Wild Edibles: Grow or Gather Your Own Wild Garlic
– by Heather Gardner
When you take a sprightly step to your local woodland for a sunny spring stroll, you may be greeted by the tantalizing whiff of garlic on a beckoning breeze. If you follow your nose, your heart will be rewarded by an emerald carpet of sulfurous splendor, laid out before you on the forests ferny floor. You have just struck Wild Gold!
Identifying and Collecting Wild Garlic
Wild Garlic, also known Ramsons, is a wild relative of chives. It grows prolifically in patches, usually in forests. It has long broad leaves and a single flower stalk that rises from the center and explodes into a white globe of star like, little white flowers, which looks like a white bluebell. The leaves can easily be mistaken for the poisonous Lily of the Valley. The best way to identify it is to rub the leaves between your fingers, which should produce a garlic-like smell. Make sure to pick it well away from roads. Even though the flowers and the bulbs are edible, I like to leave them in the earth to ensure the growth of next years crop. A good way to harvest the leaves is to pinch them off or snip with scissors just short of the base of the leaf. By doing this the leaf continues to grow and acts like a ‘cut and come again’ garlic!
Flavour and Uses of Wild Garlic
The leaves can be used raw in salads, or as a seasoning to replace ordinary garlic, as it has a similar taste and health benefits. As a vegetable it can be used like spinach as an ingredient for recipes such as pesto, or as a garnish on soup. Its initial chive-like taste gives way to a garlicky aftertaste, although it’s much less pungent and without such a strong lingering scent. Wild garlic is tastiest before flowering and best eaten soon after being picked as the flavour diminishes with time. It usually starts to appear in March and is good up until June, perfect timing for a spring detox.
Health Benefits of Wild Garlic
- Contains more magnesium, manganese, iron and sulfur compounds than common garlic.
- Rich in vitamin C, A, B, Folic Acid, Iron, & Protein.
- Wild garlic acts as a prebiotic, encouraging the growth of friendly bacteria and benefiting the digestive system. This is vital if you suffer from diabetes, have been on a course of antibiotics or have a weakened immune system.
- Wild garlic also has mild antiseptic, antibacterial & antiviral properties to ward off spring coughs and sniffles.
- Makes a great blood & skin-cleansing herb that has a long history as a favourite tonic spring herb.
- Can reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure, promotes a healthy heart & circulatory system.
- Medical research shows that the garlic family helps to neutralize toxins in the liver.
Alternatives to Wild Garlic
Wild Garlic doesn’t grow in North America but some similar wild edibles that do can be used instead. These are, Three-cornered leek, found along the coasts of Oregon and California, Ramps (Wild Leeks) grows from South Carolina to Canada and Garlic Mustard.
Cultivating Wild Garlic
It is possible to cultivate wild garlic in the domestic garden and it does an excellent job of repelling moles. It can be grown from saved seed, or existing bulbs can be divided in the last weeks of summer just before the plant dies down for the winter. In the right conditions, wild garlic will propagate itself well.
Meet Heather Gardner
Heather is a lifelong 3rd generation vegetarian, Raw Food and Kundalini Yoga Teacher. She began learning about herbs and wild foods at a young age from her herbalist mother while growing up on a remote mountainside in Ireland and delving into the world of foraging, potion making, nutrition, and raw & living foods as a teenager searching for answers to numerous health challenges.
At 20 she began learning and experimenting with the Raw Lifestyle and in 2005 she began to move onto a raw diet and has transitioned to a balanced high raw diet over time. She has studied Natural Nutrition and many other healing modalities and has over 10 years experience as a Natural Remedies, Health & Beauty manager and Brand manager within the UK Natural Products industry, and helping people to achieve better health naturally. Now she lives in the west of Ireland, teaching and running her business www.consciousearthcompany.com as well as running after her feisty little toddler! Connect with Heather on Facebook here.
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