March&April from British Wild Plants Calendar 2017

Blackthorn

Prunus spinosa

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Prunus

habitat: headgerows, open woods, sunny meadow edges

 widespread and common throughout the UK isles

Blackthorn starts blooming in early spring before its leaves come out.  There are other early spring wild flowers like snowdrops, daffodils and so on, but when blackthorn is in full bloom, I feel spring really arrives.

The flowers are tiny (around 2 cm) with white five petals are thickly together on branches.  They tend to grow in colonies, which look white walls or waterfalls(because leaves are not coming yet and flowers cover their trees) alongside meadows or sunny fields.

I'm excited when seeing blackthorn bushes full in bloom and looking forward to the spring coming soon after the wet cold winter.

Sloe (blackthorn's fruits; from calendar 2014)

The fruits are called sloe, well-known as the ingredient for sloe gin, are tiny dark blue (almost black) ball-shaped.  The fruits get ripe towards the end of September until the first frost some time around November (here in the south east Wales we hardly have frost in November, even throughout the winter).  

Bees have started working busy outside.  They must have been waiting for the blackthorn's aromatic flower nectar.  It won't be long!

January&February from British Wild Plants Calendar 2017

Common Hogweed

Heracleum sphondylium

Order: Apiales

Family: Apiaceae

Genus: Heracleum

habitat: in meadows, open woodlands, on roadside verges

distribution: widespread and common throughout the UK isles

Common hogweed is a carrot family, common hogweed is found almost everywhere in the UK.  As the winter here, south east Wales, is mild, delicate buds comes out from the grounds in the late winter such as common hogweed as well as other wild plants.  

Seeds are elliptical and hairless, of which umbels radiate outward from the centre of each stem.  In early summer to summer tiny white flowers in umbels blooms among other carrot family plants.

Giant hogweed is in the same family, but it was introduced as one of the ornamental plants to the UK, and naturalised.  Its appearance is similar to common hogweed, but it is impressively gigantic (2-3 meters) and grows mostly at riversides.

So, this image can be seen in the winter when  we walk in meadows.  The sees pods are almost fallen on the ground but some seeds are still on the umbels.

Today, it was cold but dry and sunny afternoon.  The January blue sky was above the wintry meadow with the mixture of brown of dead plants and green of grass and ever green.



*I had used one vinyl plate for each print before, which means I put a lot of colours on on plate.  For this year's calendar, though, two plates were used for each print.  To be noted; one wild plant print is for 2 month.  I will update the plant story in January (now), March, May, July, September and November.

October Calendar 2016: Sorrel

October: Sorrel or Dock

Meadow

Rumex acetosa
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Rumex

or as dock
Rumex obtusifolius
Order: Caryphyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Rumex

habitat: open grassy space
distribution: widespread throughout the British Isles

I thought it was sorrel when I worked on this print. But it can be dock.  They belong to the same family, which is why they look quite similar.  But the leaves of sorrel are smaller than the ones of dock, and shaped like arrows.  The leaves of this print are bigger and longer and not arrow-like.  I can tell now it is dock, which can be seen everywhere on grasslands, roadside etc.

I was confused to distinguish between sorrel and dock, for it was because the flowers are resemble as they are both of the same polygonaceae family.  Both are edible plants, though, only young leaves can taste.  Nowadays you can even buy sorrel leaves for salad, which are usually mixed together with other salad leaves.

The seeds of both dock and sorrel turn fiery red (soon after brown as they dry) in the autumn.  I found the seeds are also edible and the grounded seeds can be used as flour.  No wonder, dock is a buckwheat family.  But I cannot guarantee how its flour goes well as an ingredient.  Besides you have to harvest a massive amount of seeds.

Dock is known for a herbal remedy, especially to ease the nettle sting.  (See my blog on September 2016 'Nettle')as NHS Choice says on its website.

Dock and sorrel, both grow widely all over the Europe (even they can be seen in Japan).  They grow everywhere, on grassland, roadside, footpath, between the stones of pavement, sometimes through the tarred surface.  Although we see them everywhere, these wild plants are often neglected.  Let us enjoy the autumnal colour, and try the young leaves next spring.

