Foraging 101

The is the time of wild garlic and foragers head for the woods.

Novices are frequently warned about over-enthusiastic picking (ie grabbing handfuls instead of plucking one leaf at a time) because growing among the tasty stuff very often are the equally green and shiny leaves of Cuckoo Pint (or Lords and Ladies), a common member of the Arum family which is toxic.

 Fortunately its leaves are so caustic that once in the mouth they would be rapidly ejected and very unlikely to be swallowed. Nevertheless, better safe than sorry so just pick the narrow pointed leaves of wild garlic and not those bigger, crinkly and often (but not always!) black-spotted ones that will give you cause to regret.


Wild garlic by Sean Hewitt

Out in the copse after rain
(too late after dark to be here).
Warm soil, woodlice dripping
from the underside of leaves.

I root down to the tender stalks
and twist them free – soaked petals
dip and touch my arm, kernels
of bud, itch of foliage, of wildness

on my skin. The wood is carrying
the smell, earth-rich, too heavy
to lift above head-height, and my boots
and jeans are bleached with it.

I turn home, and all across the floor
the spiked white flowers
light the way. The world is dark
but the wood is full of stars.