Foraging.

Pre Covid, ask me if I wanted to go on a woodland walk and seriously, I couldn’t have thought of anything worse. But, well, times change – and I guess one of the very few good things to come out of that time, was a realisation that a lot of joy can be found in the unexpected. Now, woodland walks are one of my all time favourite things to do – and surprisingly, so is foraging!

The foraging element I think I mainly have one of my favourite instagram accounts Foraged by Fern (Fern Freud) and also @herbalacademy, to thank for that; but this month I’ve had my mum traipsing all over for wild garlic! Again inspired by Fern I gathered bags full of the stuff and made wild garlic butter (absolutely heavenly – seriously) and wild garlic salt. The butter can be frozen and salt, well salt is salt! So it’s actually a great way to preserve the garlic. I do have lots of wild garlic growing in pots in the garden, but I want it to spread more – and also, selfishly, I want it to fill my garden with scent, so off I went to my favourite woods to pick it in abundance.

Never one to forget a sweet, I also made wild violet creams this month too – so easy to make – and create the most beautiful little handmade gift. All three of these recipes were taken from Ferns instagram page @foraged.by.fern; and she clearly puts a lot of love and effort into her page and her work, so instead of taking the recipe and putting it on my page – I’d like to encourage everyone to go over there and give her the views she clearly deserves (if you’re interested in making them yourself of course!) Enjoy…