When out for our daily walk in Badocks wood or Blaise Estate this week in north Bristol I have spotted lots and lots of wild garlic. We have been unable to resist and have foraged the most tender stems and brought them home to make a lovely wild garlic dressing which we have enjoyed on a salad today and are looking forward to spreading on our bread and fish for dinner at our BBQ later.
If you are new to foraging then wild garlic is the perfect plant to start with as it is easy to id and is so versatile to cook with.
Before you go out and pick any wild plant, you need to be familiar with its characteristics so that you don’t accidentally pick another, potentially poisonous plant instead. Wild garlic is easy to identify but grows in close proximity and in amongst poisonous plants, especially lords-and-ladiesArum maculatum(pictured left). The most obvious way to recognise wild garlic is its very strong garlicky smell when the leaves are picked and the small white flowers that are just coming into bloom just now.
Wild garlic usually grows in large dense patches so it is easy to get over excited and collect a lot but please only take one leaf per plant and make sure you do not uproot it so you do not damage the plant for next season.
All parts of the plant are edible with the delicate small flowers adding something special to your salad.
We have made a simple wild garlic dressing as below
1 - Rinse garlic leaves with water.
2- Place wild garlic leaves, olive oil, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper and lemon juice into a blender.
3 - Blitz and add more oil as needed before dipping and enjoy!