August Calendar 2016: Nettle

August: Nettle

Stingy Herb

Urtica dioica
Order: Rosales
Family: Urticaceae
Genus: Urtica

habitat: sunny to shady spot
distribution: throughout British Isles

Mid summer, mature grasses turn yellow and ochre, which add the autumnal tone in the meadows.

Nettle, well-known as stinging nettle, are flourishing almost everywhere we walk in the meadows, along roadside.  Unless you are careful, the notorious hairs allover the plants sting your bare skin, which causes very unpleasant painful stinging sensation for a while.

I read a fairy-tale about a poor princes and her 11 brother princess as a child.  The brothers were changed into swans by a witch. (It was the story in an Andersen's fairy tale)  When I knew this stingy plant was called nettle, I suddenly remembered this tale.  The princess had to collect with her bear hands and stamp with her bare feet to make vests for her brothers in order to rescue them.  At that time I read it, I couldn't imagine what nettle looked like because I was in Japan as a child, where no nettle grew.  I just imagined how painful and unpleasant her task could have been.

You shouldn't scratch or rub where itches because as the toxic chemicals(histamine and acetylcholine) are injected into the skin through very tiny needle-like tubes and it worsens the symptom.  The NHS Choices describes that in case of being stung by nettle rubbing dock leaves on the rash, which neutralises the chemicals of nettle sting.  But better to avoid touch/brush nettle at all.

So unpopular plant has been widely used for food, medicine, textiles and so forth.  I've never cooked its leaves, but have had a nettle soup as a starter in a restaurant in Swiss Alps.  The creamy soup had lightly sour grassy taste.  I forgot the main and the dessert but can still remember the soup as it was so impressive to me that the nettle, the wild plant, was used for dish in a restaurant.

Young leaves in the spring (to the early summer) are used for food. Now toward the end of the summer, nettle has creamy yellow (some spices have pinkish or light green ones.)flowers, which hang from its leaf axils like a small hairy balls.

Cicely Mary Barker, the illustrator well known for the flower fairies in the early 20th century, hasn't create a nettle fairy.  Sorry for nettle!

July Calendar 2016: Common Mallow

July: Common Mallow

Under the Blue Sky

Malva stkvestrus
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Malva

habitat: sunny open space
distribution: throughout British Isles, common in the south

Its slightly purplish pink flowers are attractive in the midsummer.  
Walking on cliff tops, I often find colonies of common mallow.  They can get full sun but it can be quite windy at the seashores.  They are quite strong against harsh environment (wind, coldness etc.).  And, they are even edible!

Leaves, flowers, seeds and roots are all edible.  Leaves are a bit hairy but you cook or fry them like as spinach. You can toss the young soft leaves onto salad.(You can use them between spring and early summer.)  Petals can be used for garnishing salads to add nice colour, or for making tea.  Another name of mallow is cheese.  It came from the appearance of its fruit, which looks like a cheese wheel. (See the poem by Cicely Mary Barker below) They can be eaten when they are still green. (I never tried them.  So, I'll do later in this summer.)  Root can be cooked like burdock root, which are widely cultivated as a popular vegetable in Japan.  I've never tried mallow root.

My husband created a small patch in our garden, and sowed wild flower seeds this spring.  Now various summer flowers like poppy, borage etc.  Among those some tiny mallow plants are flowering as well. So small and few that we'd rather prefer to enjoy seeing the flowers than forage.

The Song of The Mallow Fairy

I am Mallow; here sit I
Watching all the passers-by.
Though my leaves are torn and tattered,
Dust-besprinkled, mud-bespattered,
See, my seeds are fairy cheeses,
Freshest, finest, fairy cheeses!
These are what an elf will much
For his supper or his lunch.

Fairy housewives, going down
To their busy market-town,
Hear ,e wheedling: "Lady, please,
Pretty lady, buy a cheese!"
And I never find it matters
That I'm nicknamed Rags-and-Tatters,
For they buy my fairy cheeses,
Freshest, finest, fairy cheese!

