I spent the last couple of days photographing some of the wild edible plants around in April and May on the farm and here are some of them.
They are, in the order I post them,
garlic mustard,
bracken fiddleheads (bracken is only edible whilst in the fiddlehead stage, it becomes carcinogenic later),
hawthorn (all parts of the hawthorn plant are edible, leaves, flowers and fruit),
dandelion (edible as a salad green before it flowers, the root can be roasted as a form of coffee substitute),
herb bennet,
Violet,
Burdock,
Wild Garlic (make sure it smells garlicky you don't want to mix it up with the poisonous lily of the valley)
Nettle (I've mentioned nettles before. They're only really good to eat before the flower in the spring.)
Common purple spotted orchid (edible but best not pick it for food due to it's rarity despite the name),
Good King Henry (this is one of the plants I introduced to the farm. It's thought the Romans first brought it to the UK),
Wood Sorrel (best to eat in small amounts due to oxalic acid),
Gorse (the flowers are edible and make a tonic tea),
Cleavers or Goose Grass (good for a tonic tea),
Horseradish (the root can be used as a condiment and the leaves as a potherb),
Fat Hen,
Angelica
These were all found in profusion in one short walk around the farm. There are many other edible plants around but this is the spring selection of pot herbs. This post was sent from my tablet. I'll tidy it up on the laptop later and add some more detail about the plants including medical properties. The next post
Will be about the poultry.
