A sign of Spring - Wild Garlic / Ramsons

For some years now we have harvested wild garlic from some woodland on an organic farm belonging to friends of ours in Egerton. In return we provide them with waste vegetables for their pigs.

We want to continue harvesting the wild garlic for years to come so we only pick the leaves and flowers, and the area it grows on there is big enough that we can rotate which bits we harvest from each year.

 You may find the leaves in your stir-fry bags, salad bags or bagged on their own, just rub the leaf between your fingers and smell, no mistaking them then! As the season progresses you will also find some of the beautiful white flowerheads in with the leaves, which are the prettiest salad ingredient and give a strong garlic hit too!

A couple of leaves in a sandwich really gives it a taste of spring, or add to green leaf salad, or to an omelette. Cut up finely and add to a bowl of soup just before serving or tear up some leaves and add to a winter stew for the last 5 minutes of cooking. I've even used a few leaves as a substitute for cloves of garlic in hummus (makes the hummus green, of course!). I plan on trying wild garlic pesto this year, let us know how you eat yours....