At present, driving through the countryside, particularly in the west of Ireland is like meandering through the Garden of Eden.
The roadsides are ablaze with fuchsia, orange montbretia, purple loose strife and willow herb, lots of cream fluffy meadowsweet, knapweed, bright yellow ragwort, wild carrot and swards of wild sorrel and beautiful, lush watercress in the streams.
Wildflower meadows have all but disappeared over the past couple of decades, but wildflowers and grasses are alive and well along roadside verges in many areas.
All around the country, councils have responded to local people’s request to stop spraying glyphosate, (a known carcinogen) and have resisted cutting the verges which enhances biodiversity, except in essential places where visibility is impaired by enthusiastic growth.
Strolling through the lanes, one can’t help noticing that plants are alive with bees, hoverflies and other pollinating insects. Butterflies have been scarce this year but there were several common blue butterflies on the yellow trefoil and lots of cinnabar moths on the ragwort which we were initially told was a weed that would poison cattle. However, the reality is they don’t bother to eat it unless it is accidentally included in silage.
The brambles are laden with fat juicy blackberries so despite the thorns, I couldn’t resist picking several bowls to make a few pots of blackberry and crab apple jam. They take ages to pick so my few jars felt even more special and looked like good deeds on the shelf. I added a few sweet geranium leaves to impart a haunting lemony flavour.
We picked lots of orange and scarlet rowanberries to add to crab apple jelly, all free for the gathering and so, so good.
I fantasised about all the delicious dishes I could make from the hedgerows – pestos, pasta sauces, frittatas…
Where someone else might see weeds, I saw dinner and lots of fun in the kitchen and I picked a big bunch of wildflowers to adorn the kitchen table.
I love to make a foragers salad or a silky foragers soup from a mixture of wild leaves, flowers and herbs like wild thyme.
It’s not just the leaves that are delicious but the flowers too, scatter some knapweed petals, montbretia, fuchsia blossoms, wild rose petals, cornflowers and watercress flowers to embellish your dishes.
There’s masses of fluffy cream meadowsweet blossoms along the roadside too, they’ll last well into September so make the most of their distinct aroma to flavour ice cream, panna cotta, homemade custards, infuse in vinegar, vodka…How about an apple and meadowsweet tart. The wild carrot flowers can be battered and deep-fried.
There will be sloes, damsons and elderberries before too long but that’s for another column.
Meanwhile, have fun with the early autumn bounty and there are lots more recipes and ideas in my cookbooks, Forgotten Skills of Cooking and Grow, Cook, Nourish or email me if you have a specific request and I’ll do my best (www.cookingisfun.ie)
Sorrell and Watercress Soup
Wild watercress has much more flavour than farmed versions, gather some in a flowing stream. This soup has been a favourite on the menu of Ballymaloe House since it opened in 1963.
Wild sorrel grows all over the place, there are several varieties, common sorrel, buckler leaf sorrel and lambs’ tongue sorrel which prefers acid soil – it’s super good for you!
Serves 6-8
45g butter
150g peeled and chopped potatoes
110g peeled and chopped onion
salt and freshly ground pepper
900ml water or homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock
300ml creamy milk (75ml cream and 225ml milk)
200g chopped watercress (remove the coarse stalks first)
25g wild sorrel
Melt the butter in heavy bottomed saucepan. When it foams, add the potatoes and onions and toss them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the watercress and sorrel. When the vegetables are almost soft but not coloured add the hot stock and boiling milk. Bring back to the boil and cook until the potatoes and onions are fully cooked. Add the watercress and sorrel and boil with the lid off for 4-5 minutes approx. until the watercress is just cooked. The sorrel will discolour but the watercress will keep its colour. Do not overcook or the soup will lose its fresh green colour. Puree the soup in a liquidiser. Taste and correct seasoning.
Enjoy
with some crusty bread.
Foragers Salad
A selection of wild leaves such as:
Dandelion leaves
wild watercress
wild landcress
bittercress
chickweed
wild sorrel
oxalis
pennywort also known as Bread and Butter
Dressing
3 tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple balsamic vinegar or Forum chardonnay vinegar
pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
Allow 1 handful of the wild leaves per person. Wash carefully in cold water and dry in a salad spinner. Keep chilled until ready to use.
To make the dressing.
Whisk the oil, vinegar and salt to mix. Taste and correct the seasoning. Toss the dried leaves in just enough of the dressing to make the leaves glisten. Taste a leaf to check that the seasoning is well balanced.
Serve immediately.
Apple, Blackberry and Sweet Geranium Tart with Sweet Geranium Sugar
The pastry is made by the creaming method so people who are convinced that they suffer from ‘hot hands’ don’t have to worry about rubbing in the butter. It can be made and frozen ahead.
Serves 8-12
Pastry
225g butter
50g caster sugar
2 eggs, preferably free range
350g plain flour, preferably unbleached
Filling
600g Bramley Seedling cooking apples
110g blackberries
6 sweet geranium leaves, torn
150g sugar
egg wash-made with one beaten egg and a dash of milk
Sweet Geranium Sugar
2-4 sweet geranium leaves
50g caster sugar
To Serve
softly whipped cream
1 x 23cm x 2.5cm deep round tart tin
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
First make the pastry.
Cream the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food mixer (no need to over cream). Add the eggs and beat for several minutes. Reduce speed and mix in the flour. Turn out onto a piece of floured greaseproof paper, flatten into a round wrap and chill. This pastry needs to be chilled for at least 2 hours otherwise it is difficult to handle.
Meanwhile, make the Sweet Geranium Sugar.
Whizz the sweet geranium leaves with the caster sugar in a food processor. Spread over a baking tray and set aside at room temperature to dry out.
To make the tart.
Roll out the pastry 3mm thick approx. and use about two-thirds of it to line a suitable tin. Peel, quarter and dice the apples into the tart, add the blackberries and torn sweet geranium leaves, sprinkle with sugar. Cover with a lid of pastry, seal edges, decorate with pastry leaves, egg wash and bake in the preheated oven until the apples are tender, approx. 45 minutes to 1 hour.
When cooked, sprinkle lightly with Sweet Geranium Sugar and serve with softly whipped cream.
