| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| mushroomhead |
fat henI tryed fat hen for the first time, nice cooked like spinach and raw too. Am i right in saying the romans introdued it? |
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| tahir |
Yes, and Orach, two of my favourite greens. | ||||
| Kinnopio |
Ground elder was introduced by the Romans too! | ||||
| cab |
Fat hen can't have been introduced by the Romans, the gathered seeds are found on bronze age sites in the UK, pre-Roman. I think its native. But ground elder, fennel, alexanders and lots of other ineradicable-tasty-weeds are Roman introductions. | ||||
| tahir |
I could be wrong but I'm sure I've seen fat hen described as a Roman introduction | ||||
| tahir |
Of course my sources could be wrong... |
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| cab |
Trusty old 'Flora of the British Isles' lists it as native. | ||||
| tahir |
Orach was Roman though wasn't it? | ||||
| hedgehogpie |
Fat Hen is known to have formed part of the Bronze Age diet, in particular it appears that the seeds were used in gruel-like soup mixtures.
Tollund Man (admittedly he is from Europe, not the UK but we have had very few bog bodies to study), had fat hen as part of his last meal prepared in just such a manner. |
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| hedgehogpie |
By the way, it might also be a good idea to pay heed to what the pfaf webby has to say about them and their saponin and oxalic acid content.
http://www.pfaf.org/index.html |
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| tahir |
The warning applies to the whole family, including spinach*, eating too much of any is not a good thing.
*Spinach doesn't have the saponins though. As far as I know the only "spinach" not to have high oxalic acid levels is new zealand spinach (cos of course it's not even remotely related to spinach) |
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| hedgehogpie |
I must admit for a spincah substitute, I prefer sea beet. Infinitely nicer IMHO! | ||||
| tahir |
Never tried that |
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| hedgehogpie |
Lovely stuff. It has all the characteristics of good spinach, but without the strong iron 'tang' you can sometimes get. Very smooth.
You can make a superb sea beet and stilton soup, it goes great gently sweated down in butter then seasoned & mixed with rough chopped brie - and is always my favourite side veg. when served with poached salmon and new potatoes. |
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| cab |
Dunno. I'll look it up later. |
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| cab |
It is great stuff. Although not necessarily the best seaside forage. Definitely up there though, alongside marsh samphire and alexanders. |
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| orangepippin |
On the basis of this thread I surveyed the extensive coverage of fat hen on my allotment today with a new interest ... perhaps I might be in with a chance for the prize for most productive allotment after all! Still not sure about eating the stuff though. | ||||
| hedgehogpie |
 orangepippin: Don't get mad, get your wok out....
Cab, I've always been a bit wary of Alexanders, mainly because I'm not confident in i.d-ing the umbelliferae family as a whole, there seem to be so many potential pitfalls there! (Some of them fatal.....   )
Fortunately, I at least know what Hemlock looks, and smells like! |
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| cab |
I've been working, on and off, on a whole article devoted to edible wild umbellifers. I'll resurrect that and finish it. |
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| cab |
Just had another look in Flora of the British Isles. Its a battered old edition I've got (1952), but it rekons common orach and the other orach species I looked at are native. |
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| hedgehogpie |
Excellent! I look forward to reading that. |
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| dpack |
please do cab it is a good un ,the umbels are many .
plenty of fh round here now |