I saw something about recipe cards pop up the other day, made a mental note to try them out and immediately forgot about them! This is so typical of me so all praise to you for being on the ball so to speak….
I love foraging for l’ail des ours though have to travel a good 40km round trip~en voiture sadly~but tomorrow I am meeting Betty for lunch and can return via the only place I’ve found to collect some - I will try out your recipe with walnuts instead of pine nuts as I have kilos of them!
Me too! I saw that, then forgot about it until I was asked what the recipe was. Serendipitous! I rather enjoyed the process, and I know for a fact that anything you share similarly will go down very well with your readers (being one of them, I’d love to sneakily peek inside your own process of preserving and cooking things!).
We are certainly blessed with our wild garlic here, so much so that I suspect it was deliberately spread and cultivated in the woods at some point—it is below an understorey of hazel/noisette, themselves below some gnarly, ancient sweet chestnuts. The more I walk in these woods, the more I work out how they used to be used—now, so much is simply going to waste, too many nuts for even the mice, birds, and sanglier to eat—many are they’re still there in spring. (Which is great, as it means we have lots of wildlife!)
Do have a grand time with Betty, makes me very happy you are getting to meet up and then forage in the same journey, feels somewhat right, a balm in these turbulent times of ours.
Thank you Alex, I am giving some thought to what recipe might be the most enjoyed by my readers... it may have to wait for the elderflowers or berries, or maybe the dandelions!
The wild garlic here grows in an ancient beech wood, there are wild daffodils on the slopes and a host of other flora (trillium, dicentra...) that are absent on the dry slopes of my own hill. I don't think I've ever come away without having discovered another new plant. In fact there are so many I am beginning to wonder if it has some sort of micro climate, one that is cooler and damper than here but can find no written evidence.
Betty and I had an exceptionally delicious vegetarian meal and a lovely chat about all things French and Substack too. We are meeting up again in April, (location secret for now) to work on a little collab for posting later this spring.
I am quite excited to hear about your collaboration. Shall look forward to that.
Elder is always a great option, as people can find it all over, dandelions, even better! Everything is unfurling here, many of the trees are sending out their pollen, which seems to be lodging itself into my nose, throat, and eyes at the moment.
I'm making a point of getting out into the woods more, mostly because I put my camera out there, and want to keep changing the SD card (and check it hasn't disappeared). This was a deliberate choice because, although I WANT to get out more, I so often don't, squeezing out more time at the desk instead.
We have a lot of beech here, too, but mostly on the opposite slope of the village. It is remarkable how different the soil and plants from wood to wood, I think a lot of the written evidence simply doesn't exist here or, if it does, it is locked away somewhere, out of sight. There doesn't seem to be the same record keeping as there was in much of the UK, my theory being that much of those records were kept by the Church of England vicars, with lots of time and money on their hands.
This morning, I heard three different woodpeckers, greater spotted, lesser spotted, and black, but I've yet to see or hear a yaffle here, although I know they're not far away. Just some sanglier and badger on the camera, but pretty good videos, especially of the badger, who usually is only seen disappearing!
I seem to have the opposite problem! I cannot sit still when the weather is so wonderful... all my writing is limited to very early morning and later in the evening, if I am lucky enough to have no work-work pressing, which isn't often the case.
I agree with you re the written evidence of everything historical, botanical, geological and geographical here too, it seems to me only the most wealthy of villages and towns have any real archives and even then the information is sketchy, I fine it incredibly frustrating and local historians are difficult to pin down.
It is a rare day I don't see a Yaffle! They are more common than any other woodpecker here. The least common is the Black Woodpecker but just occasionally I hear its very distinct call and then spot that unmistakable flight pattern that all woodpeckers have as it dashes to a better hiding place. They are without doubt the most timid too... We have both lesser and greater spotted peckers on the terrace frequently, a joy to watch and clever, they know so well the moment I have a camera in my hand!
I am still very envious of your camera Alex, I know a badger has passed through my tiny patch of woodland, I've seen his footprints and scat! A couple of weeks ago I found the neighbours camera strapped to a pine tree, lens directed on a tracks probably made by a fox, the temptation to just borrow it and replace it was great! Of course I left it untouched but I may ask to borrow it for a week later in the season when there is a possibility of cubs too.
