The Perils of Wild Garlic
Allium ursinum: wild garlic, ramsons, wood garlic, bear garlic, broad-leaved garlic
I picked my first handful of wild garlic of this year whilst on a very wet woodland walk yesterday. The season has started and with it begins the annual flurry of blog post with recipes for wild garlic pesto or teaching you how to forage responsibly. This is not one of those blogs.
What I want to talk to you about is something that often gets overlooked: foraging safely.
There is one plant in particular that I’d like you to be aware of and that’s Arum maculatum, also know by its common names such as cuckoo pint, lords and ladies and red hot pokers among others. All parts of the plant are highly toxic to people (but an important food source for wildlife) and it grows in the same conditions as wild garlic, and often in amongst it.
When fully grown, the leaves of Arum maculatum are quite distinct from those of wild garlic, being a deeper green, are spear-shaped rather than elliptical and have a fairly obvious vein that runs all the way around the leaf, just inside the edge (the ‘Ring of Danger’).
However, in its early stages of growth it is much lighter in colour, the leaves are often elliptical and the veining is less obvious, especially if you’re not looking for it. So a handful of wild garlic could well contain a leaf or two of Arum maculatum and, unless you’re fastidious in your checking of your foraged haul, the first you know about it is when your lips, tongue and throat begin to swell.
Have a look at the photos below and see if you can spot the Arum maculatum leaf.
Now you know what to look out for, here are my top tips for staying safe:
Pick leaves individually rather than grabbing handfuls; this is better practice as you won’t be removing large clumps and you can choose the best leaves and know exactly what you’re picking
Check each leaf when you get back to your kitchen; I look at each leaf and this allows me to take out the other interlopers such as bluebell leaves and grasses that inevitably appear if you don’t follow tip 1. The few minutes spent doing this takes far less time than a trip to A&E
Make sure you do both of the previous tips; There’s nothing like double-checking to be sure about something
And if you’re looking for an inspiring recipe then I highly recommend this one for pickled wild garlic flowers, although you’ll have to wait a few weeks for the buds to appear.
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