One Of Our Favourite Things To Forage - Lime Leaves

Now although my eldest asked if the "lemon" leaves were ready to eat yet, I was really pleased they'd remembered this foraged treat from last year.

Yes that is a Christmas jumper, no I don't care...

Even the Boy, who is going through a phase of not eating salad leaves, loves these.

Dandelion Bhajis

The girls love picking flowers, they are very stereotypical like that!

But here they had a purpose! They were picking them so I could make something. I wasn't exactly sure what but it seemed like a good reason to keep them busy for a while!

Forage And Feast Course - Harts Barn

This year for Christmas one of my presents from my mum was a days course at Harts Barn Cookery School. 

Amazing cooking facilities!

The course mum had booked was called "forage and feast" and she had booked it for this month because autumn is an abundant time of year, but mainly because she hates wild garlic and thought if we did it in the spring that would feature heavily.

Foraging A Meal

I always enjoy a simple bit of foraging food for a meal and I like teaching the children what they can look for.

Nettle Soup Mk2

I put on my facebook page last night that I was having nettles for tea and Sue from Our New Life In The Country Commented back about what I could make with it. It made me think about the first time I posted about nettle soup, three years ago almost to the day, that was the first time Sue commented on my blog after I got mentioned on Rhondas Down To Earth Blog on her Weekend Reading section. Before then I'd only had a few comments and that seemed to be the catalyst for having much more interaction with people in blogland and I haven't looked back since! So thank you Rhonda and Sue for that memory!

 Any way back to the nettle soup! I decided to make use of one of my wild "crops" that is growing on our homestead. Unfortunately to pick it I didn't have to go very far from my back door, the fact they were all picked within 20 yards doesn't say much for my garden really does it! 

I tried a different recipe this time, following one from river cottage (find it here) but I have to admit to not being that impressed with it. 

We did visit River Cottage once, many years ago before children, for a Saturday night meal and I've been trying to recreate their recipe ever since. I think this is why I'm always left slightly disappointed at my own attempts. This was still nice with a fresh baked loaf of granary bread but it wasn't what I remembered.

Does anyone else have a good recipe for nettle soup? One that might live up to what I've built it up to in my mind!

Nettle Soup

Last week we had our first meal from our smallholding, nettle soup! It's going to be a while until our veg is ready to eat so I thought a foraged meal would be a better place to start.

Nettle

Unfortunately, finding the nettles was far too easy.

Collecting your nettle in a old Waitrose bag makes them feel posher

The recipe i used goes as follows:

One carrier bag of nettles,

One onion,

Two garlic cloves,

One potato

1200ml of stock

salt and pepper

Adding them to the saucepan in batches as they soon wilt down

Fried the onion in a little oil till softened, then added the diced potato and garlic. fry these for 5 minutes before adding the stock and the nettles (well washed).

Wilted down nettles

Leave this to cook for 20 minutes then blend it together 



Blend it

Nice, cheap tea

 Although the soup was nice it did taste a little like it was missing something, maybe some herbs and spices would have improved it - anyone with any suggestions?