| All There are 39 entries in the glossary.
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| Myxomatosis | An infectious disease of rabbits that was once used to control wild populations, it is not transmitted to humans but infected animals are not usually eaten. | | | | | Nettle, stinging | Nettle (Urtica dioica)
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An abundant wild plant capable of producing a stinging sensation in even the most hardened hands, but a fine edible plant. Pick young, soft nettle tops and leaves (wearing gloves), rinse in tapwater and cook in the residual water left attached with a lttle salt, pepper and nutmeg. Use the resutlant paste as a green vegetable (like spinach) or in soup.
Nettles are also used in a traditional country wine; many people find that the taste is a little offputting, while some others insist that it is one of the finest home wines. An acquired taste. |
| | | | | Oyster mushroom | Pleurotus ostreatus. Found throughout the year, especially after a frost, this mushroom is in most respects the same as cultivated oyster mushrooms, except that the texture is a little more firm, and it will usally be far more flavoursome. A lignin degradng mushroom, found on dead wood. | | | | | Queen Annes Lace | A common name for the wild carrot, Dacus carota. Edible in theory, in practice it's best left alone as a wild curiosity. | | | | | Ramson | Ramson (Allium ursinum, Alliaceae)
Also known as Wild Garlic and Bear Garlic, the leaves which have a mild garlic flavour can be used in a variety of dishes. Take care when collecting, the poisonous lily of the valley and autumn crocus (meadow saffron, naked ladies) are superficially similar, if in doubt crush a leaf, only ramsons will have a garlic aroma. | | | | | Raspberry | Rubus ideaus. A lot more common in the wild than you'd probably imagine, you'll find raspberries fruiting from mid till late summer, into autumn, across the UK. Garden escapees are common, but the raspberry is probably native to these islands.
Use wild raspberries as you would cultivated ones. | | | | | Rose | Rosa canina and related species. Also known as wild rose or dog rose.
This spiny rose with whit to pink flowers can be found spreading along railway embankmebts, hedgerows, waste ground and parks all over the UK. The number of sub-species is vast, but for most purposes they can be treated as being alike.
It is the flower petals and, later in the year, the rose hips (the shiny red fruit) that a forager is concerned with. The petals have an aromatic, floral flavour, and make fine preserves, crystallised flowers, etc. The hips make one of the classic preserves, rose hip syrup, but are also used in desserts and some savoury dishes. | | | | | Rowan | Sorbus aucuparia. Also known as mountain ash.
This small deciduous tree is most common in dry woods with thin soil, especially in the North and West of the UK. Its white blossom and bright red berries persisting into winter have ensured that it is also planted for ornamental value across the country.
Care must be taken to distinguish rowan from trees such as whitebeam, another municipal favourite of less cullinary interest.
The berries are at their best when fully ripe (bright orange-red) but before they begin to soften. They are too bitter to ear raw, but can be used (along with a few crab apples) to make the wonderful preserve rowan jelly, an excellent accompaniment for game, lamb and pork. | | | | | Sloe | The fruit of the blackthorn tree (Prunus spinosa, Rosaceae)
A very good wildlife tree, supports many insects and birds as well as providing us with the sloe a very sharp tasting plum like fruit used as the flavouring for Sloe Gin, also used in jellies, has medicinal properties too. | | | | | Sorrel | Sorrel (Rumex acetosum)
| A common wild plant, found in hedgerows throughout the country.
Possibly the finest, and certainly the trendiest, of all of the wild greens. A marvellous plant, related to the dock, rhubarb and Japanese Knotweed, common throughout the British Isles in hedgerows and woodlands. It forms dense green rosettes of leaves, with a sharp, almost lemony flavour. Use it raw in salad, add it to potato soup, use it in sauces with meat or fish, in fact anywhere that its sharp flavour can be appreciated. In March you'll find that sorrel is just beginning to go mad; the tight green growth of February is now becoming more lush, bushier, and more bountiful. Until you get the nose for picking sorrel, be very careful; the young leaves of ladies fingers, a deadly poisonous plant, can look somewhat similar to an untrained eye. | | | | | | Truffle | Tuber aestivum and related species.
Truffling is perhaps best left to those with trained pigs or dogs, but an enthusiastic forager might have an occasional opportuinity to unearth a truffle. Truffles are small, vaguely rounded bodies found amongst the roots of certain trees, much prized by man and many wild animals. Truffles produce a chemical signal very like the sex pheremone of pigs, deers and squirrels, so can sometimes be found by picking likely spots (well drained, near appropriate trees and with localised dying off of vegetation) where such animals choose to dig. | | | | | Water Mint | The most common wild mint, Mentha aquatica, this herb makes a superb herb wine, mint chutney or mint sauce. It can also be used to make a 'mintade', rather like elderflower champagne. Found around rivers, streams and lakes all over the U.K., from early spring till the first frosts. | | | | | Watercress | Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)
Yes, this is the same watercress that you buy in shops for a lot of money for a really small bunch. If you can spot it wild it's free, so you can make watercress soup, you can cook it as a green, etc. Serve it cooked and mashed in potatoes, with boiled bacon, and you've got a homely meal but one fit for a king. Pick it from moving water (a ditch with a really good flow will do), and take the top, mature shoots only to avoid damaging the root. The only real danger is that you must be very, very careful to cook any watercress that comes from a water course where there are animals grazing upstream; the danger of liver flukes is quite real. I personally always cook wild watercress to make absolutely sure. You might just find watercress in flower in March. Don't let that out you off at all, as unlike many wild vegetables the quality of watercress is little diminished by flowering. | | | | | Wild Plum | Wild plum (Prunus species Rosaceae)
Virtually ubiquitous, they can be found in hedgerows, around parklands and by footpaths and railway lines throughout the British Isles. No attempt to describe the fruit can be successful, as the variety of flavours, colours and textures is immense. Includes of course examples of the cultivated plums, bullaces and damsons, as well as the "wild" cherry sized Myrobalan plum.
Often planted as a hedgerow tree; from mid summer onwards, look out for plums on walks. Wild plums can be put to any use that domesic plums can, making good jam, wine, chutney, puddings, etc. | | | |
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