It is the season of wild garlic, what weed did you think I meant? ;). The large dark green leaves are out in abundance right now. There is something about heading out in this early spring time weather, the sky is blue, there is a still a chill in the air, but if you look, slowly, around you when you are out in nature, you can see the stirrings of life.
If you are lucky enough to have some damp woodland near you, you may even have been fortunate enough to see and more than likely smell the wonderful aroma of wild garlic! The aroma of wild garlic will be pretty rife when the flowers begin to show themselves.
There is something so satisfying getting out into the woods and foraging for such amazing goodness. You can imagine our joy whilst out walking the dog to come across a massive woodland covering of wild garlic, I mean massive!!
We pretty much filled our loot bag and headed home with our minds buzzing what we could make first.
In case you hide under a mushroom (not a bad thing metaphorically speaking) garlic has some amazing health benefits.
It improves heart health, it has medicinal compounds that help reduce the cholesterol levels in human blood.
It alleviates intestinal problems. Garlic contains healing compounds that counter harmful bacteria and fungus in the stomach. This action provides relief to patients suffering from intestinal inflammation, constipation, or cramping in women.
It remedies respiratory issues. Wild garlic carries healing properties for common respiratory conditions. It lessens the symptoms of ailments like cold, flu, and bronchitis.
Flushes toxins from the body. Wild garlic is an organic detoxifier that purifies the blood. It also contains compounds that remove toxins from the kidneys, intestines, liver, and gallbladder.
Plus it tastes really good!!
I embraced my creative side and got to work with this plant to produce some awesome yummy-ness.
First one the list was wild garlic sea salt. Each time I walk into my home now, I am welcomed by this wonderful garlic aroma. Well I do have 3 trays of the garlic sea salt drying in my big window! I decided to use the course sea salt as I prefer it to the table fine salt you can get. it is currently still drying, but I will update you on this one when it is ready!
Next to be created was with the help of my children - pesto! A staple, pasta and pesto, except this pesto turned out super zingy and green!! Just full of loads of goodness. I used a large handful of the wild garlic leaves, Parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, oil and lemon and whizzed it all up together.
There is still more...!
In my creating baking station aka my kitchen, I conjured up some scones with guess what.....yes you guessed, wild garlic and some feta cheese. I used a basic scone recipe and just added in some chopped up wild garlic and cubed some feta cheese. They are delicious warm with a spread of butter on them!
We went on a long road trip down to Devon and back in a day to collect my mum as she has just had a heart operation and wanted to take some food with us for the round trip. So what better than a wild garlic and cauliflower soup! Perfect with the scones too! I came across this recipe in a foraging group which I am part off. It tastes so delicious and my body thanked me for fueling it with such goodness.
So that was my cooking and baking frenzy the other day. What next...well I may decide to do some garlic butter, dry some of the leaves to powder them down, garlic oil and maybe even garlic bud pickle!