It is honestly my pleasure! And thank you for inspiring me to actually share the recipe, too.
And I’m the same—we are lucky, in that we have space down in the workshop and heating room to store glass jars and bottles—I collect many of them all year long (and sometimes get told it is too many, but then no one complains when they get refilled…!).
I learned from you that "ail des ours" is called bear garlic in English -- I had only heard of it in French. It is quite popular in some restaurants here, but I've never foraged it.
Sadly I didn't make it Alex, just as I was about to turn off onto the lanes that would take me to the placeI know I had a call from Seth asking if I would grab him from the lycée, his last two classes had been cancelled! I will try again this weekend although I fear mowing the rather long grass may take precedent.
Leave the grass! Get the garlic! The grass will still be there, after all, the garlic will soon go. I think our weather is due to switch again at the weekend. We've had some sunny days this week, following the crazy snow and cold last weekend. The ski station above us got an extra 25cm again, just as it was the last weekend it is open.
We have rain coming this Sunday too Alex, after a week of temps in the low 20’s, which has been heavenly!
Hmm, in the end I had no choice, as seems to always the case at the beginning of the season, all my machines are still in hibernation mode and need a tickle here and there to wake them; a job I have very gratefully passed on to my very mechanical minded son after years of cursing at having to do it myself! But there seems to be something serendipitous about having cranky machines this year… I have found the smallest patch of wild garlic close by! I can’t quite believe it… I am reluctant to harvest any of the flowers though as Id like to think it will spread over the years to come. I have everything crossed!
I had never looked up the price of it from eg Amazon until this week—it’s ridiculous how much it costs! The first name I knew it by was ramsons, and I love how many different names it seems to possess. There’s no tying it down to one! Bear garlic is my favourite, though, and I do wonder how long it will be before bears are actually munching through it again here in France? (I know they’ve increasingly been visiting the French Alps, so maybe they are already here, eating it!)
As for foraging, it is a great way to start the year—very hard to mistake it for something else, thanks to that smell! (It is possible to confuse with lilies, but they don’t smell the same.)
Wild garlic pesto is amazing. If you're doing walnuts next, I suggest roasting them first. As long as containers are clean, I found that it lasts a good while in the fridge, but it does seem to get stronger the longer I've left it.
We have so many walnuts this year—living near Grenoble means so many people have them in their gardens, then give them away! Shall try with roasting them, too, thanks, always willing to do something different.
It does get a bit stronger in the fridge! Yes! That said, it is nowhere near as strong as the fermented leaves I’m trialling at the moment. They’ve had five days, so far, and smell amazing (or not, if you are my daughter, who thinks they smell beurk).
Fantastic! I’m hopeful you enjoy it as much as we do. It is such a great plant to use, as there’s always just so much of it (at least here, there is).
Aurélie did notice that, in her inbox, at least, the recipe card didn’t like my long answers to ‘Serves’ and ‘Equipment’, but it looks okay in mine, and online.
I just might have to share some more recipes too—if you have extra wild garlic, maybe make some salt, too? It’s super easy (blend a few handfuls of leaves with salt, then add more salt, blend, dry, and then use), and it keeps for ages, adding that flavour with a small sprinkle. I made around 900 grams, to last for some time!
I have to wonder if this would work with the wild ramps that are so plentiful in West Virginia in the Spring. Usually they are only eaten fresh in the Spring but I would love to be able to do more with them. Thank you for the recipe.
I think that would work with ramps, too, yes! I have read something, somewhere, about people using them instead. I’m sure there’s something online about it but, honestly, I’d just give it a go with this recipe, keep tasting and you probably can’t go wrong. And it is my pleasure to share, it was quite lovely to do so, something different to create. Thanks for your words!
after suggesting fermenting them the other day I found a recipe I'd written last year for a kind of curtido that includes them (and was delicious) - cabbage, carrot, onion, chili pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and wild garlic and of course 2% salt, ferment for about a week. Goes really nicely with tacos.
I saw something about recipe cards pop up the other day, made a mental note to try them out and immediately forgot about them! This is so typical of me so all praise to you for being on the ball so to speak….
I love foraging for l’ail des ours though have to travel a good 40km round trip~en voiture sadly~but tomorrow I am meeting Betty for lunch and can return via the only place I’ve found to collect some - I will try out your recipe with walnuts instead of pine nuts as I have kilos of them!
