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Three bedroom detached house in 18 acres for sale - North Devon, UK
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Nettles
Find out more about nettles - how to benefit from them and how to get rid of them
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Making Nettle Beer
Find out how to make your nettle beer
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Wild Garlic
Find out about wild garlic
Wild Garlic
foraging | recipes
Wild garlic (allium ursinium) also known as Ramsons, wood garlic, bear’s garlic, and many other names, grows in deciduous woods and forests. The leaves and flowers can be eaten raw or cooked and are particularly good in salads (raw) and soups (lightly cooked).
Wild garlic grows in the early spring, and flowers in the weeks before leaves start to grow on the deciduous trees.
Harvesting Wild Garlic
Wild garlic leaves should be harvested in March to May before the plant flowers. By May and June the leaves start to fade as the energy of the plant goes into growing the flowers (which are also edible). The flowers become more strongly flavoured as the summer passes and the seeds develop.
If you dug up the bulb in the autumn it could be used as you would a clove of common cultivated garlic (though it is not itself split into cloves), but then the plant would then be lost!
Wild garlic grows in moist ground under dappled shade.
Correct Identification of Wild Garlic
Wild garlic looks quite similar to the poisonous lily of the valley - therefore before collecting what you believe to be wild garlic, rub and crush some of the leaves in your hand to ensure that the scent of garlic is released.Medicinal Benefits of Wild Garlic
Wild garlic can reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure, and the juices in its leaves have an antiseptic quality.Cooking with Wild Garlic
As with all foraged greens, the leaves and flowers should be washed well before eating. Wild garlic is particularly delicious when stirred into pasta and rice dishes or omelettes during the last minute or two of cooking, when added to sauces for meat and fish dishes, or cooked into soups. Wild garlic can be used as an alternative to parsley, and also cooked with nettles as an alternative to spinach. It makes an excellent pesto sauce as pictured below.
Cultivating Wild Garlic
It is relatively easy to cultivate wild garlic in the domestic garden as long as you can replicate its favoured growing conditions. Wild garlic does an excellent job of repelling moles. It can be grown from seed, or existing bulbs can be divided in the last weeks of summer just before the plant dies down for the winter. In the right conditions, wild garlic will propagate itself well and can be a bit invasive.
Article Published: 11:40, 19th Nov 2010
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