Wild garlic: Ramsons (Allium ursinum)
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Hedgerow food, Plants and Bulbs | 13 comments
Photo: Wild garlic
Back in the last century, when I was at boarding school, the music and science block was a short five minute walk from our classroom. This is also where I was taught to play the violin by The Missing Link but that’s another story.
In Spring there were frothy cushions of wild garlic either side of the road. No one was keen on singing lessons so one day we thought that we’d spice things up a bit and eat some wild garlic.
“Then we’ll open our mouths as wide as possible as we sing.”
“Yes lets! She can’t complain as for once we’ll all be singing with gusto.”
We chomped in delicious anticipation.
Miss King, the music mistress was formidable. We trooped in eager to begin singing and quickly picked up our sheets of music. After the first few opening bars she held up her baton.
“You have been eating wild garlic!” She roared. Furiously opening windows.
“If you ever do this again I will report the entire class to The Head Mistress.”
She wouldn’t have lasted a minute on the Paris metro.
“You will all close your mouths tight, sit down and listen to music instead.”
The strains of Debussy warbled from the gramophone and I was transported. Ever since then Debussy’s Claire de Lune is magically linked to those pretty, pungent flowers.
Despite searching avidly I have not found wild garlic around here. It can become a bit of a thug but is so useful for cooking in the spring. Wild garlic can be used to make fresh garlic pesto, garlic butter, garlic infused vinegar and so much more. If you have a dehydrator it can be dried to fill the gap between finishing your garlic from the year before and harvesting in the summer. Of course, if you wish to put your singing teacher in her place, it could be munched on the way to your lesson.
As a woodland plant it would be perfect for planting on the north side of our front garden, under the trees where very little grows. I spotted that the Garlic Farm are selling wild garlic bulbs – 12 for £10. So I’ve invested in some and am looking forward to seeing it appear next spring. We want this to spread – so we’ll just make meagre pickings in the first year.
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I love wild garlic, so easy to grow and looks beautiful too. I like to use it in my cooking as often as I can – blitzed in soups and stews, added to risottos and really good for making infused olive oil – just add the choped leaves to the oil and leave for a while!
We’re like Sabine – got more than enough of it growing wild in the woods on the back of our house and at the bottom of the garden — all along the sides of a stream.
As well as eating the leaves last year, we used the stalks as spring onions in stir frys and the like, and I also pickled some seed pods – fantastically strange fiery nodules!
This is a lovely post. And a lovely link. Garlic – what a great theme. Love it when someone does something simple, but does it really well. i’ve got just the spot for that wild garlic – will have to check out their shipping. Thanks for the story and the info. – I won’t even tell you about our music teacher!!!!
The back of my garden is overrun with the stuff – it’s on the edge of some woodland, and the ramsons seems to love the clay soil and the wet.
Ramsons, nettles and ground elder seem to account for quite a lot of my veg intake in early spring…
I’ve never seen any ramsons round my way either. I’m hoping that will change next year – as I’ve been round last weekend planting a lot of seeds – so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good “harvest” next year…
Thanks for this – I’ve been wanting to plant some wild garlic for ages.
I couldn’t help but add the garlic farm cookbook to my basket whilst I was on their website! We had a memorable trip there a couple of years ago one very cold March weekend – asparagus soup garlic bread cooked for us from scratch and on the spot 🙂
Love your music lesson story Fiona. It really made me smile. We too are lucky here to have wild garlic growing in huge swathes in the woods and by some roadsides. It spreads well so good luck with yours.
Poor you having to buy ramsoms, we have masses down here in sussex, i find they prefer the woody edges of the garden. they do indeed make a delicious pesto, quite unlike anything you can buy. Yum!
Thank you for this, as I’d like some and I’m sure I can give at least one lot as a Christmas present.
I live only about 20 minutes from the Garlic farm but it’s gone all touristy, so only visit when I actually want something definite. Obviously a visit is now in order!
I have some ramsons new for next year, too 😀