A few weeks ago I started a course about sustainable foraging; I loved going blackberry picking when I was a kid and even as an adult I collected handfuls of sweet delicious blackberries roaming back from the pub on a Sunday so I could rustle up a crumble for pudding. I remember fondly the fruit wines and liqueurs my dad experimented with when I was a teenager and I’ve also often foraged along the hedgerows when visiting my sister in France and commented on the fact that I could cook a meal with what I’d gathered and that’s exactly what I plan to do once I’ve learnt more about what’s edible each season and the best places to go foraging.
harvesting wild foods freely
The appeal of sustainable foraging – the seeking out, identifying, and harvesting wild foods freely is rising in popularity; people are once more recognising the importance of eating local, sustainable, seasonal food and supplementing this with foraged wild produce found right on their doorstep, which is a wonderful way to engage with the natural world.
the rules to foraging
Luckily, there are many woods where I live in Devon, but there are a few rules to foraging and many countries have national foraging laws to prevent overharvesting, defining where, what, and how much is legal to take. Ask for permission before foraging on private land and choose unpolluted places far from industrial land, roads, or fields, which are free of heavy metals, pesticides and other toxicants. It’s also really important to follow foraging etiquette so you can gather safely, responsibly and within the law:
- Make sure you know the local laws before you go foraging.
- Always pay attention to and respect local conditions. A plant may be legal to forage, and abundant in some areas, but rare in others. Familiarise yourself with the endangered species to avoid them.
- Harvest only from vibrant plants in healthy sites.
- Wash all of your food before you eat it.
- Pick only the species that are growing in abundance, and don’t take any whole plant. Instead, use a pair of scissors to snip off the plant’s top parts or a knife to cut mushrooms. Thus you maintain the organism’s ability to reproduce. A good rule of thumb is the 1-in-20 rule, which says that you should never harvest more than 5% of a particular plant or population of plants.
- Avoid trampling down other species. Your harvesting should be spread out over a large area. The site where you foraged should look natural afterwards – as if you had never been there.
- Take only as much as you are able to use, to ensure nothing goes to waste and spread your foraging over a wide area, rather than pick all plants of any species in the same area.
- Don’t harvest what you can’t identify. Never eat anything you cannot positively identify and deem completely safe. If in doubt, take home a small cutting or photograph it and use research resources and experts to help identify the species.
Only eat a small quantity of any new foraged food. There might be a chance that your body may not tolerate a plant. If you are susceptible to food allergies, have a sensitive digestive system or have a kidney or heart condition, you may have a reaction to some wild food.
After my course had finished, I wanted to learn more, so signed up for a Food & Forage Day in Bere Alston, a village in West Devon that lies between the rivers Tamar and Tavy. It was a soggy, wet day, but I learnt a lot about how to identify a range of edible plants.
WHAT IS MEADOWSWEET?
One of the favourites that I picked was Meadowsweet, which is currently in flower in our British hedgerows, as it blooms from June to September.
It has a beautiful scent and traditionally meadowsweet was a sacred herb of the Celts. It was also once valued for its lasting fragrance; the dried flowers were strewn across floors to perfume the home in Elizabethan times.
The flowers of Meadowsweet contain salicylic acid and have some of the characteristic properties similar to aspirin, such as painkilling properties and anti-inflammatory properties and are a key remedy for healing acid related problems such as heartburn and gastric ulcers.
Meadowsweet was steeped in water as a relieving tea before medicines for pain were widespread.
Scientific Name: Filipendula ulmaria
Category: herbaceous perennial
Family: Roseaceae
Also known as: Maids of the Meadow, Mead Wort, Queen of the Meadow, Pride of the Meadow, Meadow-Wort, Meadow Queen, Lady of the Meadow, Dollof, Meadsweet, Bridewort and Queen of the Ditch.
Habitat: Meadowsweet favours wet habitats, such as damp woods and meadows, marches and fens and is also found growing alongside streams and ditches, wet rock ledges and riverbanks.
Meadowsweet is native throughout most of Europe, from Iceland to Arctic Russia, Asia and southern Turkey to Mongolia. It has been introduced and naturalised in North America.
What does meadowsweet look like?
