Exmoor Lockdown Diary 2 - Wonders of Wild Garlic

I promise not to do the gloom and doom thing in this Exmoor Lockdown Diary - the whole point of it is to see if we can keep feeling positive at a time when most people are anxious or even downright scared.

One of the things that will inevitably come out of it is the vast difference between rural and urban life - and what I’m writing about today perhaps accentuates the void that exists between those two worlds. 

I am reluctant even to mention the phrase “food shortages” because even a whiff of that threat is enough to worry anyone - but we folk out in the deep countryside do at least have nature’s larder to help supplement our diets. 

If we know what we are doing - and, if I’m honest, I wish I had far more knowledge when it comes to edible plants than I do. 

The downside of living out in the sticks is that you can be at least a ten-mile drive to the nearest supermarket - although of course we do have marvellous village shops like the fabulous, newly refurbished, Roadwater Community Store. However, if you are heading for a supermarket for a bulk shop, the idea that you could drive all that way with valuable fuel only to find the shelves empty is off-putting to say the least. 

So village stores could well come into their own and garner much needed support as long as they can get supplies. Which hopefully will be a good thing for communities going forward after the pandemic is over.  

Anyway, it’s that time of year when the folk who like to go out foraging for wild food in the countryside begin to stir after the winter lull. And chief among pickable and delicious things to eat in the hedgerows right now is wild garlic. 

I am lucky, the valley in which I live is rich in the stuff - if you know where to look.

Some believe this pungent plant is on the increase - and in an edition of Gardeners’ Question Time on BBC Radio Four not long ago there were even complaints from amateur horticulturists desperate to get rid of the pungent wild herb. 

The answer was: “You can’t. It’s difficult to rid your garden of wild garlic - try eating it all instead.”

But if London’s Borough Market is anything to go by - where small bunches sell for eye-watering amounts - those fortunate enough to have it in their gardens should be proud of their crop. 

Large swathes of the West Country region are rich in wild garlic, or ransom - which is unfurling its green leaves right now. Which means that now is the ideal time to pick the herb before it eventually flowers, then turns brown and bolts. 

I have used two of the plant’s common names - it is also known as buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear's garlic. 

I’ve also hinted at its usefulness in the kitchen, but it does come with a health warning: every year in this country there are a few cases in which people have been poisoned after picking and eating the similar looking leaves belonging to Lilly of the Valley.

Similar when young, that is - which is now. As these plants mature, you should easily be able to see the difference. The wild garlic leaves are slightly convex and smooth edged with a single main vein, whereas the Lilly of the Valley has irregular edges and numerous deep veins. In my garden the two grow side by side, so it’s easy to see how they differ. However, anyone who has even the slightest doubt should not to go out harvesting ramsons unless escorted by an expert.

If in doubt, either forego the delights of wild garlic altogether.

But if you do have the knowledge and confidence, wild garlic makes a superb form of pesto - which some Italian purists might feel snooty about because they’d say any sauce of that name should contain but one herb, and that is basil. However, the word comes from the Italian verb pestare which means to crush, to trample, to pound - it in no way describes which type of herb should be used. 

Go to Italy and you’ll find many types of pesto, from a thick sauce made of sun-dried tomatoes to one created from olives and capers. If the ingredients vary, so do the recipes. Every part of Italy will have a different way of grinding up various ingredients to make a sauce - the contadini (farmers or peasants) simply adapt it to the season and to whatever grows in their immediate area.

Basically what you need is a fistful of herbs (in our case this week, wild garlic), a smaller amount of nuts (a few walnuts, cobnuts or blanched skinned almonds), some hard cheese (parmesan, but some hard English cheeses will do), and a squeeze of lemon juice. 

These ingredients are all placed into a mini-food-processor, and whizzed with some glugs of quality extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil. If the cheese you’ve used hasn’t been salty enough, you can always bung in a big pinch of Cornish sea-salt after tasting.

And that’s it. Within seconds you will have a small cup or bowlful of the closest your garden will ever get to producing rocket-fuel - at least, in the flavour stakes… 

A spoonful or two thrown in to any kind of fresh cooked pasta creates an instant and delicious lunch, but you can also use it as a sauce for meats or fish or as a marinade. Stir a little into a spring vegetable risotto and you will have a vegetarian dish worthy of an award winning restaurant, or add it to soups or stews and you can transform the weary and overcooked into something that fresh and full of zing.    

The perfect herb to have around if you are running your kitchen on just a few bulky staples like pasta, potatoes or rice, during a lockdown. I will return to the subject of wild garlic on another day and share a recipe that the Dorset chef, Mark Hix, once gave me…