For those of you who might be interested in sniffing out some wild garlic yourself, I have a few hints and tips. I have found 3 patches of it in my local area. All 3 are in deciduous woodland, and 2 of the 3 in places where bluebells are also found.
I have noticed that there seem to be 2 different varieties of wild garlic... The one with long thin leaves that I blogged about recently:
And one with much wider leaves, which I think is possibly the more common variety:
Here's Rob collecting from the vast patch of them that we stumbled across on a walk yesterday. From my nibblings, I think that the wider-leaved garlic has a stronger flavour... Rob was certainly complaining about my garlic-breath for hours after I ate a mere half a leaf yesterday!
Both varieties have small white flowers, and the leaves begin to turn yellow and die back soon after the flowers have blossomed. There's quite a short window of opportunity for gathering the leaves to eat.
We filled our sandwich box with them, and I have made another batch of pesto, as well as using them as an ingredient in a soup.
Here is a wider-angle view of the patch, to give you an idea of the kind of woodland in which you need to search:
In my experience you sometimes smell the leaves before you see them. I did notice a few plants growing individually in the woods, but mostly I think the plant seems to grow close together with many others, creating these dense areas of garlicky leaves.
Happy Garlic-Hunting!
2 comments:
great tip off Sherlock. I had no clue where to start looking but no a few places famous for bluebells so I shall head there. yay :o)
The 'Crow garlic' variety runs wild through my entire garden and is impossible to eradicate! I've been trying for 20 years and curse it on an annual basis. Maybe I should invite some cooks to come and fill a bucket?
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