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By Fergus Drennan FergusTheForager.co.uk IN SEASON LEAVES Photo - Fergus Drennan - Fergus Photo THEBUSHCRAFTJOURNAL.COM | 65 LEAVES he way my mind works, or doesn’t— engagement with nature, with wild foods, with depending on your point of view—means leaves, is to eat them and thereby transform them that once I start to think about a topic, my into living breathing tissue, into bone, blood, initial thoughts are almost immediately muscle, and brain, and, by extension, birth them catalysedT by a cascading awareness of radical anew into the very thoughts and dreams that connection, of the mutual dependence and animate the wild human life, my life. As I type, the inter-relation of all things. Perhaps this is a state of whole deer skin is boiling on an open re on its way mind inherent not just to long-term foragers, but to to becoming glue, the meat is in the freezer, the all those directly and deeply engaged with the sinews are drying for cordage, a bone broth is natural world, and one that is experience regularly brewing on the aga, the head has found a new or as a perpetual state? So as I sit here reecting on body—a wood ants nest—as I experiment (feeding the current topic at hand; leaves and the multiplicity badgers permitting) to see how long the ants take to of ways they can be creatively used in the human clean it down to bare bone, the intestines are diet, my thoughts turn to the whole plant-grown washed and salted (for sausage making), a jar of carcass of the very recently deceased deer I’m pure deer oil to the left of my keyboard slowly sets currently working with, because one such deep as fat turning from a clear golden amber to a creamy o-white solid (for cooking and soap making), and nally, the cleaned out stomach is in a tanning solution—its partially digested leafy contents spread out to dry on newspaper in the conservatory (for paper making). Where does leaf end and deer begin or deer begin and leaf end? Photos - Fergus Drennan - Fergus Photos Could you stomach this? It is known that many hunter- gatherers, including the Inuit and Cree ate the stomach contents of animals such as deer because it provided useful amounts of vitamin C and other nutrients. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rethinking-the-paleo-diet-would- you-eat-the-contents-of-a-deers-stomach-180947685/?no-ist 66 | THEBUSHCRAFTJOURNAL.COM A pungent sea of wild garlic leaves THE WILD LEAVES OF APRIL AND MAY Photo - Fergus Drennan - Fergus Photo Adria Bellower, alexanders, annual sea blite, bilberry, birch, bistort, black mustard, black nightshade, bramble, bristly ox-tongue, broad-leaved dock, buckshorn plantain, burdock, charlock, chickweed, common mallow, cow parsley/wild chervil, crow garlic, daisy (common), dandelion, dittander, Douglas r, duke of Argyll's tea plant/goji, elder, fat hen, fennel, eld madder, garlic mustard, gingko, golden samphire, ground elder, greater/common plantain, ground ivy, hairy bittercress, hawkweed ox-tongue, hawthorn, hedge bedstraw, hedge mustard, hogweed, honesty, horseradish, Hottentot g, Indian balsam, ivy-leaved toadax, Japanese knotweed, juniper, lady's smock, lesser celandine, lime, marsh samphire, marsh thistle, mugwort, nipplewort, oak, opposite-leaved golden saxifrage, orpine, ox-eye daisy, pelitory-of-the-wall, perennial wall-rocket, pennywort, pignut, pineappleweed, pink sorrel, poppy, purple deadnettle, rape, reedmace, ref¬lexed stone crop, rock samphire, rosey garlic, salad burnett, scented mayweed, Scot's pine, scurvey grass, sea arrowgrass, sea aster, sea beet, sea buckthorn, sea campion, sea kale, sea plantain, sea purslane, sea radish, sea sandwort, sorrel, sow thistle, spear mint, spring beauty, spruce, sweet cicely, swinecress, tansy, three cornered garlic, watercress, water Celery/ Fool's watercress, water mint, water-pepper, western hemlock, white deadnettle, white mustard, wild cabbage, wild carrot, wild celery, wild garlic, wild pea, wild thyme, willow, wintercress, wood sorrel, yarrow, woodru. Given the diverse range of their possible use, the topic Above is just a selection of the more obvious wild, or of ‘leaves’ really is a vast and potentially overwhelm- at least foragable leaves available in April and May, ing one, so to make it more manageable I’ll provide a and how we use them in the diet will depend on the brief overview of leaf-utilizing ideas and then narrow variables of diering size, shape, texture, avour, down to focus on two less well known ways to bring aromatics, stage of growth, abundance, and whether wild leaves into the diet; through making oxidized or not they can be eaten raw or are best cooked such leaf teas/tisanes, and by candying them, although not as is the case with lesser celandine. I’ve categorized just in sugar but more playfully and creatively, in a them here according to their dierent