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.

Ransom Pesto

My friend Carolin wanted to make Wild Garlic pesto. In my lunch-hour I gathered a healthy handful of fresh Ransoms she did the rest and took the photos...

This is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe but, needless to say, others are available...

 

1. 50g shelled walnuts
2. About 75g wild garlic leaves and stems, washed and roughly chopped
3. 35g parmesan (or other hard, mature cheese), finely grated
4. Finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus a good squeeze of lemon juice
5. 100-150ml extra-virgin olive oil
6. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Put the nuts in an ovenproof dish and toast for five to eight minutes, checking from time to time because they burn easily. Leave to cool.

Put the toasted nuts in a food processor, along with the wild garlic, parmesan and lemon zest. Blitz to a paste, then, with the motor running, slowly add the oil until you have a thick, sloppy purée. Scrape this into a bowl, add a squeeze of lemon and season to taste. This pesto will keep in a jar in the fridge for a few days.

The children found it a tad spicy, apparently, but the adults loved it. So, dish out portions with due consideration.

Beautiful Blubells, Wild Garlic

Bluebells have been springing up everywhere for the last week or two, carpeting sun dappled woodland with their eerie hue.

A Woodland Apple Tree with Bluebells

We have started to notice masses of Wild Garlic and Ransoms in the woods and alongside footpaths (you can often smell Wild Garlic before you see it). When we were in sunny Devon recently, it seemed to be growing everywhere like weeds. Here there is another variant known locally as the Triangular Leek.

Wild Garlic

We found two separate types and they were thoroughly tested by our children. They both agreed that the broad leaved Ransoms did not taste as strong as the more succulent Wild Garlic. Both the leaves and flowers are suitable for using in various recipes, but you should never dig up the bulbs.

Ransoms and Bluebells

I always associate the arrival of Bluebells with  Wild Garlic and Ransoms because they flower at the same time and grow in a similar habitat, it's not unusual to find them side by side.

Bluebells near Segensworth

We have finished putting the final touches to the new Urbane Forager book and will soon have an approximate release date for you. Also, I will probably update this post soon to give a date for the Mansbridge Community Orchard blossom walk. Currently pencilled in for Sunday 10th at 2:00 pm. So, pay attention at the back!

One Swallow Doth Not a Summer Make

Cherry, Apple and Pear Blossom

"I know very little about the distance between stars or about the motives of Pepys, but I can always smell the Summertime at the latest by early Spring."

This evocative little lyric comes form an obscure song that I enjoyed as a teenager. It has always stayed with me and seems to become more pertinent with time.

Cherry Blossom

We are experiencing an unseasonably warm April, not that I'm complaining. The Cherry trees have been springing into flower and the blossom filled branches are stretching skywards. Pruned Cherry trees are normally kept to a few metres height but they can reach far further when left to their own devices.

It Will be Difficult to Pick These Cherries

Cherries are a native tree in the UK but it never ceases to amaze me how many there are in the parks, woodland and hedgerows. We started spotting the florid limbs poking up through the hedges along the motorway recently, not that I advocate advising picking them from the verges of arterial roads. 

Cherry Blossom

Cherries are the first fruits that we pick in the Summer. There are plenty to be found in the city's lovely parks and the pavements of quiet streets. We even pick them from industrial estates at the weekends, when they become peaceful places.

Pear Blossom (I Believe)

The exceptional Spring weather is also bringing Apple and Pear trees into bloom, which makes me think that I should organise a Blossom Walk at the Mansbridge Community Orchard fairly soon.

In other news... We have finished putting the final touches to the new Urbane Forager book and will soon have an approximate release date for you. This blog has received over 100,000 page views and now contains over 250 posts! A Great Big Fat Thank You to all our readers, please tell your friends and help spread the word...

Triangular Leeks or Wild Garlic

We visited Devon for a short break in April and as we walked around the countryside and woodland paths, we could frequently smell the pungent aroma of Wild Garlic.

There are places where whole banks are swathed with Garlic plants, many of them now in flower.

There is a plant in Devon that is related to the Wild Garlic and seen by some as an invasive weed; locals call it the Triangular Leek, it tastes and smells very similar to the garlic.

Our children like to make Garlic bread by finely chopping Wild Garlic leaves, mixing it with butter, then spreading it on toast. It makes for a very tasty substitute; we have also done this with chives that we found growing wild at our Southampton allotment, we toasted the bread on a fire this time.

Elderflowers are now blooming in the hedgerows, heralding the onset of the Summer months. Plums are ripening and I have already seen red cherries in some early trees.

Wild Garlic, Bluebells and Ransoms

We had a lovely break in Devon during school half-term. All the plants and trees seem to be about a month late this year; due to the coldest Spring since before I was born. Now everything seems to be happening very intensely, as if to make up for lost time.

While we were there we saw enough Bluebells, Ransoms and Wild Garlic to last us a lifetime. You can actually smell them, before you see them, as you wander the sun dappled woodland glades.

My daughter came up with the inspired idea of creating home-made garlic bread, which she promptly did with the help of the Head Chef.

Basically it was hot toast spread with, butter mixed with ground ransom leaves. It seemed a suitable celebration of the return of warm weather and tasted quite delicious.

Even the Elderflowers are late this year but I have now finally seen some fully in bloom. So, it looks like it could soon be time to make some delicious drinks to slake our thirsts during summer Pickniks.