Ramson’s wild Garlic is appearing in many a wooded spot around now. Easy to identify and very tasty this is a great “starter”forage food. But a few words of warning.
- Learn to distinguish young leaves from the young leaves of Wild Arum which often grows near by and when small can be mistaken by the unwary.
- Pesto seems to be the most popular use of wild garlic and while it is easy to make there are some safety considerations.
- Any food stored under oil has a short shelf life of 2 weeks. There should always be a layer of oil covering the pesto and once you start to use remember to top up with with more oil.
- Store your pesto in the Fridge, below 5 degrees centigrade.
- If any of your pesto shows signs of bubbling or pressure building up in the jars disgard the batch. Better to head out to the woods and start again.
- Your pesto (or garlic leaves) will freeze well so you can keep a supply throughout the year.
- So Keep cool, keep safe and happy.
Wild Energy booster.
This is my daily fix of wild power, packed full of nutrients and flavour. Recipe is for 1 large or two medium servings.
- Handfull of fresh garlic leaves.
- Handfull of fresh nettles,
- juice and zest of organic lemon, if you don’t have organic leave out the zest.
- 2 peeled apples or one ripe banana.
- 1 and 1/2 cups filtered water.
Blitz together and enjoy.
Pesto Recipe.
Nettle and Parsley pesto.
Ramsons Garlic and Rocket Pesto.
These are versatile recipes using whatever combination of leaves you like.Oil can be Olive, rapeseed or a combination. Nuts can be Cashew, Walnut , Pinenut or again a combination. Cheese is optional, again I often use Mossfield mature or leave out altogether to suit those with Dairy intolerance. if you have nothing to hand but leaves and oil you can blend together and season later.
2 liter jug of young leaves of choice,
300mls of oil,
seasalt.
juice of 3 lemons,(if organic use zest also)
100grms nuts or seeds.
100grms grated Parmesan or mature cheese (optional)
First snip leaves with scissors, this avoids long strands getting tangled in your blender.
Blend leaves and oil, season, add lemon juice and zest, blend briefly, stir inchopped nuts and cheese if using, pot into small jars and refrigerate or freeze.