Nature’s Shopping List

Charlotte shares her experience of Lockdown through cooking and raiding Natures fridge.

Nature’s Shopping List. Image by Charlotte Guest

Spring is the perfect time for foraging, and it is amazing how little we use of what nature provides. We walk past paths lined with edible plants all the time and often they go unnoticed. I have been in isolation with my Mum and we have been incorporating our dog walks with foraging as part of our daily exercise, challenging ourselves to learn more about what we can take and use in cooking at home. With government restrictions upon where we can go during the Covid-19 pandemic, foraging holds more of a crucial place in our society. People are beginning to reconnect with nature, spend time learning about the outdoors and have more time experimenting in the kitchen.

Identification. Image by Charlotte Guest

The recent weeks has meant we have spent more time considering the outdoors as well as what goes on our plate. The spaces around us have become our favourite places to shop, plus there are no queues! Freshness of produce is guaranteed, and we also know exactly where our food has come from. We use our foraging finds in both baking and cooking, with no financial cost to ourselves or the environment – nature has become our shopping list and there is so much on offer!

Ramsons (Allium Urdinum), or better known as wild garlic, can easily be picked out with its bright green leaves and its strong smell. It grows in damp wooded areas in spring and its white star like flowers can grow up to 30cm tall up until early summer. Favourite recipes include pesto’ and sauces, but they can be added to pretty much anything you like. Not only is wild garlic tasty but it also had medicinal benefits; it is good for your digestive system and your heart and circulation, as well as cleansing the body. 3 Cornered leeks (Allium Triquetrum), sometimes referred to as wild onion, are recognised by its triangular stem, hence its name. It can be used in cooking in many ways, much as you would onions, such as bases for curries, added to homemade breads or eaten simply as part of a salad. These two are the most easily identifiable and are common to most areas near to us. It is a good place to start when foraging as they are a versatile ingredient in many recipes.

Preparations Key. Image by Charlotte Guest

My favourite thing I have discovered is dandelion honey. With the flower heads you make it as you would a jam, but it tastes so close to honey! I was so surprised! Other things I have enjoyed making are flowering currant shortbread and cheese and wild garlic scones. I am now venturing into natural dyeing of fabrics, as many items I forage can be used to colour things or create floral patterns. Lockdown is giving me more time to focus on my creative side and is helping me to not feel guilty for experimentation over productiveness. It’s keeping me sane and staving off restlessness.

Dandelion Honey. Image by Charlotte Guest

I do feel lucky that my hometown is Cornwall and that walks can include a variety of places close to home and with plenty of opportunity to forage. Many of the plants seen in our local area are common and abundant, but are frequently seen as just weeds, yet they have a variety of uses both in cooking and medicinally. Small changes like foraging avoids air miles, plastic packaging and it is free! The benefits of eating locally are not only good for the environment but also improves our health and well-being at no extra cost. The process of harvesting ourselves makes us learn more about our natural world and the process is most pleasurable and even therapeutic. During these strange times we are connecting with nature like never before. We are being forced to slow down and consider what is truly important to us, and foraging is one of our family’s way of appreciating what nature offers.

A Foraging Family. Image by Charlotte Guest

Check out more of Charlotte’s foraging adventures on her Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sailandthesea/