Me too! I saw that, then forgot about it until I was asked what the recipe was. Serendipitous! I rather enjoyed the process, and I know for a fact that anything you share similarly will go down very well with your readers (being one of them, I’d love to sneakily peek inside your own process of preserving and cooking things!).
We are certainly blessed with our wild garlic here, so much so that I suspect it was deliberately spread and cultivated in the woods at some point—it is below an understorey of hazel/noisette, themselves below some gnarly, ancient sweet chestnuts. The more I walk in these woods, the more I work out how they used to be used—now, so much is simply going to waste, too many nuts for even the mice, birds, and sanglier to eat—many are they’re still there in spring. (Which is great, as it means we have lots of wildlife!)
Do have a grand time with Betty, makes me very happy you are getting to meet up and then forage in the same journey, feels somewhat right, a balm in these turbulent times of ours.
Thank you Alex, I am giving some thought to what recipe might be the most enjoyed by my readers... it may have to wait for the elderflowers or berries, or maybe the dandelions!
The wild garlic here grows in an ancient beech wood, there are wild daffodils on the slopes and a host of other flora (trillium, dicentra...) that are absent on the dry slopes of my own hill. I don't think I've ever come away without having discovered another new plant. In fact there are so many I am beginning to wonder if it has some sort of micro climate, one that is cooler and damper than here but can find no written evidence.
Betty and I had an exceptionally delicious vegetarian meal and a lovely chat about all things French and Substack too. We are meeting up again in April, (location secret for now) to work on a little collab for posting later this spring.
I am quite excited to hear about your collaboration. Shall look forward to that.
Elder is always a great option, as people can find it all over, dandelions, even better! Everything is unfurling here, many of the trees are sending out their pollen, which seems to be lodging itself into my nose, throat, and eyes at the moment.
I'm making a point of getting out into the woods more, mostly because I put my camera out there, and want to keep changing the SD card (and check it hasn't disappeared). This was a deliberate choice because, although I WANT to get out more, I so often don't, squeezing out more time at the desk instead.
We have a lot of beech here, too, but mostly on the opposite slope of the village. It is remarkable how different the soil and plants from wood to wood, I think a lot of the written evidence simply doesn't exist here or, if it does, it is locked away somewhere, out of sight. There doesn't seem to be the same record keeping as there was in much of the UK, my theory being that much of those records were kept by the Church of England vicars, with lots of time and money on their hands.
This morning, I heard three different woodpeckers, greater spotted, lesser spotted, and black, but I've yet to see or hear a yaffle here, although I know they're not far away. Just some sanglier and badger on the camera, but pretty good videos, especially of the badger, who usually is only seen disappearing!
I seem to have the opposite problem! I cannot sit still when the weather is so wonderful... all my writing is limited to very early morning and later in the evening, if I am lucky enough to have no work-work pressing, which isn't often the case.
I agree with you re the written evidence of everything historical, botanical, geological and geographical here too, it seems to me only the most wealthy of villages and towns have any real archives and even then the information is sketchy, I fine it incredibly frustrating and local historians are difficult to pin down.
It is a rare day I don't see a Yaffle! They are more common than any other woodpecker here. The least common is the Black Woodpecker but just occasionally I hear its very distinct call and then spot that unmistakable flight pattern that all woodpeckers have as it dashes to a better hiding place. They are without doubt the most timid too... We have both lesser and greater spotted peckers on the terrace frequently, a joy to watch and clever, they know so well the moment I have a camera in my hand!
I am still very envious of your camera Alex, I know a badger has passed through my tiny patch of woodland, I've seen his footprints and scat! A couple of weeks ago I found the neighbours camera strapped to a pine tree, lens directed on a tracks probably made by a fox, the temptation to just borrow it and replace it was great! Of course I left it untouched but I may ask to borrow it for a week later in the season when there is a possibility of cubs too.
Thanks Alexander, I feel honoured to have this recipe now as we have so much wild garlic in the garden. We're over run with it.
The family loves pesto. We've saved lots of jars ready for jam-making so we'll probably get working on it right away!
It is honestly my pleasure! And thank you for inspiring me to actually share the recipe, too.
