HOME REMEDY: Wild salad
Last weekend a friend popped in for lunch unexpectedly. Eek – what to feed her? With my foraging hat on, we rustled up a pretty decent lunch. First we gathered wild garlic (see last week’s column) from a nearby shady lane, where it comes year after year. This was going to go in our omelette. Perfect also to have a little walk before lunch.
Then we headed to my tiny veg patch. And when I say ‘tiny’, it really is – it’s not even one metre square. As expected, all that was there was some barely sprouting rhubarb and a sorry-looking gooseberry bush. But next to my veg patch, in amongst the grass, is my old steady staple sorrel. Despite its odd position in the grass - and the cold dry spring we had – it never fails to return.
We picked a few leaves for our salad, but the tart lemon flavour of sorrel needs something else, so we added young dandelion leaves, of which there are many in my garden. These can be pretty bitter, so not many are needed.
Finished with a sprinkling of chives – again one of the first herbs to come up – and all in all we definitely had a fairly decent lunch.
Sof McVeigh: www.thehomemadecompany.com
Then we headed to my tiny veg patch. And when I say ‘tiny’, it really is – it’s not even one metre square. As expected, all that was there was some barely sprouting rhubarb and a sorry-looking gooseberry bush. But next to my veg patch, in amongst the grass, is my old steady staple sorrel. Despite its odd position in the grass - and the cold dry spring we had – it never fails to return.
We picked a few leaves for our salad, but the tart lemon flavour of sorrel needs something else, so we added young dandelion leaves, of which there are many in my garden. These can be pretty bitter, so not many are needed.
Finished with a sprinkling of chives – again one of the first herbs to come up – and all in all we definitely had a fairly decent lunch.
Sof McVeigh: www.thehomemadecompany.com