A good salad
I made a good salad the other day - all wild field produce again, just from some sorrel ("Culpepper tells us: 'Sorrel is prevalent in all hot diseases, to cool any inflammation and heat of blood in agues pestilential or choleric, or sickness or fainting, arising from heat, and to refresh the overspent spirits with the violence of furious or fiery fits of agues: to quench thirst, and procure an appetite in fainting or decaying stomachs: For it resists the putrefaction of the blood, kills worms, and is a cordial to the heart, which the seed doth more effectually, being more drying and binding..."):
plus some young shoots of rose bay willow-herb ("The roots and leaves have demulcent, tonic and astringent properties and are used in domestic medicine in decoction, infusion and cataplasm, as astringents"):
And some young dandelion leaves which are a little too bitter for my taste, even this early in the season, but ok when mixed with the sweetness of the sorrel. Anyway, the whole thing was very good, dressed with some extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper.
I was starting to clear our carrot patch:
when I got sidetracked by the herb-gathering, so of course we had to have some roots for dandelion coffee:
- which tasted much better this time. I roasted the roots longer and slower, and used more of them.
Well, the carrot patch still isn't dug, because of a certain tiny (but very healthy-looking) willow sapling:
- that seems to have decided to make its home in there. I wanted to move it, not kill it (willow being so useful and all) so I looked around for a better position for the new tree, and found one right in the middle of a huge bramble patch. So I decided that the brambles also needed moving and the sapling transplanting before I could dig the carrot patch (still with me?!) and you can see some photos of that over there.
Next job: carrot patch. Really.
plus some young shoots of rose bay willow-herb ("The roots and leaves have demulcent, tonic and astringent properties and are used in domestic medicine in decoction, infusion and cataplasm, as astringents"):
And some young dandelion leaves which are a little too bitter for my taste, even this early in the season, but ok when mixed with the sweetness of the sorrel. Anyway, the whole thing was very good, dressed with some extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper.
I was starting to clear our carrot patch:
when I got sidetracked by the herb-gathering, so of course we had to have some roots for dandelion coffee:
- which tasted much better this time. I roasted the roots longer and slower, and used more of them.
Well, the carrot patch still isn't dug, because of a certain tiny (but very healthy-looking) willow sapling:
- that seems to have decided to make its home in there. I wanted to move it, not kill it (willow being so useful and all) so I looked around for a better position for the new tree, and found one right in the middle of a huge bramble patch. So I decided that the brambles also needed moving and the sapling transplanting before I could dig the carrot patch (still with me?!) and you can see some photos of that over there.
Next job: carrot patch. Really.
posted by Gill at
9:41 AM
0 Comments
