Food from the Wild
Flowers
Chamomile Anthemis nobiiis
'It hath floures wonderfully shynynge yellow and resemblynge the appell of
an eye' eulogised Turner of the chamomile. As the petals begin to droop, pick
the flower heads and dry them by spreading them out on trays in a cool, airy
place turning them occasionally. Atea can then be made of the shrivelled flowers.
Pour boiling water on to a teaspoonful and allow to infuse for 5-10 minutes
before straining into a cup.
Dandelion Taraxacum officinaie
The flower heads may be made into tea in the same way as camomile or used to
make one of the sweetest and best of flower wines.
Dandelion Wine
Put 4.5l (1 gal) of dandelion flowers in 4.5l (1 gal) of cold water and
bring to the boil.
Simmer for 10 minutes then strain on to 1.6kg (3½lb) sugar, and the
rind of a lemon and orange.
Stir well.
When reduced to blood heat, add the juice of the lemon and orange and some
yeast which has been previously activated.
(If this is bought yeast, there will be instructions on the packet; if
bakers' yeast, mix with a little sugar and lukewarm water, spread on toast
and float on the top of the wine.)
Cover with butter muslin and leave in a warm place for 2 days to start
fermenting.
Then pour into a jar and either insert an airlock-which can be bought from
a wine shop-or plug the jar with cotton wool. Leave until all fermentation
has ceased.
Siphon off into bottles, cork and keep as long as possible-6 months at
the leastbefore drinking.
Elder Sambucus nigra
The flowers, with their strong, honeylike scent, flavour anything they
are put in contact with. A spray of fresh elder flowers infused in boiling
water makes a tea, or put in vinegar will make elder flower vinegar. They
were often used to flavour custards and creams and dipped in batter and fried
for elder flower fritters. Elder flower champagne and cordial are well known
and as a cooling summer drink the latter is unsurpassed.
Elder Flower Cordial
'Dissolve 2.3kg (51b) sugar in 2.75l (5pt) water.
When hot add 50g (2oz)
citric acid (to be bought from most chemists) and pour over 900g (2lb)
of elder flowers with the worst of their stalks removed.
Stir and press
down well.
Cover and leave for 24 hours. Bottle. To drink, dilute with
water and add ice.'
Eyebright Euphrasia nemorosa
Fresh, the whole plant, flowers and all, can be used for making wine (use
the recipe for dandelion). Dried, it makes an excellent tea and one which
used to be given to people suffering from afflictions of the eyehence
the herb's name. 'The purple and yellow spots and stripes which are upon the
flowers of the
Eyebright cloth very much resemble the diseases of the eye,
as bloodshot, etc., by which signature it hath been found out that this herb
is effectual for curing the same'. Culpeper said that 'if the herb was but
as much used as it is neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle maker's
trade.' A little, tufted plant with hairy leaves and delicate flowers, it
is common on wasteland and grassland throughout Britain.
Gorse Ulex
A wine as sweet as the smell of the yellow gorse flowers can be made at almost
any time of the year because, as the saying goes, 'When gorse is out of bloom,
kissing's out of season' which, of course, it never is. Use the recipe for
dandelion wine.
Heather Erica
'Boethius records that from the honeyed flowers of the purple heather the
Picts made a sweet beer, the secret of its compounding being hereditary in
the tribe, and never revealed to an alien even under threat of death. This
may have been the cup which Rowena gave to Hengist'. Flowers as Food, Florence
White.
Heather Ale
For 9l (2gal) heather ale, gather enough flower spikes to fill a 4.5l (1
gal) container.
Cover with water and boil for 1 hour.
Strain and add 25g
(1 oz) ginger, 4-5 cloves, and 12g (½oz) hops previously boiled for
20 minutes in 1.1l (2pt) water.
This is then strained and 450g (1 lb) sugar
and 450g (1 lb) malt is added and boiled for a few minutes.
Allow to cool
to blood heat and add 1 teaspoon yeast.
