From the garden of the wild

I used to be passionate about growing vegetables but things change and now the local farmers' market is an easier option. It's on every Saturday not much more than a mile away. But even closer, and always available, is the natural garden that surrounds us in the countryside. There's something to be found at every season of the year and now that spring is upon us the greens are ready to pick.

On the return leg of my afternoon dog walk, I collected what you see in the trug. On the right are the leafy stems of Alexanders ( Smyrnium olusatrum), a wonderful plant that grows in profusion in our coastal zone. It belongs to the same family as carrot, celery, angelica and caraway. It's a native of the Mediterranean area and may have been introduced by the Romans. Because it originates in a warmer clime it gets going early and this is the time to pick it, when the flowers are still in bud. All parts are edible but the stems are best. Remove the leaves and side-stalks, peel the stems to remove the outer skin, then cut them into short lengths, and down the middle. What you are left with looks rather like strips of celery. Blanch them or boil until tender and eat them with pepper, salt and butter, like asparagus. Or, do as I do, and put them in the oven for a few more minutes, with a sprinkling of cheese on top.

Next, there's a bunch of more familiar dandelion leaves (Taraxacum officinale) which can be used as cooked greens or in salads. I'm planning to try a Slovenian recipe which involves wilting the leaves under warm potatoes, adding sliced hard boiled egg and garnishing the whole with some fried bacon and vinegar dressing.

The third item is a handful of wild garlic, or ramsons, (Allium ursinum), plucked straight from the path minutes from home. In recent years it has become a fashionable ingredient for cutting-edge chefs but for us it has long been a standby. The deep green leaves carry their rich aroma into salads or omelettes and can be used as addition or adjunct to anything that is improved by the flavour of garlic. Last year I used the pretty white flowers that will emerge later to scent a bottle of olive oil.

Not everyone likes these wild comestibles. Alexanders has a strong and unusual taste and dandelion leaves can be bitter while just walking through a patch of ramsons can be overpowering. We have become accustomed to the blander flavours resulting from intensive agriculture and supermarket commerce but sometimes it's good remind ourselves about the stuff out there that tastes - really wild!

My entry for this week's vegetable challenge.