30 Days Wild | Day 12 - more foraging fun

For day 12 of 30 Days Wild, I tried some more wild plants that I'd foraged. As I was at work and already had a packed lunch with me, I had scoped out the canal towpath for potentially edible treats to add to my usual box of salad. I didn't have my copy of Food For Free with me, but a bit of Googling confirmed that a few of the plants I'd thought I could try were indeed edible. I went out just before lunch and collected a few leaves of Ground Elder, Greater Plantain and Ribwort Plantain.

Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria).

Greater Plantain (Plantago major).

Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) among other stuff.

My harvest!

I tried to find young, fresh leaves, with varying success given the time of year, as these are supposedly the tastiest. Back at my desk, and after a good wash, the leaves were added to my salad!

Salad of haricot beans, lentilles vert, cherry tomatoes, potato, asparagus and celery with Ribwort Plantain, Greater Plantain and Ground Elder.

My favourite was the Ground Elder - it had a very pleasant, mild peppery herby flavour. Will definitely eat it again! I wasn't so sure about the plantains, they were slightly tougher and more bitter but maybe that's because the leaves weren't young enough. I would give plantains another go, perhaps earlier in the year, to see if younger growth tastes any different.