WIld Garlic & Guinea Fowl Soup....Taste of Spring!

I am trying to think of how I am feeling right now after nearly an entire week of only eating greens from the hedgerows, the back fields, the forest floor and my little garden….

Most of what we have eaten are wild garlic (it’s in season right now) dandelion, nettle and the few little shoots coming up in the garden early in spring. We are getting some kale, sprouting broccoli, lots of fresh herbs such as parsley and lovage as well as some spring onion and a few small leeks.

Overall it is a very green diet! It compliments meat and fish wonderfully though and hardly even needs any other 'tastes' to go along with it. And of course, I am still wondering about all of this eating seasonally…

The starchy vegetables such as carrots, turnip, sweet potatoes and pumpkins are not available this time of year (unless forced to grow in hot houses) and from other places on the planet….so perhaps we might enjoy them later in the year.

Keeping this in mind (eating seasonally) maybe our guts do far better during the spring eating mainly greens as our main type of vegetable and less (or none) of the winter vegetables.

I know I certainly feel lighter in myself.

What is more though, is that I also feel as if I am far more in touch with the earth and her specific energy. What has changed or altered for me a little more is that I simply want to be outside….and it’s as if I am exploring the surroundings for the first time.

Again and again....with each year that passes I am learning or understanding nature more deeply. 

Today I made a Wild Garlic & Guinea Fowl stew….I placed an entire guinea fowl in the slow cooker with some lard from goat meat and water…then added in about 3 cups of chopped wild garlic, sage, salt and pepper.

This was on low for several hours until the meat was falling off the bones and very tender. I removed the meat from the bones and put it all back into the pot. But then added some brown lentils, nettle and a few dandelion leaves….oh and an onion!

This all cooked together for another half an hour…it is so simple – pure flavour and delicious! 

April

Wild Garlic & Guinea Fowl Stew

Wild Harvest - Wild Nutrition

I am in the middle of my holiday weekend – foraging for all our vegetables and I have noticed something quite interesting already….I just wanted to write this down as I am feeling/going through it (if you know what I mean!).

Some of you might be able to relate to this – or perhaps even all of you, so here goes…you know how after you eat a meal (even a big, satisfying one) and then you just want something sweet to go along with that?

Sometimes that need to have something sweet to top things off, so to speak, can drive you crazy – it did me. And it wasn’t necessarily something big…just a date or a fig (I have long since given up sugar and chocolate) but the ‘need’ to have it was there.

Well…I have noticed this before, but thought it was merely a coincidence but now I am certain it is not; When I eat a meal with lots of wild harvested vegetables such as today…the cravings for something sweet vanish.

It was a few hours later after my breakfast, of our own goose eggs, our own cheese, with our own milk, wild harvested nettle, dandelion and wild garlic – all made into a lovely omlette – that I realized I craved nothing….

For hours and hours afterwards I felt pleasantly ‘satisfied’ is the only word I can use here. And it was a marked difference to how I normally feel after eating any meal. Actually I did not even think about food for a few hours (and that in itself is strange for me!).

Of course, I have been mulling this over in my mind to see what my intuition would say about it and relate how I am feeling to my body, my digestion and the food I have been eating. There are quite a few interesting threads to follow here and I plan on looking at them all. But in the meantime....

This might have something to do with the amount of nutrients (would be very high) contained in the wild harvested vegetables….perhaps throughout the many generations of cultivation we have not done ourselves any favours with regards to retaining the plants as nature intended….

It has certainly given me food for thought and my weekend is not over yet! LOL

To keep some of the spring wild garlic for longer periods of time...I gathered about 500g of wild garlic, washed and chopped it into a food processor. Then added in about 500ml olive oil and 1 tablespoon sea salt. This was blended for a few minutes to mix thoroughly and then poured into sterilized Kilner jars.

I topped up each jar with a layer of oil and am hoping to use it over the coming months for just about everything! LOL

April

Wild Garlic in olive oil - ready for the winter months...