| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| mochyn |
Wild garlicI've got a problem: I've hunted all around here and there's no wild garlic on my land or in the near vicinity. Has anyone got a plant they could spare? Obviously, I'll send something in return...By the way, cab, did your lemon curd arrive? |
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| tahir |
Now what did Cab do to deserve a jar of Lemon Curd eh? | ||||||
| cab |
Re: Wild garlic
Ooh, yes, lemon curd... It was delicious. Thank you. To everyone else, if Mochyn offers you lemon curd in trade for anything, say YES 
Haven't got enough wild garlic to trade yet. But it sometimes appears cheap on ebay. Such as: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1275&item=4383540217&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW (although I might be tempted to ask the guy where these are sourced from) |
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| Treacodactyl |
Would it be acceptable to gather some seed from the wild? We know of a patch that's easily a couple of football pitches in size so I thought it would be ok to gather a few seeds when they're ripe for us.
Has anyone tried the seeds to eat? The best thing about finding the large patch is now we often find it on our walks. |
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| cab |
I see no reason not to collect some seeds. It's a sod to germinate, though; plant it out in autumn, outside, leave it be, and hope that in Spring it does well. |
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| Bugs |
Recently I read somewhere that wild garlic would produce bulbils (is that the right word) just like "garden" garlic. I shouldn't wonder if this was something that would appreciate being sown fresh and if there are bulbils, you couldn't do anything else.
Does anyone know if the wild patches tend to spread themselves by division or seed? |
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| cab |
I should imagine that it does both like other onion relatives. |
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| mochyn |
Tahir: it was the horseradish thongs!
And I've tried growing it from seed: as Cab says, it's a sod. I passed big clumps on the way down to Builth on Sunday, but they were right by roads so I didn't stop to pick any. I also have my doubts about provenance for plants on eBay: I'd trusts any of you lot not to be digging from the wild though! By the way, I also do orange curd, raspberry curd and damson curd. I'll try 'curding' any fruit I can get my hands on: we're both curd addicts. The old chap sold a jar of the orange to a colleague the other day and it lasted her an evening. Without any bread. |
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| Bugs |
Found a supplier, going to order today 
Did yours settle in OK last year Cab? We're probably going to get 50 (that's the minimum this place sells) and hope that way we'll be easily able to take some with us when we move if we need to (one day...). That should be plenty, do you think? |
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| cab |
Seemed to settle in fine. Grew lots of leaves and flowered happily, although its a little early for it to be visible sprouting again. 50 should be more than enough to get a patch established. I don't yet know how fast it spreads. Since I planted mine, I got talking to a local naturalist about why you so rarely see it in Cambridge, and its his opinion that it does well anywhere that the soil isn't really, really basic. So on your chalk, I'd be tempted to give it a good, healthy dose of kitchen compost and christmas tree needles (if you have some). I dotted ours around the garden, hoping to find the best spot. The biggest patch has since been mugged by strawberries, but I rekon it'll be fine. |
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| Treacodactyl |
That's strange, our local wild patch is growing on chalk and is huge. However, we plan to plant it where there's quite a bit of woody soil and where raspberries are growing wild and I gather they aren't keen on basic soils either. I've also a bag of pine shreddings as well. 
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| cab |
We have funny geology here, we're not on the chalkiest bedrock by far, but the boulder clay lump on which Cambridge sits means that we get rather different flora to what you see in similar places; the soil, if it hasn't been played with, tends from the basic to the very basic. Wild garlic is something I haven't personally found here (Wildfood Junkie? You out there? You've found some here, haven't you?), but on the other hand oxlip is common around these parts (and desperately rare across most of the country). We don't tend to dig up any bits of chalk here (lots of bits of flint, though), but the soil still remains very basic due to what makes up the underlying clay. Have you checked the pH of the soil around your raspberry patch? You might be surprised. Woodlands on chalky soil aren't always as high pH as you'd imagine. |
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| Bugs |
In case anyone's interested they're from http://www.naturalsurroundings.org.uk/ - £10 for 50 bulbs seems very reasonable and they have all sorts of other interesting stuff (some trees appear to have fallen in to our basket  ) as well as running a visitor centre with wildlife gardens/ponds and a red squirrel and harvest mouse nursery!