 Cicely Mary Barker's A Flower Fairy Alphabet(Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002)

June Calendar 2016: Elder

June: Elder

Early Summer's Delight

Sambucus
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Adoxaceae
Genus: Sambucus

habitat: sunny open space
distribution: throughout British Isles

All those chilly spring days held the plant growing, but eventually, the leaves and flowers burst with colours. 

While the waterfall-like of Hawthorn's white flowers is now receding, the elder's white flowers are taking over.

Elder likes a lot of sun light, at hedgerows, around and in meadows, parks and gardens.  The flower head is a cluster of tiny flowers, and has pleasantly sweet scent.  The leaves of five leaflets are pinnate and toothed, similar to ash leaves.

My teenage son has been keeping an eye on the elder bushes.  I've been also looking for the white flowers on the trees.  Surprisingly they are seen almost everywhere, on roadsides, wastelands, in parks, someone's gardens, except for our gardens (sadly).

Anyway he's looking forward to make his own elder flower cordial this season of every year because the cordial is his favourite summer drink. (Of course, he kindly offers us to share his cordial.) 

Yesterday we went for a walk in a warm breezy evening.  Some clusters of white flower already started blooming in the bush.  He sniffed at the flower, and said 'It smells sweet, but not fully enough.  We should wait for a little while until they bloom more.'  Yes, the natural perfume of the flower is the key to the cordial.

When the flower reaches full in bloom, he and I go to collect the creamy white fragrant flower heads.  (You can look at the previous dairy about elder flower cordial.)  In the end of foraging, we are powdered with the cream yellow pollen. But it's fine because it makes the cordial champagne gold, which is nice when we pour the sparkling water onto the syrup in a clear glass.  It looks just like a glass of champagne, really a refreshing summer drink.

Today's Guardian's weekend magazine has Yotam Ottolenghi's elderflower's dessert of tempura (fritter) and ice cream.  Ice cream with elderflower fragrant (sirup is used) sounds very tempting.

The Song of The Elder Fairy

When the days have grown in length,

When the sun has greater power,

Shining in his noonday strength;

When the Elder Tree's in flower,

When each shady kind of place

By the stream and up the lane,

Shows its mass of creamy lace -

Summer's really come again!

 Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Trees(Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002)

January 2016 Calendar: Bracken

January: Bracken

White Grey Beauty

Pteridium aquilinium
Order: Dennstaedtiales
Family: Dennstaedtiaceae
Genus: Pteridium

habitat: open areas
distribution: throughout British Isles

After the festive Christmas, the new year came into my life just like the previous year.  

January is usually wet and damp followed by December, but this winter has been especially much more rain.  Lets hope less rain as the sun light is getting slightly longer and brighter day by day.

On a cloudy rather chilly afternoon in January last year, we went for a walk to our favourite woodland.

A bunch of bracken created a beautifully misty coloured sight at the fringe of a woodland.  The chilly air made the shiny green leaves gradually discoloured, misty white grey with a tough of yellow-ochre.  These white grey leaves were contrast to the bright green grass. (Here in south Wales, grass keeps green throughout the year.)

It was simply beautiful.  Just like very delicate shells, the dried-up last-year's green leaves were hanging down from the brown stems.  The each one of the mini Christmas-tree-like small leaves were stretched out left and right, up and down. 

Bracken is in the class of Pteridopsida.  Many of the class grow in shady places, but bracken grows in the sunny open places, like around woodlands, at hedgerows, on grasslands, or in heathlands.

In the spring, usually late April, the light olive green fat bracken sprouts appear from the ground.  They look like asparagus sprouts here and there.  And they are edible as well.  Pick the thick sprout 15-30cm from the head.  When the leaves start spreading, leave them not to eat because they are already hard and stringy.

They have to be carefully processed before eating as they are toxic if eaten raw.  Usually I use a Japanese method to detox; place the sprouts in a big pot with a lid, and add bicarbonate soda, then pour the boiling water to cover the sprout thoroughly, leave them overnight.  Next day the water is changed a couple of times until the colour becomes clear from red brown.  The spouts can be eaten so with favourite sauce like hollandaise sause, or cooked like asparagus.  But don't eat them too much for the next year's growth and for your stomach!

