Sultry Solstice Soup!

It's Solstice Season, and there's an air of climax around - plants around just seem to exude an aura of vitality and vigour, a celebratory fiesta of these long balmy sunny days that we've been so blessed by. It's a great joy of the forest gardener to feel so connected with the flux of the seasons as we work with these remarkable transformations that faithfully deliver our food year after year.

I've just come back from a two month trip abroad and so am astonished at the transformation here in Devon. Of course, I should know by now, but somehow nothing can prepare you for a change on such a scale! One thing I love about forest gardening is that I can go away for extended periods and return to find all my crops growing wonderfully, albeit often among a jungle of weeds!

This is more jungle gardening than forest gardening! But I'm always amazed by how easily one can retrieve such a situation, as long as care has been taken in the design, and one has not left things too long... and it's not just a chore, because many of these weeds are in fact yummy vegetables in their own right!

Three of the main contenders for me, and many other forest gardeners around are Hogweed, Cleavers and Nettles... but rather seeing them as a bore, lets harness their natural qualities to make nutritious and delicious dishes!

Why not make a solstice soup combining all three?

Common Hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium is to my mind one of the most underrated of wild vegetables. If it wasn't already growing so prolifically in my garden I would certainly plant some, as it one of the tastiest cut and come again vegetables I know...

Though young leaves and seeds can be gathered through other times of the year, this is my favourite season to harvest Hogweed, as it's now that the broccoli-like flower buds are just unfurling. Check out this especially juicy one - just begging to be picked!--->

Anyone who's tried Hogweed Broccoli knows what a treat it is! Succulent and tender with a very unique flavor, I recommend trying this one to all.

As always, exercise caution when foraging - Hogweed's North American cousin Giant Hogweed Heracleum Mantegazzianum is toxic and will even burn skin when cut. The two can be differentiated mainly by the sheer size of Giant Hogweed, which can reach 4 meters tall, whereas our native friend H.sphondylium is normally around head height. Always be sure before ingesting any wild plant!

As nettles and cleavers are already a little tough and stalky, we'll only be using the tips of these which will nevertheless impart their powerfully medicinal qualities to the soup...

So then the recipe! Serves Two Hungry People:

Sultry Solstice Soup

12 heads of Hogweed Broccoli
One handful of Nettle Tips
One handful of Cleaver Tips
One handful of Allium leaves or two cloves of Garlic.
One cup of Red Lentils
Tablespoon of Oil (Cold pressed Sunflower Oil is wonderful!)
Three Cups of Water
Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg to taste...

 First harvest all of your ingredients. Pick only the most tender top two inches of nettles and cleavers.. For the Hogweed - only harvest flowers before they have opened. These have a much finer taste and texture than mature blossom.

Heat your oil gently, ideally in a casserole pan. Add finely chopped allium leaves from your garden or alternatively use garlic cloves.

Babington's Leek leaves make a fantastic perennial garlic substitute - and are available for most of the year. In a forest garden buying onion and garlic can be a thing of the past!

These herb scissors pictured take five cuts every time you take one. Gifted to me by my friend Clare, highly recommended for the forest gardener!

Peel the outer skin off the Hogweed flowers if they are still unopened and throw them in whole (if you have no blending facility, chop them up).

Fry gently for a few minutes.When garlic is beginning to brown, add water and red lentils to the pan. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and add nettles, cleavers, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Blend the soup well, cut yourself a couple of slices of bread and you're ready to go! If you're looking for a tangy twist try adding some Sea Buckthorn Juice to the bowl to give it that forest garden edge! Bon Appetite! :)

Mulberries - in Bulgaria and in the UK

I've been travelling around Greece and Bulgaria for the past couple of months, helping out with projects of regeneration and sustainability. As always, along the way I've been checking out the local wild flora, horticulture and food culture for interesting new species, and local customs of growing or cooking plants that I may be able to learn from.

One species that I've been especially drawn to lately is the Mulberry - here is Bulgaria they appear to grow mostly Morus Alba - the White Mulberry, and less commonly Morus Nigra, or Black Mulberry. The two can be distinguished by the hairy underside of the leaves of the Black Mulberry, which make them less palatable than the pleasantly smooth leaves of the Morus Alba, which are great in salads!

As I write this my hands are stained black by their juice and my tummy full to the brim! In this village of Vishovgrad street after street are lined with beautiful old specimins, most of which have been pollarded - here in Bulgaria Mulberry trees can grow very large indeed! I came across this veteran pictured below in an abandoned village in one of the driest regions of Bulgaria in the Rhodope Mountains.
It is clearly a tree that feels very at home in dry regions...



I wonder how old this one could be? I'm sure it would have at least lived through Bulgaria's war for Independence against the Ottoman in the 19th century...

The locals here call the fruit Bobonka - derived from the same root as 'Bonbon' - little sweets hanging from the trees that are so abundant in quantity that grown ups here tend to leave the bulk of them for the kids to eat! I'm obviously still young at heart since I've been gorging myself on mouthful after mouthful of them for the past few days.

The fruits of Morus Alba can ripen white, pink or dark black, depending on the tree. Here the birds are simply overwhelmed with fruit, and would never take more than a fraction of the crop, but back in the UK I wonder if these white fruited varieties would be less tempting to our often over zealous feathered friends. It certainly works well with white currants, cherries and strawberries, so I will see if I can extract some white fruiting mulberry varieties to bring back to my nursery too.

In the UK we know that Morus Nigra fruits prolifically... So much so that they fell out of favor as street trees because the falling ripe fruits would stain the pavements underneath!

I wonder if any readers have experience in growing Morus Alba, or any of the hybrid mulberries in the UK? If you'd like to share any of your experiences in growing Mulberries in the UK, I'd be very interested to hear from you. Please do write in to the usual email address - symbiosisnursery@gmail.com

As well as having my eye on some Bulgarian strains, I will be propagating three different cultivars of Mulberry in my nursery, including the esteemed 'Illinois Everbearing' and 'Italian' - available by 2018.