RECIPE FOR WILD GARLIC PESTO.

This is an incredibly easy recipe with tons of flavour ideal for simple pasta dishes and easily frozen for all year-round enjoyment.

Prep time 15 minutes

Ingredients

200g wild garlic leaves thoroughly washed

25g of pine nuts and 25g of cashews lightly roasted

50g of parmesan

Juice from half a lemon

150ml of good quality olive oil

1.

Roughly chop the wild garlic into 1-inch strips with a pair of kitchen scissors

2. Place the wild garlic, cashews, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil and half of the lemon juice in the blender and whizz it round until it’s a rough pesto

3.

Taste the pesto; season with salt and pepper as desired and add more lemon juice if needed

4.

Transfer to a 300g jar to keep in the fridge for two weeks or divide it into an ice tray and wrap in cling film to keep in the freezer for six months. You can easily pop out individual cubes when needed without defrosting the entire tray

Enjoy!

Why Our Hedgerows Matter

Hedgerows stretch across the length and breadth of the UK. Flanking and dividing fields, keeping livestock in place, creating boundaries between houses and providing a backdrop for gardens everywhere. A familiar sight to just about everyone, especially those who reside in the countryside.

But hedgerows are more than an attractive means to divide land. They are a lifeblood to wildlife and the environment. Without them our cities, towns and villages would face a devastating depletion of flora and fauna and in turn support for our fragile ecosystem.

Essentially, hedgerows offer a vital haven from human-life and traffic. Their prevalence means they act like corridors enabling creatures to move about, live, thrive and survive securely. Many animals build dens or setts beneath the safety of the hedgerow. Hedgerows also house insects and amphibians that in turn provide food for other wildlife such as birds, bats, hedgehogs, badgers, field mice and foxes. Hedgerows play an integral part in the cycle of life.

Many birds also rely on hedgerows for nesting and feeding. They are particularly important in the winter when there’s less insects around and the ground is too hard to peck. During the cold spell birds can survive on hawthorn, blackthorn, berries and bramble from hedgerows. And of course, with hedgerows often in close proximity to our homes we are blessed with the delight of gentle birdsong peppering our everyday lives.

But the benefits don’t stop there; hedgerows are important to farmland too. They help keep the soil fertile and healthy and reduce the impact of drought and flooding.

One inch of soil takes a staggering 500 to 1000 years for one inch of soil to form. Yet the most fertile topsoil can be washed away during heavy rainfall in a fraction of that time, decimating farmland fertility. Worryingly more than 85% of the UK’s fertile topsoil has been lost since 1850. Fertile soil isn’t just about having the ability to grow food, which is obviously crucial. Eradication of soil fertility is a significant problem, already costing us millions of pounds every year. Hedgerows help by reducing the impact of direct rainfall onto the land and assist in maintaining a healthy level of fertile soil. This, in turn, helps to slow down climate change as healthy soil stores more carbon.

When it comes to wildlife and climate change so many things can feel beyond our control. So it’s reassuring when it comes to hedgerows that we can actively help to maintain and control these indispensable elements of our magnificent landscape. See below for ways in which you can help support the critical work of British hedgerows.

• If you have the space, plant some hedgerows in your garden. Variety is important and you’re gifting wildlife an array of food and nesting possibilities

• Don’t allow pets to run about in hedgerows. This can worry wildlife and cause them to abandon nests or worse die.

• If you’re foraging blackberries or sloes, for example, only collect from where there’s an abundance of fruit and never take more than you need or leave a mess.

• Don’t tidy your garden to excess. Debris from hedgerows such as leaves, and twigs are home to thousands of insects.

• Trim your hedges in winter and not the nesting season from March to August. Trimming during nesting season can be catastrophic for wildlife.

Words by Mide Carter