'Garden Foraging' Back to the Nature: From a talk event of the Book Festival

'Garden Foraging', it was very tempting to me.  It was the title of today's talk event of the Book Festival of our town.

The guest speakers were the author of 'The Garden Forager', Adele Nozedar, and a local artist and illustrator, Diana Mead.

I have one of Nozedar's book, 'The Hedgerow Handbook', which is one of my favourite plant books, from which I have often cited in this blog.  I was looking forward to this event.

Yes, as expected, I (I suppose, everyone at the event as well) enjoyed it very much.

They brought an apple and a few branches of Himalayan honeysuckle from Diana Mead's garden.  Nozedar said that about 90% of garden plants on the market (of the UK) were edible, even though it says 'not edible' (because of the marketing of traders).

Thinking about plants generally, it's difficult to distinguish between wild an cultivated ones.  cultivated plants nowadays were, of course, cultivated from wild species.  And vice versa, like Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed, both of which are edible and tasteful, they are categorised under unpleasant name, 'invasive plants'.

One of the audience questioned about the bitter taste of many of wild plants.  Nozedar said the bitterness of those wild plants have been eliminated through cultivation to suite our (consumers') favour, but the component of the bitter taste has good effect on immune system and so on.  We tend to prefer perfectly proportional spotless but less tasted fruits and vegetables from supermarkets.

She also told (in response to another question) that children in the two generation before (which means, grandparents as children) consumes much less sugar than children today.

I recall articles, many years ago, somewhere in a Japanese newspaper, that someone tried making dishes what the Tea Ceremony master or guru in the 16th century, Sen no Rikyu in those days.  Unsurprisingly the tasters felt the dishes tasteless, which was meant to be little salted and spiced.  

Our sense of taste (generally including other senses, actually) has been gradually weakened over the centuries.  

Why not use those plants as healthy diet source and get our ancient sense back?

This is Himalayan honeysuckle in our garden.  To be honest, I didn't know its name.  Nozedar said it tasted like bitter sweet chocolate.  After back home, I picked one of the berries and tasted it.  Indeed!  (An audience asked her if the leaves were also edible, and she immediately put a leave in her mouth!  So, recommended young leaves rather than old autumnal leaves.)

And, fuchsia in our garden as well.  The flower are also edible despite the vivid neon colour.

In the end, I bought another foraging book of Nozedar, 'The Garden Forager'.

Calendar September 2015: Bramble

September: Bramble (Blackberry)

Tempting behind the prickly leaves

(Rubus fruticosus, Order: Rosales, Family: Rosaceae, Genus: Rubus )

Bramble is, according to Adele Nozendar (The Hedgerow Handbook, Square Peg, 2012), originated from the Germanic word 'brom', which means 'thorny shrub'.  I know that blackberries are called 'Brombeeren' in German.  Bramble is also called blackberry, which is named after the glossy deep purple black berry.

The berries start ripening at the beginning August, at first light green, then gradually red, and dark wine red, eventually turn deep purple black.  We can enjoy the decent harvest still in September, possibly in October.  I think blackberries are one of the most common wild food for free here in the south Wales.  

The fruit is actually not 'berry', a cluster of drupelets.  A single drupe, stone fruit, has a seed in the middle of the fruit such as peach.  An individual blackberry's drupelet has also a tiny but stubborn seed.  The seeds are resistant about the acid in stomach.  It means that seeds survive through the animal's digestion and are transported to other places.  Bramble is also regarded as ancient species.  'The pips were found in the stomach contents of a Neolithic man'!  (The Woodland Trust website)  These strong species survived through many years, even thousands years.

