#spring greens

Henbit, chickweed, purple deadnettle, and sheep sorrel.

And so...

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) . Scotland, March 2026

We're well into the season and the buds are coming up. We grabbed some leaves, and a whole bunch of flower buds, looking under all the leaves to hunt them down 🌱😁

The big warning for wild garlic is to not get them confused with lily of the valley, whose leaves look similar, and is toxic. Last year I did come across some lily, on the edge of the woods meeting with gardens, and I was able to handle the leaves - they are much firmer than the more flimsy-feeling wild garlic, and if you thought the "distinct garlicky smell" of wild garlic was a bit faint, you will be able to distinguish lookalikes that smell distinctly of "green stuff" instead of the more pleasant garlic smell.

The other ID signs of course apply, with lily having two leaves growing from the same base where wild garlic pushes only one leaf out per foot.

Things to do with the stuff?

Well we're planning to pickle the flower buds for wild capers, and turn the leaves to pesto.

We're also thinking of making a wild sushi roll using a whole leaf in lieu of/along with a nori sheet.

And of course chopping it into a salad, blitzing it into a pesto, incorporating it as greens to soup, inviegling it into a saag, all are options we need to explore.

How about, as a tidy wrap for gambas al ajillo ? Make finger food less messy! (I know many people love the greasy messiness of finger food, I loathe it)

Spring Greens

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