On this International Women’s Day 2024, I invite you to bring a basket and join me as we tread softly under the shadows of boughs on the banks of a burn or tread gently along the paths of ancient woodland where our ancestors trod before. Maybe remove your shoes, and let your feet tread on the soft carpet of green, inhaling the heady aroma of wild garlic that will inevitably fill your nostrils and connecting with women of old who have plucked these tender shoots in days gone by. Let us gather in our kitchens, set our baskets down, make a brew and share our recipes and herbal lore so that our daughters and granddaughters, nieces and young friends can continue to forage and live in tune with the seasons as Mother Nature intended.
Wild garlic dances on the cusp of Spring, with both sunshine and snow glancing its leaves, hot on the tail of the snowdrops whose hard-tipped shoots break frozen ground and turn the wheel of the seasons toward the light. It is an ancient plant, that connects us with days gone by, picked from the shaded parts of ancient woodland since the stone age. Also known as Bears Garlic, in pre-medieval times, the bears would come out of hibernation to snack on wild garlic bulbs, the perfect detox from winter’s slumber. I love this thought as I have also felt sluggish and am looking forward to lighter days in both body and spirit.
Its medicinal uses are antibacterial, aiding recovery from coughs and colds, and a detoxifying and purifying plant, proven to lower blood pressure. Having fallen victim to the one-hundred-day cough that floored so many this winter, I’m plucking these tender green shoots to help my own body comes out of winter’s fug and clear the tubes so I can move more and shake off the heavy cloak of winter.
One of the lasting memories of moving to this neck of the woods in Northumberland was the smell of wild garlic as I drove the lanes to get here. I had come on ahead in a car loaded with boxes and the things that would be needed immediately, the kettle, mugs, tea, that sort of thing, as the removal van and my husband followed behind. It was the 3rd of June, so the wild garlic was almost at its end, and with windows wound down in the car, its stench was almost overpowering. It is its distinctive garlicky smell that helps you to identify wild garlic and not mistake it for its doppelganger, Lily of the Valley which is poisonous
It was the sheer abundance of it that amazed me. Driving past Allen Banks, around the bends, and down the road for a couple of miles, wild garlic carpeted the ground, with distinctive lacy white flowers. What joy when I walked around our garden, marvelling at the plants here, and spotted that wild garlic grew along the banks of the burn.
In contrast to my delight, Molly, in The Rewilding of Molly McFlynn, was not as impressed as I was as she drove these same lanes with her mother in March, on her approach to Nan and Grandad’s house,
‘We turned off the main road, then past ploughed fields and a farm. The road would through lots of trees, where banks of green leaves, all the same, grew in their shade. It had started to rain and there was a pungent pong of garlic, mingled with farm smells. Why did the countryside always have to stink?’
Molly’s mam then remarks that Nan makes wild garlic pesto to which Molly replies, ‘Gross!’
Nan has a book, her Gathering, a brown, leather-clad book with a gold crescent moon in which her recipes are written. Coincidentally, Martha, who has come from 1649 via a portal on the green bridge, also had a book, covered in brown leather in which notes of remedies and recipes flutter. I would love to make my version of Nan’s Gathering, a project earmarked for the future, and continue to pass down the recipes and lore.
I pause now to wonder what the women of days gone by would have done with their wild garlic leaves. I can see wild garlic in a potage and used this image in my writing as Molly sits with Martha by her campfire, where she is sleeping rough on the island, and shares some food, having simply torn up a few leaves and added them to the pan.
‘The pot on the fire was simmering now. Martha tore up some wild garlic leaves, added them to the pot and stirred them before taking it off the flames. She handed me a wooden bowl, the liquid inside rippling as her hands trembled.’
The next year after moving in here, I set about trying out some recipes, and while the leaves can be simply plucked and added to a salad, or popped into a sandwich, mixed with mayonnaise and eaten with chips, chopped and added to a soup, stew or curry and there are many other ways of cooking with wild garlic. I, like Nan in the story, love to make wild garlic pesto. It is heady and tasty, and a little goes a very long way. I also love to make wild garlic and blue cheese scones – they are a complete game changer and a seasonal treat from early March.
I thought I’d share some recipes. Below is my Wild Garlic and Blue Cheese Scone recipe, and also a link to The Bridge Cottage Way where more ideas and recipes for using this seasonal foraged treat can be found.
Blue Cheese & Wild Garlic
Scones
Blue cheese and wild garlic scones
Ingredients
225g plain or spelt flour
3 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt, half tsp English mustard powder
50g cold butter
125g blue cheese (or any strong cheese)
2 tbsp washed & chopped wild garlic (nettle tops and chives work well too)
60ml cold milk
1 beaten egg
Method
Scones are best handled as little as possible. I use a food processor, but mixing by hand is fine
Sift flour, baking powder, salt & mustard. Grate in the butter, and cheese, & mix with wild garlic and nettles. Mix in egg & milk with a clawed hand, adjusting the amount of liquid to give a soft, slightly sticky dough. (Scones are better on the wet side rather than dry).
Tip onto a floured worktop and handle as little as possible, knead gently then press down into a flat shape about 3cm thick. Cut into shapes, top with a little cheese or egg & milk from the jug you used.
Bake at 220 deg (200 deg fan) Gas 7 for 12 minutes.
Serve with butter. Delicious with some wild garlic and nettle soup.
Here’s a link to my Bridge Cottage Way website for more wild garlic recipes
The Bridge Cottage Way Wild Garlic Recipes
Then, when the buds appear, you can pickle them!
Pickled Wild Garlic, Chive and Ransom buds
Do you gather wild garlic? I’d love to hear from you, what you create with this seasonal foraged treat. Do pop any ideas or thoughts in the comments below.
I’m off to make my lunch - I think it’ll be a wild garlic and feta cheese omelette.
So, happy International Women’s Day and happy foraging, but remember to forage responsibly – leave plenty for others and wildlife. If you do find some wild garlic in ancient woodland, maybe think about who might have bent to pick the tender green shoots of Spring before you. What might their lives have been like, and then consider who you might share a wild garlic and cheese scone with and keep the magic alive?
In addition to Down Clarty Lonnen, I also write the Bridge Cottage Way Substack newsletter from the Spring and Autumn Equinox and the Summer and Winter Solstices.
For further information about me, my writing and my debut novel, head to my website at www.suereedwrites.co.uk
Thanks to
et al for inviting us to gather together to create a virtual daisy chain on International Women’s Day 2024. Looking forward very much to connecting with others taking part and reading your words.
I adore this! There is an abundance of wild garlic on my daily walk and I find it such a magical sign. I love the idea of contemplating who would have been there and picked it in years gone by. Xxx
Ah Sue, I really loved reading this. It was so evocative of a special place and filled with nourishing medicinal magic. I loved reading about the ‘herstory’ of noticing and foraging the wild garlic and your ideas about handing it down. The wild pesto and the scones sound absolutely delicious xx