That's why we can find the brambles everywhere, in meadows, hedgerows, wastelands, woodlands.  They are so hardy, or rather invasive that they come into your gardens.  While the prickle tangled stems and leaves keep away from us, human and many animals, they give some other animals benefit to be protected.  Small birds like wren and robin and mammals can nest within the bush, keep away from their predators. (The RSPB website)  

After the sunny warm days, we stroll into the meadows with a big container, where the berries grows undisturbed.  The ripe blackberries on the sunny spot are really sweet.  You have to be careful with the hooked prickles on the stems.  Once you are trapped in the tangled stems, you must struggle to get out!  A proper clothes (a sturdy long sleeved shirt, a pair of sturdy long trousers and a pair of sturdy outdoor shoes with thick soles) are highly recommended.  Even with armed outfit, we usually get scratches on our hands.  Alas, we cannot wear gloves as we cannot pick the soft berries only with bear fingers..

We collect the ripe fruits as far as we can, but most of the best juicy soft sweet berries on the top of the prickly piles, from which prickles prevent mammals including human, are left for birds.  They can enjoy the feast until the end of September, or even later.

My husband makes blackberry jam every year.  He sieve the berries to remove the seeds to make smooth texture.  Last year, I have tried to make blackberry cordial, inspired by making elder berry cordial.  But I didn't know that blackberries have high level of pectin, like apples, which caused 'clotted blackberry cordial'.  Luckily my children liked the cordial and all the bottle were consumed.  (However, I won't make one any more!)

Blackberry and apple crumble is on our autumnal pudding list.  They both get on well with crumble.  I usually use muesli and chopped nuts such as almond or hazel nuts for crumble dough, which makes crunchy texture.  It's our favourite autumnal desert, which can be made quickly.

September begins with, often, rain.  Today, September the 1st, was between sunny and cloudy, and there was a sudden shower in the afternoon.  But fingers crossed, hoping a dry warm autumn so that we can enjoy the sweet aromatic blackberries.

Calendar August 2015: Red Clover

August: Red Clover

Scented pretty flower in the midsummer meadows

(Trifolium pratense, Order: Fabales, Family: Fabaceae, Genus: Trifolium )

In the middle of August the meadows in the midsummer has still colourful wild flowers but there is a subtle autumnal feeling.  The colour is turning a little bit hazy as the grasses are turning yellow. The seeds of the carrot family such as hemlock, wild carrot, wild parsnip etc. are becoming brown or yellow.

Among the other wild plants, red clover is flowering here and there in the meadows to attract its benefactor like bees, butterflies and other insects throughout the summer.

Red clover has been so common as well as white clover that almost everyone knows this pretty flower, but we (at least I) know very little about it.

The flowerhead is consisted with a lot of slightly purplish pink flowers although it is called 'red' clover.  Individual flower is a small version of pea's one.

The leaves are trifoliate and oval, and each leaf has a white crescent-shaped mark.  White clover has also trifoliate leaves with white crescent-shaped mark, but the leaves are round.

Red clover, like other pea family, is nitrogen fixing and used as green manure crop for enriching the soil  in the cultivated lands.  

These features are well-known, but I didn't know their flowers and leaves are both edible. (Cultivated sweet pea's flower is poisonous.)  Though, they are the favourite forage for the cattle.  Why not human can eat them?

According to 'The Hedgerow Handbook' (by Adele Nozendar, Square Peg, 2012), flower heads can be used in salads.  It sounds normal, like using other edible flowers for salads.  But I cannot imagine how it looks and tastes when the flower (divided into individual flower with a little sugar and salt) is put into a cooked rice.  I took a flowerhead of red clover in one warm evening in a meadow, and suck its nectar.  The subtle sweet taste and aroma came into my mouth.  So, the flower rice probably has a delicate pleasant fragrance.  It gets on with grilled meat, I imagine.

Leaves can be cooked with  garlic and onion.  Pea shoots has become popular.  I imagine clover leaves might taste like the pea shoots.

Also there are recipes in the book, 'Red Clover Lemonade' and 'Redo Clover Almond Biscuits'.  Both recipes use generous amount of flowers.  But you can easily collect them for free from the meadows.  (I attach the two recipes at the end of this blog.)

An interesting finding of this section in this book is about a two-leafed clover.  Well, it doesn't have to be red clover, but also white clover.  Adele Nozendar cited from an old tradition. that a two-leafed clover is connected with marriage when an unmarried girl find a two-leafed red clover.  Take it home and after that when she see a man, she will marry the man.  How romantic it would be!

