HEDGEWITCH ADVENTURES Blog

There’s a reason why children are like heat seeking missiles when it comes to sweets. Those tangy, acid-sweet flavours that are so destructive to their dental array are only mimicking the natural flavours of fresh wild fruits, stuffed with vitamins and minerals to help them grow strong, (and once that happens you can make them…

The name ‘Common Hogweed’ conjures up visions of ‘Me mate Dave down the pub’ but this bristly woodland margin plant is anything but. Yes, it is a cousin of the phytotoxic Giant Hogweed – you know, the one with ginormous leaves 1m long with skin-blistering sap once said skin is exposed to sunlight?! However, this…

You’ve probably trodden on this humble herb a thousand times, or tried to eradicate it from your lawn. Like the first pioneers discovering America, this is a pioneer plant – tough, coping with most soils, springing back from punishment by lawnmower and boot. Did you know it is also incredibly useful, both as a food…

Just thought I’d share this tapas recipe I dreamed up using young green Reedmace flowerheads from Astral Park. I made a batter with sparkling water (no ice – no fridge on the boat), 1 egg and normal plain flour, sieving the flour well. I have to admit I preferred them with mayo in the ends…

My Mahonia syrup, mint leaf, grape juice, lime and sparkling water mocktail. I got the recipe from Lottie Muir’s book ‘Wild Cocktails’. While flicking through Lottie Muir’s ‘Wild Cocktail’ bible, I was astounded to find that the ill tempered looking evergreen shrub I walk my son past every day to school actually has edible berries!…

Spring is rushing into Summer, and that means flowers aplenty. It’s quite amazing how many of our new acquisitions from the garden centre can be edible (and equally amazing how some of them can be really lethal…DO NOT just go grazing away). Day Lilies (Hemerocallis sps) are a splendid addition to any salad, especially if…

It’s May. They’re out, now. Go into the pine, oak and birch acid woodlands and scout about on the ground for those swan-necked shoots of Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinium). They are graceful things, and when cut from their juicy base they smell of almond cream. Almonds, you say? Doesn’t that mean cyanide? Well not exactly.…

There’s a knack to picking gorse flowers. Gorse, or Ulex Europaeus, is spiny as all hell. The trick is to pluck the open flowers right at the end of the twigs – the open flowers have more of the scent that you want to impart flavours to your drinks (be they alcoholic or otherwise). Plus,…

Here’s what’s on at Easter (when my Mum has my hyperactive 7 year old…) Sat 9th April : Spring Forage and Pub Quiz : 2 hours of foraging tuition in the lovely Ouzel River Meadows, then back to the pub for a fun quiz! The Globe Inn, Linslade, 10am-1pm, max 15 spaces £15 adult/£7.50 child…

Cow parsley, or Anthriscus sylvestris, is so entrenched at the sides of our ditches, waysides and collective consciousness that we are almost blind to its creamy flurry of umbrellalike blossoms, its ferny carrot top fronds of vibrant green. it is often one of the first plants to show its head come Spring. As you may…