uses, but do syrup made either from the same leaves or another bear in mind that such categorization is really just a part of the plant from which they came, for example; general aid to structure thought, because of course oak leaves candied in acorn syrup. In focussing in on many leaves will defy categorisation or, at least, can those two leaf uses, as well as providing an overview cast their range of potential use across many of my of more traditional usage, I hope this article will arbitrary categorisations. For example; the leaves of appeal to a diverse range of interests, in particular, Ramsons Allium ursinum can be used as a salad leaf, in partners and children as they begin to explore the salad dressings, as a side vegetable, for soups, and in wild food side of bushcraft. sauces such as pesto, for protein extraction to make a pungent curd, for pickling and lactofermenting, for avouring cheese and butter, and for pureeing and adding to fresh pasta dough, among many other uses. THEBUSHCRAFTJOURNAL.COM | 67 A mixed wild leaf salad. SALAD LEAVES One of the simplest ways to use spring leaves, and make a large salad from 50+ dierent leaves. That one that involves a minimum of processing, is to add can be fun to do but can also result in a somewhat them to salads, either extending a salad made from riotous conict of avours. So at times it can be leaves you have bought or grown or a completely good to just use 2-3 ingredients, for instance by wild one. Sometimes while out walking in the balancing mild tasting and pungent leaves, with spring, by the time I arrive home I’ve grazed on so delicate and succulent leaves, an example would be many fresh leaves that I’ve eaten the equivalent of a chickweed or lime leaves (delicate and mild tasting), Drennan - Fergus Photo large salad, and on the move is a good way to eat pennywort (mild and succulent), and dittander such leaves. But, if you do gather some to take (wasabi pungent). It is not to everybody’s liking, but home, an awareness of the diering qualities of the remember too that wild owers are a wonderful leaves can help you blend and balance dierent addition to salads in terms of both avour and textures and avours. For instance, sometimes I appearance. Here are a few examples of how you might Mild tasting: chickweed, hawthorn, lime, bristly-ox categorise salad leaves according to their tongue, spring beauty, willow, bellower, birch, dierent qualities. Note: I’ve not included ‘tender’ nipplewort, ox-eye daisy, beech, reedmace heart as a category, as I’m assuming a certain amount of leaves. discrimination when you are harvesting. In early spring most of these leaves will be tender although, Mid-range: Garlic mustard, charlock, wintercress, especially in the case of edible tree leaves, the hairybittercress, hedge mustard, cow parsley window of opportunity to harvest tender leaves is quite short – sometimes only a week or two at the Strongly avoured: Ramsons, dittander, water most (birch, white willow, beech). Remaining tender pepper, black mustard, ladies smock, ground ivy, up to a month after coming into leaf: hawthorn, and watermint, watercress. a bit longer: lime. Succulent: Pennywort, sea purslane, orpine. 68 | THEBUSHCRAFTJOURNAL.COM MICRO AND SPROUTED LEAVES Charlock seed: easy to harvest in large quantities and sprouts very easily. Another way to incorporate very young and tender Nettle, love-in-the-mist, dandelion, sea campion, leaves into a salad is to harvest and sprout your own pink campion, shephard’s purse, penny cress, seeds. The main considerations are to do with ease alexanders, goosegrass, common dock, greater of seed harvesting and how readily they germinate. plantain, corn poppy, garlic mustard, redshank, The seeds I most frequently sprout are those of burdock, chickweed. charlock and wild garlic, but I’ve also had success sprouting the following seeds to use in salads: Drennan - Fergus Photo SALAD DRESSINGS Finely chopped and avoursome leaves such as wild Of course, salads can be made warm or cold and garlic, chives, and dittander can be added to made from other things rather than simply leaves; vinaigrette-type salad dressings or low fat salad rice, potatoes, beetroot etc. In this case wild leaves dressings. The latter can be made by replacing some can be utilised for an accompanying sauce/dressing; or all or the oil content with botanical extracts. mint or sorrel sauce (the latter being a great accom- Carrageenan extracted from carrageen seaweed or paniment to white sh as well), or pesto of various greater plantain seeds work well in this regard, varieties, wild garlic, nettle, or rocket for instance. holding the chopped leaves in suspension through- out the dressing (when bottled). Here is a link to a 100% wild salad dressing I made whilst living on entirely foraged food for a couple of Sometimes people add honey to salad dressings to months.