Add the 4.5l (1 gal) water which
the heather shoots were boiled in.
Leave to ferment for 2-3 days, then
skim off any remaining fermentation, siphon off into bottles, screw down
tops and in 21 days you have alefitfor drinking.
Primrose Primula vulgaris
The flowers may be infused for tea, crystallised for decorating cakes or made
into a vinegar for which, according to Florence White in Good Things in England,
the housewives of Wakefield were famous.
Primrose Vinegar
Ingredients:
cold water 34l (30qt) ;
brown sugar 5.45kg (12lb) ;
primroses
9l (1 peck);
Yeast (compressed yeast, 25-50g,1-2oz).
Time: 10 minutes to
boil; a few days to stand; a year to mature in the cask.
Boil the water
and sugar together for 10 minutes.
Before it is cold add 9l (1 peck) primrose
petals and the yeast creamed with a little sugar.
Let it work for a few
days, stirring often. Put it in a barrel with the primroses.
Keep it in
the warmth and let it stand for 1 year.
Rose Rosa
Commonly called dogroses, not because of any similarity to the animal, but
from 'dag' the old word for thorn. There are many different kinds, but it
takes an expert to tell between them. Almost all bloom around June, sprawling
across hedgerows all over the country. Their fragile petals never attain the
density of smell of their garden relations, but a delicate conserve, wine
or syllabub can be made using wild roses or garden varieties.
Rose Wine
Put 2.2l (4pt) rose petals in a bowl and pour over 2.2l (4pt) boiling water.
Cover with butter muslin and leave until the water has become thoroughly
impregnated with the scent of the roses. Strain through a muslin squeezing
out all the liquid from the petals. Place liquid in a pan with 900g (2lb)
white sugar and bring slowly to the boil, skimming off any scum which rises.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Allow to cool to blood heat, then add some previously
activated yeast. Pour into a fermentation jar and either insert an airlock
or plug with cotton wool. Leave until all fermentation has ceased, then
bottle off. Keep for as long as possible before drinking to allow the perfume
to develop.
Rose Syllabub
Take the white of a new-laid egg and beat it well. Beat into it conserve
of roses until the whole is the consistency of cream.
Conserve of Roses
This recipe is a modernised version of the one given by that great seventeenth
century figure, Sir Kennelm Digby: Cut the white ends off 450g (1 lb)
scented red roses and boil the rest gently in 825ml (1½ pt) soft
water, keeping the pan covered, until the colour of the roses has bled
into the water and they look like pale linen. This will take from 30
minutes to 1 hour. Strain off the liquor, pressing the petals to make
sure that all the flavour, scent and colour is extracted.
Set the liquor on a gentle heat and add 450g (1 lb) castor sugar and when this is dissolved add a second pound, then a third and finally a fourth. Boil the 1.8kg (4lb) sugar with the rose liquor until it forms a syrup and sets when tested. Remove from the heat and immediately add some more pale-coloured, scented rose petals. Stir well to mix all uniformly. Allow to stand until cool and put in pots.
If you put the conserve into pots while it is still
quite warm and leave the pots uncovered for some days in the sun or in
a warm place, the top of the conserve will crystallise. This will preserve
the syrup against mould and paper tops will not be needed. Break the
candied crust to take out the conserve as required.
Rose Petal Jelly (for eating as jam) Make an
apple jelly in the same way as mint jelly leaving out the mint. Pound
scented rose petals (if a modern variety, cut off the white tip of each
petal first) in a mortar with a small quantity of castor or loaf sugar.
After this, put with a few tablespoons of water in a fireproof dish and
leave for 1 hour in a cool oven. The petals may be allowed to reach simmering
point but must never boil.
When it is apparent that the sugar and water have absorbed the flavour from the petals, strain, add the liquid to the boiling jelly and bring back to the boil. If the flavour is not strong enough, put the petal pulp in a muslin bag and plunge it in the boiling syrup for a few minutes.