(Added on 23. 8.2015)

I found a poet of the red clover fairy on Cecily Mary Barker's The Complete Book of The Flower Fairies (Edition 2002, Warne).

The Song of The Red Clover Fairy

The Fairy:

O, what a great big bee

Has come to find my honey.

He's come to find my honey.

O, what a great big bee!

The Bee:

O, what a great big Clover!

I'll search it well, all over,

And gather all its honey.

O, what a great big Clover!

A red curly haired little girl with hazy pink dress and scarf on a leaf is looking curiously at a bumblebee collecting the nectar (Barker used 'honey', but technically nectar is right.  Honey is the processed product of nectar by honeybees) of red clover.  

***** Recipes from Adele Nozendar's 'The Hedgerow Handbook' *****

Red Clover Lemonade:

Makes approx. 1 litre

750g fresh red clover, plus extra to garnish

500ml water

500g honey (or sugar)

Juice of 2 lemons

1. Simmer the clover blossoms in the water, in a covered pan, for to 10 minutes. No need to boil.  Then add the honey or sugar and stir until it's dissolved.

2. Cover and let the mixture steep and cool for several hours or overnight.  Steeping makes the infusion strong, increasing the potency of the calcium and other nutrients in the clover.

3.  Add the lemon juice and chill in the fridge.

4. Strain, then serve poured into tall glasses over ice, garnished with a chunk of lemon and a couple of clover flowers.

Red Clover Almond Biscuits

Makes Approx. 25 biscuits

380g wholemeal flour

3tsp baking powder

100g almonds

100g butter

2 eggs

120ml buttermilk

1/4tsp almond extract

287g red clover flowers, plucked out of the flower head

1. Preheat oven to 230 C/gas mark 8.

2. Whizz the flour, baking powder and almonds in a food processor until everything is finely chopped.

3. Add the butter and pulse until you have a crumbly texture.

4.  Add the eggs, buttermilk, almond extract and the red clover flowers.

5. Whizz once more until you have a lump of dough.

6. Roll out the dough (no too thin) on a lightly floured work surface.

7. Cut into 5cm squares. Transfer to an ungreased baking tray and bake for 10-15minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.

Making Berry sirup, or Jelly?!

We were too late.

Birds enjoyed most of the juicy elder berries, while we were doing other than picking the berries up.  But we could still collect a handful berries for the sirup.

Our children love cordials.  My youngest son made aromatic elderflower sirup this early summer.  I made brilliant red strawberry sirup from the excessive not very nice looking strawberries from our garden.  These sirups are nice on warm days in the summer.

Elderberry sirup is nice on cold days in the winter with hot water (though my children drink cold.)

The berries were carefully removed from stems.  This picture below is the berries cooked with water, sugar and citric acid in a deep pan.  Then the berries were strained through a sieve.  The juice was put back into the pan, added more water and sugar, and cooked thoroughly.

This time we produced only a few jars of elderberries......

An idea came in my mind.  Brambles!  It shouldn't be too late.  I took my youngest son to the place where we usually collect the black berries.  There we found plenty of them.  The shiny fat black berries were still waiting for us to be harvested.

My bowl was soon full.

We had around 2 kg berries all together.  Didn't have a recipe for bramble berry sirup, I simply followed the elderberry sirup.  I though it worked quite the same.

Here!  I made 4 bottles and 3 jars of bramble berry cordial!  Hurray!  So did I think, so far in the evening....

Next morning I saw the liquid in the bottles and jars, which should remain liquid, turned into jelly!  I tried to think why the cordial transformed to jelly.  Maybe because I cooked the liquid too long.  I didn't know that bramble berries contained much more pectin than elderberries.  Shocked but we didn't waste the effort and the sirup.  Children scooped the first clod.  Then my eldest son shook the bottle many times.  Eventually the jelly turned back to thick liquid.  I poured a little bit of sirup in a glass and filled with sparkling water, tasted the bramble berry cordial.  Umm,  it was not so bad!