And I’m the same—we are lucky, in that we have space down in the workshop and heating room to store glass jars and bottles—I collect many of them all year long (and sometimes get told it is too many, but then no one complains when they get refilled…!).
I learned from you that "ail des ours" is called bear garlic in English -- I had only heard of it in French. It is quite popular in some restaurants here, but I've never foraged it.
Betty I will be stopping off the forage Bear garlic en my return from Rodez tomorrow!!
Oh this makes me happy!
Sadly I didn't make it Alex, just as I was about to turn off onto the lanes that would take me to the placeI know I had a call from Seth asking if I would grab him from the lycée, his last two classes had been cancelled! I will try again this weekend although I fear mowing the rather long grass may take precedent.
Leave the grass! Get the garlic! The grass will still be there, after all, the garlic will soon go. I think our weather is due to switch again at the weekend. We've had some sunny days this week, following the crazy snow and cold last weekend. The ski station above us got an extra 25cm again, just as it was the last weekend it is open.
We have rain coming this Sunday too Alex, after a week of temps in the low 20’s, which has been heavenly!
Hmm, in the end I had no choice, as seems to always the case at the beginning of the season, all my machines are still in hibernation mode and need a tickle here and there to wake them; a job I have very gratefully passed on to my very mechanical minded son after years of cursing at having to do it myself! But there seems to be something serendipitous about having cranky machines this year… I have found the smallest patch of wild garlic close by! I can’t quite believe it… I am reluctant to harvest any of the flowers though as Id like to think it will spread over the years to come. I have everything crossed!
Oh great! I like it…
I had never looked up the price of it from eg Amazon until this week—it’s ridiculous how much it costs! The first name I knew it by was ramsons, and I love how many different names it seems to possess. There’s no tying it down to one! Bear garlic is my favourite, though, and I do wonder how long it will be before bears are actually munching through it again here in France? (I know they’ve increasingly been visiting the French Alps, so maybe they are already here, eating it!)
As for foraging, it is a great way to start the year—very hard to mistake it for something else, thanks to that smell! (It is possible to confuse with lilies, but they don’t smell the same.)
Wild garlic pesto is amazing. If you're doing walnuts next, I suggest roasting them first. As long as containers are clean, I found that it lasts a good while in the fridge, but it does seem to get stronger the longer I've left it.
We have so many walnuts this year—living near Grenoble means so many people have them in their gardens, then give them away! Shall try with roasting them, too, thanks, always willing to do something different.
It does get a bit stronger in the fridge! Yes! That said, it is nowhere near as strong as the fermented leaves I’m trialling at the moment. They’ve had five days, so far, and smell amazing (or not, if you are my daughter, who thinks they smell beurk).
Love that my Mother in Law has inspired this recipe.
We love pesto in this house and so especially excited to make our own with the masses of wild garlic popping up all over the place.
Also great to see the recipe card in action. Looking good!
Fantastic! I’m hopeful you enjoy it as much as we do. It is such a great plant to use, as there’s always just so much of it (at least here, there is).
Aurélie did notice that, in her inbox, at least, the recipe card didn’t like my long answers to ‘Serves’ and ‘Equipment’, but it looks okay in mine, and online.
I just might have to share some more recipes too—if you have extra wild garlic, maybe make some salt, too? It’s super easy (blend a few handfuls of leaves with salt, then add more salt, blend, dry, and then use), and it keeps for ages, adding that flavour with a small sprinkle. I made around 900 grams, to last for some time!
Great tip!
I have to wonder if this would work with the wild ramps that are so plentiful in West Virginia in the Spring. Usually they are only eaten fresh in the Spring but I would love to be able to do more with them. Thank you for the recipe.
I think that would work with ramps, too, yes! I have read something, somewhere, about people using them instead. I’m sure there’s something online about it but, honestly, I’d just give it a go with this recipe, keep tasting and you probably can’t go wrong. And it is my pleasure to share, it was quite lovely to do so, something different to create. Thanks for your words!
after suggesting fermenting them the other day I found a recipe I'd written last year for a kind of curtido that includes them (and was delicious) - cabbage, carrot, onion, chili pepper, cumin, Mexican oregano, and wild garlic and of course 2% salt, ferment for about a week. Goes really nicely with tacos.