful into a home-made pasta sauce, as surprise taste bombs.

1. The Capers initially need to be sealed into clean jars with plenty of salt layered amongst the seeds.
2. After a period of about three weeks to a month - you can use a sieve to wash the salt away and then gently dry them on a towel.
3. Once dried you can re-bottle the capers, immersed in vinegar, using small sterilised pickling jars. 
4. Now you will need to wait for a further two to three months until they are ready to eat.

Who knows, they may make nice Christmas gifts for the more patient pickler.

Ransoms & Flapjack

The plum and blackthorn flowers are wilting, and being replaced by cherry blossom, cheerful daffodils are giving way to beautiful bluebells. When walking in local woodland, bright green leaves are beginning to fill the hedges and trees, and the dappled shade is punctuated by the pungent aroma of wild garlic and ransoms.

April showers had persuaded us to work on some long overdue decorating jobs. The house was still in chaos so the kids and I decided to take a break from the mess and put some of our stored nuts to use, by revisiting one of our favourite recipes for delicious flapjack. 

We had baskets of hazelnuts and Walnuts left over from last summer and often had cracking/nibbling sessions but this little lot had me sat down with the nut cracker listening to the radio for a quite a while. I find this quite relaxing.

Other than the shelling, the kids did all the baking, and after a couple of hours weighing, mixing and cooking, they had created a superbly scrumptious result.

We have also been experimenting with various Ransom/Wild Garlic recipes. After a quick trip to the local woods, the kids made some delicious Garlic Butter. This is ingenious and can be stored in the fridge, then spread upon toast to create instant Garlic Bread!

We also tried scrambled eggs with shredded Ransoms, this turned out to be a simple but delicious twist on the traditional healthy snack.  We then combined Ransom leaves with further Walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to make a very tasty Ransom Pesto to have with pasta. Our next project will be to pickle some Ransom Capers.

Meanwhile, the children have found an alternative use for our nut stash, hand-feeding an increasingly tame local squirrel!

Everything's Gone Green

Plum

The observant amongst you will have noticed that the countryside and even the city parks and roadsides are changing colour. The Plum blossom is floating like fluffy white clouds along the hedgerows; there's plenty of it and it looks like it will be a very good year for plums. 

Plum

So, if anyone has a good proposition for what we can use the bucket loads of fruit that we will get, come July, we want to hear about it please.

Plum

Blackthorn is also beginning to bloom too and these flowers are similar to the plum, the fruits (Sloes) are also related, although you might not want to eat Sloes straight off the tree! It looks as if it will be a good year for Sloes too, judging by the scale of the current bloom (provided the weather is not too stromy).

Blackthorn

People have often asked me to differentiate these two blossoms and so I am posting lots of images here to help you distinguish one from the other.

Blackthorn

The most obvious thing to spot is that the Blackthorn has large black thorns all along the branches. If at first you do not notice these, you soon will, if you put your hand in amongst the flowers.

Blackthorn

The Blackthorn has smaller, clumped flowers fizzing along the branches; it tends to be a smaller tree, often looking more like a bush. Whereas the Plum will grow into a medium sized tree.

Small Plum Tree

I say Cherry Plum but the blossom will be very similar on trees that will grow Mirrabells, Greengage, Damson, Bullace as well as plain Plums.

Big Plum Tree

Hawthorn is also adding a green tinge to the woodland fringes at the moment. The fruit and leaves of this tree are also largely edible, if you ever feel slightly peckish on a wander.

Hawthorn, just as prickly as Blackthorn

The next thing to keep your eyes peeled for will be Ransoms, Wild Garlic Bluebells & Cherry blossom. Personally, I will be looking forward to the launch of Printemps, the Unity Brewing Co. Spring seasonal beer, created in collaboration with the Urbane Forager Project using locally foraged Stinging Nettle tips.

Nine Stones, Wild Garlic & Ransoms

We took an Easter trip down to Devon . About half way, my son and I stopped to stretch our legs and explore the Nine Stones, a 4000 year old stone circle by the side of the main road. If you can ignore the rumble and roar of the traffic, it can be quite a magical spot.

There are obviously some happy hippies that visit this ancient site because we discovered many small good luck tokens wedged into the various crevices of the rocks, which was a nice surprise. I left the 10 cent coin that I received in my change for ghastly coffee in the nearby Happy Chef restaurant.

Behind the stone circle we discovered a whole hillside of Ransoms, the first edible on the Urbane Forager's seasonal calendar. When it is in flower, you often smell these plants before you can see them. We also noted Raspberry canes growing on the spot but it was way too early for any fruit yet.

Wild Garlic is presumably related to Ransoms in some way and this is popping up all over the countryside at this time of year too. Our children always like to pick a leaf of this abundant forage and chew on it to keep hunger at bay, or so they say. Perhaps we should feed them a bit more often...

This year, we may have had Daffodils in January and Plum blossom in February but the beautiful Bluebells are marking time with their normal April schedule. They are beginning to pop up throughout their habitat and soon the woodlands will be carpeted with their delicate ethereal glow.