Wild garlic...

I seem to have spent most of the day in local woods, walking Rosie round Thorpe Wood this morning and leading a walk round Old Sulehay Forest this afternoon. Despite somewhat grey skies and the prospect of showers, the walk was very well-attended, with somewhere between thirty and forty people. I feel rather shattered after two and a half hours of explaining and identifying, often twice, as the group was too large for everyone to hear me when we were on the narrower paths.

The bluebells were amazing, and the wild garlic was just coming into flower. This relative of the onion family has flavoursome leaves, and there are now plenty of web-sites encouraging people to go out into the woods and forage for garlic leaves to make such delicious recipes as wild garlic pesto, risotto or frittata. Now, I love my food and enjoy gathering wild foods such as blackberries, mushrooms and samphire. But today, in both nature reserves, it was evident that people had been into the woods and had cut large patches of the garlic using shears.

I just don't think this is acceptable behaviour - it looks unsightly and spoils the enjoyment of those who use the site to enjoy nature, while the associated trampling is likely to cause long-term damage to the ground flora. If you do want to pick the leaves, stay on paths or tracks, and pick them by hand, never taking too many from any one area. No-one should be able to see where you've been...and you really shouldn't gather them in nature reserves...particularly when they are Sites of Special Scientific Interest.