Chickweed Pakora
River Cottage
If you have clumps of chickweed growing in your garden or nearby, don’t neglect the opportunity to whip up these tasty pakoras. They take just ten minutes to prepare and five minutes to cook – and, as noted by the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, are the best use of an otherwise pretty stringy veg. He writes, ‘This is a difficult recipe to get wrong - almost any quantities of the various ingredients will work – just make sure you use plenty of salt.’ Noted. Get the recipe.
Pickled Blackberry & Whipped Feta Tartines
Delicious
We’re not quite in blackberry season yet but when the moment rolls around, we’ll be ready and waiting with these beautiful tartines. The tangy whipped feta is beautifully offset by the tart yet sweet berries, and then lent texture and a pepper kick via the rocket. Perfect for serving up for quick yet impressive and nutritious lunches under the sun. Get the recipe.
Hedgerow Ketchup
BBC Good Food
If your little folk – or indeed you – regard most food as a vehicle to be smothered in ketchup, then behold this healthier hedgerow version of the classic condiment. Made using foraged elderberries, blackberries, hawthorn haws or crab apples, it’s a fruity take – minus any of the usual flavouring or preservatives, as well as the plastic bottle. Perfect for slathering onto barbecue hot dogs, burgers – and anything else that floats your boat. Get the recipe.
Hedgerow Jelly
BBC
Blackberries, sloes, damsons, rose hips, haws, elderberries, rowan berries and crab apples: all make perfect raw ingredients for jam, which we like to then store away for the cooler months as a delicious remnant of the summer. All you need is fruit, sugar and sterilised jars to makes these Brambly Hedge-worthy store cupboard staples. Get the recipe.
Hedgerow Pudding
The Happy Foodie
Toast’s Jessica Seaton is the author of Gather Cook Feast: Recipes from Land and Water by the Co-Founder of Toast, whose pages are filled with lovely examples of foods native to these lands. We especially like her Hedgerow Pudding, which is as fun to forage for as it is to demolish. She says, ‘Blackberrying is the sort of foraging everyone knows and loves. Raspberries, damsons and plums can be found in the wild too, if you are lucky. The damsons add a wonderful extra sharpness to the fruit but can be hard to find. In need, replace with a good sharp plum.’ Get the recipe.
Elderberry Vodka
The Field
Elderberries are easy to gather and simple to store in the freezer. However, if you’re looking for another way to make them last, why not concoct a bottle of elderberry vodka, which will last and last (so long as you don’t quaff it over-zealously) and is so pretty it even makes for a great present come birthdays and other celebrations. Do note, you’ll need to hold your horses: it requires storing for a month before consuming. Get the recipe.
Crab Apple Chilli Chutney
Bangers & Balls
People so often walk past a crab apple tree, with their bright little fruits, demanding attention but more often than not, ignored. Once cooked, they have a marvellous intense flavour, not forgetting the colour they bring to the party. The most popular thing to do is to make crab apple jelly but there are others to try. You can freeze crab apples and then bring them out at Halloween to make Crab Apple Toffee Sticks, which are much easier to handle and eat. Bangers & Balls also suggests making crab apple syrup, as it has good dose of citrus flavours, working well in cocktails. However, our choice is to make this fiery chutney which is perfect with cheese, pork or some feisty bangers, courtesy f Bangers & Balls. Get the recipe.
