A Walk Around Britain

Coltsfoot flowers have been out for a couple of weeks. They grow beside pathways, woodland edges and rough ground.

Nicknamed ‘Son of the Father’ because the flowers appear before the leaves, it is the classic remedy for coughs and chest complaints. The traditional sweet ‘cough candy’ was made of Coltsfoot.

The Gypsies say that wherever Coltsfoot grows, coal will be found below. Keep it quiet though, or they’ll start mining.

We will follow this plant and discuss its many uses as the flowers disappear and the leaves shaped like a ‘colt’s feet’ pop their heads above ground.

Cleavers starts growing again in February.  Children (and some adults) stick it to each others clothes and hair.

Growing in abundance throughout Britain, it is one of the finest medicinal herbs and not bad in the pot.

We use the whole green plant above ground (before seeding) in stews. Chop it up to avoid stringyness and don’t carry it for more than a day as it wilts very quickly and loses it’s vibrancy.

It isn’t the most tasty of pot herbs, but is one of the healthiest. Mix it with some stock or wild garlic (ramsons) to give it some flavour. Cook for about 5-8 minutes. Don’t eat raw, it gets stuck in the throat.

Try experimenting with frying it in butter, adding some water at the end just to soften it up.

As medicine, Cleavers is a purifying tonic, cleansing the blood, the lymphatic system and our internal workings generally. Make a healthful tea with a small handful of fresh herb and boiling water, leave to steep for 10-15 mins then drain and drink.

More specific effects are the reduction of swollen glands, ulcers and tumours.

If you crush the plant into a pulp (or chew it)  you can apply the juice to blisters, cold sores, burns and to wounds to stop the bleeding.

The tea makes a good skin wash.

Avoid taking this plant internally if you are diabetic.

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Sorrel grows in fields and hedgerows and is just beginning to push up it’s new leaves

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This is a good raw trailside snack, with a  slightly citrus twang.  Add it to salads and stews for flavour.

It was a favourite vegetable of the Tudor period and appeared regularly at the table of Henry VIII.

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It contains oxalic acid so don’t eat huge amounts of it, though a good handful in your salad is absolutely fine.  Sorrel enlivens the tasetebuds and and gets your digestive juices flowing.

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Sorrel grows in fields (as above) and on hedgerow banks and field margins.

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The first wild garlic we have found this year.

Growing in woodland and shady damp places we use ramsons for putting raw into sandwiches, eating on its own or for adding flavour to pot.

Garlic is good for immunity, and helps lower your blood pressure. When eaten by itself it can be fairly strong, so have a bottle of water handy.

If you have any trouble identifying it just pick some and give it a smell…

Spending the night in the garlic can make you keep the smell for days.

The flowers taste good too.

We eat a lot of this plant. It is both common and tasty. It makes a great salad, eaten raw, and is good lightly steamed and added to the stew pot. Cook the whole upper of the plant. The Mouse-ear (hairier leaves) variety cannot be eaten raw.

For medicine this herb is cooling for the skin. Wrap some in a cloth, dip it in warm water and apply to skin abrasions, boils, blisters and bruises.

A lipbalm is made by adding tallow (animal fat) and applying to chapped lips and weather beaten skin.
Chickweed is a mild laxative (so don’t eat huge amounts, though even a whole chickweed salad doesn’t have any disastrous outcome) so a strong tea can be made for constipation.

It is said that when the Chickweed flowers are open, there will be no rain.

Walking through the woods the other day we spied some newly emerging dock leaves pushing their way through the forest floor.

Dock leaves are full of tannin and when eaten are very bitter and no good for you. To make the mature leaves more palatable they need to be boiled in several changes of water to rid them of tannin.

Ed tried the new dock leaves raw and found them fairly tasty. The bitterness was not there. From this we make the assumption that the new small leaves, especially when they’ve been covered by forest leaves, are good to nibble on, and good for the pot.

The hips of the Dog Rose briar are the finest source if vitamin C in the wild. We have found them still tasty on the bush in February.

As a trail snack pick the soft (not really squishy) ones, squeeze the hip between your fingers.

A toothpaste-like eruption of lava red sweetness bursts forth, you eat and it is good.
Some are slightly alcoholic by the end of the winter, we like this too.

In November/December we pick the harder hips, dry them whole to make a winter tea. Crush the dried hips slightly and steep in boiling water for 15 minutes, strain through a clean cotton cloth and drink.

Rose hips are associated with the planet and god Jupiter, the principle of expansion and growth, helping us keep springlike during the winter months.

There is nothing better than rose hips in winter for defending against infection, preventing colds and helping with exhaustion.