Recipes

As a general principle, infusing flowers and herbs into wine is a fantastic hassle free way to make a country wine – all the colour and flavour without all the potential wine-making mishaps and initial investment in equipment. Lazy! Simple! Fun!

Makes 10-20 biscuits, depending on their size

Makes 10-20 biscuits, depending on their size

The three most convenient small scale methods involve either liquidising the leaves in a blender, passing them through a meat mincer or feeding them into a blade-mounted juicer. The latter two methods will give you a little juice and much …

Komucha tea is associated with impressive heath claims. These may or may not be true. I just like it. This is one of my favourites.
Bilberry plants (Vaccinium myrtillus) can be found in open woodland and moors on acid soil.

Between the stage in July when the nuts are green and without an inner shell – and are superb for pickling or making a liquor, and the wet walnut stage there is one other possible time for using them.That time is early to mid September when the nut is fully formed but still soft – soft as pâté. That’s when I make the following recipe.

A simple approach at pressing seaweed into Nori

Technically nori refers only to seaweed. However, I realized that once a technique is mastered - or at leastlearnt; I'm a long way from mastery! - Why not play with it? Why not use it in unexpected but worthwhile ways? To that end I wondered what other wild and flavoursome foods could be used.

This type of green smoothie as demonstrated is relatively easy on the digestion. Perfectly digestible and tasty, although taking longer to digest, is a version I sometimes drink about 2 hours before going for a long swim. The addition of …

There are so many ways to work with nettles, and often the simplest ways are the best.

On the other hand, it can be fun just to play around a bit. In both appearance and, crucially, texture and flavour I …

If you know anything about the toxicology of yew, you might consider this recipe as being the plant-based wild food foragers version of the notorious Japanese Fugu or blow fish dish. Hence, careful preparation is everything.

Makes two individual tarts

A classic delight.
In addition, the uniquely flavoured syrup made as a byproduct of stem candying is wonderful incorporated into ice cream or Panna cotta!

In the South East of England good sized stems can usually be gathered from the middle of May until the end of June.

The stems are really versatile in their usage and can be eaten raw (especially good dipped in …

In Japan the tender taproot of burdock is cultivated as a vegetable. Indeed, I love to cook it Asian style as in the dish below which is delicious and very simple to prepare (shown with deep fried seaweed).

Simply dig …

The drink admits of countless variations. Indeed, it can be made as a cordial, as a non-alcoholic fizzy drink, or as a beer or light mead.
Additionally, the root ratios can be varied as can the use of fresh or …

I make lots of salad dressing using substances that can, in part, mimic and replace the oil content of a regular salad dressing in part or in total. E407 or carrageenan, the extract most commonly used for this, and the one I use most frequently after extracting it from Chondus crispus seaweed, works well, as do the seeds of Greater Plantain Plantago major. However, the simplest to use, because it requires the least processing, is to use the fresh content of seeds and liquid from ripe Hottentot Figs

I’ve found this on waste ground and riverbanks from Kent to Wales and as far north as Edinburgh.
Despite being very tasty the berries do not have a long recorded tradition of use, so go easy at first to test your individual sensitivity.
Berry clusters ripen at different stages. It took me three weeks of return visits to collect the quantity required for this recipe.

If new to the wonders of seitan try this or a similar basic recipe first to get a feel for it. There are many variables affecting the final product, in particular, the quantity and quality of dry ingredients (powdered seaweeds, …

The flour you get from these sources is mostly starch. There are several different possible methods of processing.

For reedmace, wash rhizome, use fingers to remove outer spongy casing, and pound the stringy core in a bowl with water or …