This time of year brings a Spring cacophony of fantastic flavours to your salad bowl. Micro greens from the polytunnel providing a neutral base of coloured lettuces to showcase the… Read More
Category: Wild Medicine Info
Butterbur fuki recipe
The flowers are passing but there’s still time to make butterbur fuki, a Japnese delicacy. Pick the stems from the most tender looking leaves. The leaf stems must be prepared… Read More
Edible horsetail shoots
Young horsetail shoots (Equisetum arvense) are an edible wild food, fine for foraging when they are young. They look pretty much as they were in the Paleozoic era but considerably… Read More
Yummly
I’ve been looking for a way to organise my recipes and test driven quite a few apps. I’ve now discovered Yummly. It’s easy and a pleasure to use. You can find… Read More
Wild Antidote for Smoking
Antidote for Tobacco – Victorian ‘nicorette’! Trying to give up smoking? One of the most commonly used herbs was Lobelia inflata, nicknamed Indian Tobacco after its use by Native American… Read More
Wild Garlic & Hazelnut Pesto
Print Yum Wild Garlic & Hazelnut Pesto Prep Time: 10 minutesTotal Time: 10 minutes 2 x 250ml tubs This fresh and fiery pesto can be made with any of the… Read More
Bone Stock with Seaweed
We’ve got out of the habit of making stock but at one time they were an indispensable part of cooking. Nowadays there are stock cubes and gravy powders, cup-a-soups and… Read More
Winter Solstice 2014
Today, 21 December at 22:03 GMT the North Pole (with the earth’s axis at 23.5 degrees) tilts its furthest away from the sun. This is the shortest solar day of… Read More
Air Fresheners cause Allergic Reactions
From today restaurants now have to declare any allergens in food on their menus. Supermarkets and other places that sell prepackaged food must also declare them. However, although… Read More
Grasping the Nettle
You can get a cheery mood and energy boost from nettle leaf and particularly from raw dried nettle seed (technically fruits and seeds), rubbed through a sieve to remove the… Read More
Wild Labneh Roule Cream Cheese
Recipe for a delicious ‘cream cheese’ substitute This is a very simple way to make a cream cheese replacement for those lovely soft herby French cream cheeses called roule. It’s not… Read More
Is Comfrey Edible?
Is Comfrey Safe to Eat? Common comfrey is a wild-growing herb that has a long tradition as both an edible and a medicinal species. It is a nutritious plant, being very… Read More
Wild Carrot Identification
The carrot family of Apiaceae contain both edible and deadly species. You need to “know your carrots” before foraging for them. With poisonous hemlock on the left and edible cow… Read More
Coltsfoot Honey
Coltfoot is a one of my favourite herbs for several reasons: • It used to be the shop sign of the herbalist in medieval times, like striped poles were to… Read More
Glycaemic Index of Sugars
 Glycaemic Index of Sugars Sugar Name GI Glucose 96 Sucrose (white sugar) 64 Brown sugar 64 High fructose corn syrup 62 Evaporated cane juice 55 Black strap molasses 55 Maple… Read More
Is Comfrey Cream Safe?
Comfrey in topical creams and ointments Comfrey (Symphytum spp.) is used in a lot of cosmetics because it contains allantoin and is fantastic for preserving skin elasticity. It binds the connective tissue… Read More
Yellow Bolete
Found a bolete I could not identify today, so any pointers welcome. Have consulted Collins, Rogers, Wright and O’Reilly to no avail! Found two on a moss bank under old… Read More
Scalycaps
A happy group of Shaggy Scalycaps (Pholiota squarrosa) but not for eating! And also some rarer juvenile Flaming Scalycaps (Pholiota flammans)
White Brain Fungus
Exidia thuretiana – White Brain Fungus. All the references I looked at suggest that White Brain grows on the wood of deciduous trees, particularly beech/ash. The attached jelly like fungus… Read More
Birch Polypore
Young Birch Polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) has been used medicinally for over 5000 years as antiparasitic, antimicrobial, to treat wounds, stomach diseases and in rectal cancer. Tests prove has anticancer effect… Read More
Meadowsweet Ointment
Meadowsweet contains salicylic acid which is what aspirin is. It has anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties. Here is a simple versatile ointment recipe for treating all “dem aches an’ pains”.… Read More
Wild flower summer cordials
Hopefully by now , mid May, elderflowers are starting to flower in a lane near you. And if not, they soon will be in June. Cordials are delightful and here… Read More
Calamus aka Sweet Flag ~ the Singer’s root and Forager’s spice
Calamus (Acorus calamus) is also known as Sweet Flag, Sweet Rush or Sweet Cinnnamon although the roots taste like ginger. Calamus (known as sweet flag) has a spicy fragrance to… Read More
Turkey Tail mushrooms – Trametes versicolor
Turkey tail mushrooms are found growing on logs, especially fallen beech, throughout the world and certainly here in Scotland. Their rather obvious name is due to them looking literally like… Read More
Valerian – Valeriana officinalis
Valerian is so good for anxiety that Valerian B.P. (made to British Pharmacopeia standards) was handed out to civilians in air raid shelters during the First World War. At high… Read More
Meadowsweet – Filipendula ulmaria
Meadowsweet is now coming into bloom along the stream here at Wychmoss. It’s original Latin name was Spiraea ulmaria which is where the name A-Spirin (aspirin) comes from as chemists… Read More
Feverfew – Chrysanthemum parthenium
Feverfew is excellent as a preventative for recurrent headaches. Research has shown that this is probably due to it having a beneficial effect on the platelet clumping implicated in migraines.… Read More
Pink Purslane
Pink purslane (Claytonia sibirica) is an edible plant in the Portulacaceae family related to Spring Beauty (Claytonia perfoliata) and Common Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) which is high in Omega 3 oils… Read More
Leopard’s Bane
Leopard’s Bane (Doronicum pardalianches) is related to Arnica (Wolf’s Bane) and also poisonous as neither should be taken internally. Great drifts of this are now in flower along the river… Read More
Sanicle
We found Sanicle (Sanicula europea) in the woods of Colinton Dell this evening. A member of the carrot family, the leaves are edible. In the Middle Ages it was a… Read More