Meadowsweet is an upright herbaceous perennial and a member of the rose family, which tends to grow in colonies. It has a sweet-smelling flower with frothy clusters, or panicles of densely packed, tiny creamy-white flowers on tall stems. It blooms from June to September.
Identifying Features:
- Stem – 1–2 m tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple.
- Leaves– Its dark green leaves are divided into pairs, with up to 5 pairs of leaflets and a 3-lobed leaflet at the tip. Terminal leaflets are large, 4–8 cm long, are deeply veined and sharply serrated (toothed) along the edges and have grey-whitish and downy The leaves are arranged on alternate sides of the stem and the branches terminate in panicles of flowers. Sometime its leaves are found covered with a bright orange rust coloured fungus, Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or central vein of the leaf.
- Flowers– Meadowsweet displays a ‘froth’ of creamy-white flowers, densely packed together in irregularly-branched cymes – these are a flower cluster with a central stem bearing a single terminal flower that develops first, the other flowers in the cluster developing as terminal buds of lateral stems. Each flower is about 1/4″ across, consisting of 5 white petals, 5 light green sepals, 5 light green pistils, and numerous stamens (20 or more). The flowers are delicate, graceful, and have a very strong, sweet smell, however if crushed, they can smell more like antiseptic or Germolene.
uses
food
Roots can be cooked. Young leaves can be chopped and cooked as a flavouring in soups. The flowers can be used as a flavouring and sweetener in stewed fruits, or made into a syrup for fruit salads, or to give jams a subtle almond flavour.
Drink
Dried leaves can be used to introduce aromatic aromas to wines, as well as to beer or mead. Adding them to wine or beer is said to make a stronger and headier brew. In fact, the common name of this plant likely arose as a result of it being used in Anglo-Saxon times to flavour mead.
Young leaves, flowers and roots can be brewed into a tea. The dried leaves can be used as a flavouring, and the flowers as a sweetener in herbal teas.
The flowers can also be made into a syrup which can be used in cooling drinks.
Medicinal
Antacid / Anti-inflammatory / Anti-rheumatic / Astringent / Anticoagulant / Diuretic / Diaphoretic
One of the best remedies for acid digestive problems, meadowsweet promotes stomach repair, while controlling acid release. Meadowsweet tea relieves mild heartburn or acid reflux, though for best results it may need to be taken long-term. The herb’s astringent qualities make it a useful treatment for irritable bowel or chronic diarrhoea.
Meadowsweet can also bring relief to stiff, sore or aching muscles and joints, soothing inflammation and stimulating clearance of acid residues.
- Parts used – The flowering top.
How to use:
- Infusion – Take 1 cup of standard infusion of leaves and flowers 3 times daily for feverish colds or mild rheumatic pains. Take 1/2 cup every 2 hours for acid reflux or indigestion. Can be given to children for stomach upsets.
- Fluid extract – Take 2-5ml (40-100 drops) 3 times daily for gastritis, gastric ulceration, or chronic rheumatism. Combine with angelica, bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) or willow for arthritis.
- Compress – Soak a pad in dilute tincture and apply to painful arthritic joints or for rheumatism or neuralgia.
Cautions:
- Avoid meadowsweet during pregnancy.
- If allergic or sensitive to salicylate (aspirin) do not use.
- Avoid for asthmatics.
- Not recommended for use by children for diarrhoea or for children under 12 due to salicylate content (risk of Reye’s syndrome).
Potential lookalikes
Young leaves can look similar to nettles or brambles but have no stings or thorns.
It can also be confused with dropwort, which has straight fruits (whereas meadowsweet has twisted, spiral-like fruits. Dropwort also tends to grow on drier ground.
Threats and conservation
Meadowsweet is common, it is not currently considered to be under threat.
recipes
Transform your wild harvested meadowsweet flowers with these delicious, foraged food and drink recipes! Meadowsweet flowers will give you a lovely honey and vanilla-like essence that can be used to infuse, flavour and sweeten.
MEADOWSWEET Cordial
This fantastic, aromatic cordial has a sensational, summery flavour and can be served with sparkling water to make a refreshing meadowsweet pressé or added to sparkling wine or champagne as the perfumed flowers will flavour the effervescent tipple.