They said the bulbs are just starting to peek out green tips now, so I hope it is a reasonable time to plant them out. I'm so excited  
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| cab |
Those bulbs are ahead of mine then. Nothing there yet. |
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| zigs |
wish i had seen this thread earlier, i got loads of ramsons in the garden, spreads like wild badgers, thousands of seedings, get big enough 2 eat on second year | ||||||
| Bugs |
They arrived just when the people said they would, middle of last week. Looked freshly dug too, but I wonder if they dig them up then keep them in a shed, say, which might explain them coming on a little quicker? As it is due to be much colder this week my lovely assistant has loosely layered them in a pot in the greenhouse pending planting. The trees that fell in to our basket (junipers, bullaces, elders and a couple of blackthorn to make up the numbers and the hedges!) seemed in nice condition too, so the place is well worth a look and they were very pleasant on the phone. In fact I must drop them an email sometime and see if we can get them in here. Ziggy, if you have lots of spare wild garlic you are welcome to try your luck on trading post and see if you can swap it for something! |
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| wildfoodie |
hi folkies
I thought I found some wild garlic here in cambridge a year ago, but on closer inspection it was the three cornered leek (AFAI remember) It works just as well... I'm wondering if you can move wild garlic 'in the green' like with snowdrops? my bro in law has a farm in sussex with shedloads of wild garlic. does it freeze? I'm tempted to try a wild garlic pesto type thingy with a little olive oil and salt... whaddya'all think? yeah cambridge soil is weird... our garden soil is just on the acid side of neutral, with unimproved grassland masquerading as a lawn and not a flint or chalk lump anywhere... also, most deciduous woods I believe end up with a more acid soil - due to the vast amounts of leaf fall I guess? |
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| Bugs |
Hello Wildfood Junkie, nice to see you about
When I was looking at buying it a lot of places sold it like this, so I think the answer is a resounding yes and even that it might do better like that. Although presumably if you could get him to dig up a shovelfull or two now it wouldn't quite have started to grow yet...so you could try both! Sean put up a recipe here last year sometime for a sauce involving wild garlic that sounds a lot like what you want to do, no idea whether it would freeze well or not. I always find garlic things can taint other food even when frozen and wrapped so I rarely freeze anything very garlicky, even keep pasta sauce double wrapped in an old carrier bag. |
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| cab |
I know exactly where you mean, I think, up by the Cam
You can transplant it green, but it'll wilt and sulk a bit and needs plenty of watering in. Freezes better than it dries, but the pesto sounds great.
Deciduous woods get acid-ish, but looking at the flora of local patches of woods makes me think its really basic, not acid at all. Coniferous woods get far more acidic, with the phenolic compounds in the needles taking a long time to break down and plroducing lots of acid. |
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| Bugs |
Has anyone ever managed to grow it from seed? I sowed some fresh last year and there is one tiny green point showing which could well be that kind of plant; they're in a pot and a tray in one of those dodgy plastic greenhouse things, by our shed, so reasonably cold but a little bit sheltered. Will be interesting to see if they do grow to compare to the bulbs.
I'm not sure I've heard of this, is it edible too? |
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| cab |
I've tried from seed twice, failed on both occasions.
Three cornered leek, a.k.a. three cornered garlic, is indeed edible but not quite so nice as ramsons (wild garlic). Its not quite as easy to recognise; I always assumed it was rather uncommon till I moved here. |
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| Bugs |
I was hoping that the fresh ripe seed might help with germination - sown outside and kept there all winter and not in an especially sunny place it should only know it's not in the wood if someone tells it.
That's reassuring; we were convinced we had the right stuff but it will be interesting to look up the alternatives for future reference. It was very nice, hence buying 50 bulbs of the stuff to plant
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| Treacodactyl |
And it has. We have a pot and a seed tray with at least half a dozen seedlings. Seed gathered fresh last year and sown by bugs straight away. Left outside in a sheltered spot and it has started to grow at about the same time as our bought in bulbs have shooted. Hopefully the bulbs will selfseed this year and establish a nice clump.
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| wildfoodie |
ramsons like a fine, silty soil and plenty of wet. I discovered this after I made a wet bed for a few plants and filled it with my lovely fruitcakey compost mixed with loam --- the little fellas are not happy and will need rescuing very soon!
jacky |
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| cab |
WJ, give them some acid if you can. Some ericaceous compost dug in will help. They seem to thrive everywhere that isn't really basic, and our subsoil here in these parts is surprisingly limey. | ||||||
| wildfoodie |
cheers
Cab will give it a whirl. Accidentally uprooted a few more whilst picking today.... ooops - will be giving them a good home tomorrow.... jacky |