Meadowsweet cordial can also be used in baking and desserts to give sweetness and a beautiful floral scent and flavour. Add a splash or two, undiluted, to fruit salads or dilute one part cordial to two parts water for fragrant ice lollies.
You can also make meadowsweet flavoured cream by adding a few tablespoons of meadowsweet cordial and a sprinkling of icing sugar when whipping cream. Use for any recipe using cream, especially trifles, pavlovas and Eton mess.
Store in sterilised bottles or jars in the fridge for up to three months.
Ingredients
- 2 unwaxed lemons, juiced, finely grated zest
- 4 handfuls of Meadowsweet flowers (approx. 15-20 flower heads)
- 500g of brown caster sugar
- 4 tablespoons runny honey
- 1 litre of water
METHOD
- Shake the flowers to make sure there are no insects hiding inside, but don’t wash them as this can spoil the flavour.
- Place the sugar and honey in a large saucepan with the water. Gently bring to the boil, until all the sugar has dissolved, then remove from the heat.
- Add the lemon zest and add the meadowsweet flowers, making sure the flowers are completely submerged.
- Add in the juice from the lemons, then simmer for 15 minutes. Pop the lid on and leave to one side to infuse for 24 hours.
- Strain the flower-infused liquid through muslin or tea towel, gently squeezing it over a large bowl to extract all the juice.
- Pour the liquid through a funnel into clean, sterilised bottles, up to about 1cm below the top. Seal the bottles with swing-top lids, sterilised screw-tops or corks.
Meadowsweet Sorbet
This deliciously refreshing, Meadowsweet Sorbet is a perfect summer treat and the best way to take advantage of freshly foraged ingredients. It can work as more than just a dessert though, as it can also be palate cleansers for between courses.
Sorbets are a simple combination of fresh fruit or fruit juice with sugar. In this case the meadowsweet is added as a sweet flavouring to make a sorbet with a twist!
INGREDIENTS
- 3 unwaxed lemons, juiced
- 1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest
- 4 handfuls of Meadowsweet flowers
- 225g of brown caster sugar
- 600ml of water
METHOD
- Add the sugar to the water, stir and bring to the boil, boiling for 10 minutes to produce a light syrup.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice and the finely grated lemon zest. Stir.
- Add the Meadowsweet flowers, stir and leave to infuse until the syrup is cold.
- Strain the syrup through a muslin and freeze in a plastic container overnight.
- Take out the frozen Meadowsweet syrup and blend with a hand-blender until smooth. Then re- freezer for 24 hours.
- Take out and blend again, then freeze for a further 48 hours.
MEADOWSWEET and lemon CURD
This homemade meadowsweet and lemon curd is incredibly quick and easy to make, and the meadowsweet adds a delicious almond flavour to the classic curd. This recipe gives a perfectly creamy, rich and silky-smooth meadowsweet and lemon curd with the perfect balance between tangy, tart and sweet.
Presented in small jars, this delicious treat makes beautiful summertime gifts and can be spread on toast, cakes or pancakes and stirred into puddings and porridge.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 unwaxed lemons, finely grated zest and juiced
- 200g/7oz unrefined caster sugar
- 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, cut into cubes – at room temperature
- 3 free-range eggs, plus 1 free-range egg yolk – at room temperature
- 125g meadowsweet flowers
METHOD
- Start by sterilising the jars. Wash the jars in very hot, soapy water or put through the hot cycle of a dishwasher. Place the jars onto a baking tray and slide into an oven set to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3 for 10–15 minutes.
- Put the lemon zest and juice, meadowsweet flowers, sugar and butter into a heatproof bowl. Sit the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl. Stir the mixture every now and again until all of the butter has melted.
- Lightly whisk the eggs and egg yolk and stir them into the lemon mixture. Whisk until all of the ingredients are well combined, then leave to cook for 10–13 minutes, stirring every now and again, until the mixture is creamy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove the meadowsweet flower lemon curd from the heat and set aside to cool, stirring occasionally as it cools. Once cooled, strain the lemon curd through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the zest and flowers.
Spoon the lemon curd into sterilised jars and seal. Keep in the fridge until ready to use. The curd keeps fresh in the fridge for about 1 week.