eat WILD! Discover free food
JULY'S TASTY TREATS: ROSE, NETTLE SEED, CLOVER, WILD CHERRY & MANY MORE
eat WILD!
eatwild.org.uk Brought to you by The Association of Foragers, an international group of professional foragers, foraging educators, authors, herbalists and harvesters. foragers-association.org The title Eat Wild! is used with permission of Duncan Mackay, author of a book with the same name. udderdishbeeleaf.com. Design: paperhino.co.uk
When you watch David Attenborough or Springwatch or something like that on the telly, the place the animals live is called their habitat. Last month I wrote about people being part of nature. Despite all our modern ways, we are animals too, so wherever we live (our home) is also our habitat. And the good news we are sharing in this zine is that we share our home with other species – other animals of course, like birds and squirrels, but also plants that you can eat. The word habitat has the word ‘habit’ in it. Our habitat is the place we do things over and over again: it’s where we do the things we call habits. Other species who share our habitat, like squirrels
Miles Irving, Editor, forager.org.uk
What's good now? warning Only eat fresh, young nettle leaves – the new growth is usually in spring or autumn. Older plants from summer onwards contain gritty particles which can irritate the kidneys. Harvest seeds when they’re green, and when the stalks that hold them droop towards the stem. warning As it invades places like river banks at the expense of native flowers, it is an offence to cause Himalayan Balsam to grow in the wild.
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Nettle seeds
what Greenish flowers
on drooping catkins. The heart-shaped jagged leaves and square stems are covered with stinging hairs. where Widespread in many places, often close to where humans live. how to use The nutritious, mild-tasting seeds are thought to boost energy and reduce stress. Can be used fresh or dried. Cook in soup or add to cereal, pancakes, baking, salads or smoothies.
Yarrow flowers
Greater plantain what Oval, pointed
leaves growing in a rosette with ribs running along their length. where Grassy places, parks, lawns, field edges, roadsides, waste ground, paths and tracks. how to use The nutritious leaves of both plantains have a mushroom flavour. Chop into salads or stir fry. For tasty crisps, toss leaves in oil, sprinkle with salt and roast in a hot oven for five mins.
Ribwort plantain
what Long, pointed leaves growing in a rosette, with ribs running along their length. where Grassy places, parks, lawns, field edges, roadsides, waste ground, paths and tracks. how to use The brown, oval flower heads have a mushroom flavour (see ‘wild mushroom soup' p11).
what Many tiny flowers like miniature white daisies (sometimes pink) arranged in tight bunches. Taste like rosemary and lavender. where Sunny, dry areas, often but not always amongst grass. how to use Use fresh or dried for tea or as a spice for sweet or savoury foods. Cut flowers from the stem and chop finely, or put flowers and stems into soups or sauces. Remove before serving.
NEIL HEPWORTH, KIM WALKER, PHILIP GODDARD, SARAH WATSON, SLAKE SPIRITS, CRAIG WORRALL, ALI IRVING
July
Rewild our food habits at home in our habitat…
in the local park, also have habits. For example, they find food right there in the park. I sometimes ask kids where they think food comes from and they tell me it comes from the shop, or from farms, or even from the soil. But squirrels only ever get food from their own habitat – from right where they live. They never even dream of getting food from somewhere else. Most of the food we eat comes from a long way away. Could we change that habit? If we start to get into the habit of finding something to eat in our habitat, we will be a lot more like the rest of nature. The more I do this sort of thing, the more at home I feel – it is really settling. There is nothing more satisfying than making a salad from wild leaves or eating some cherries (see page 5) when you have just picked them from your own local area. It makes you feel part of things, just like that squirrel, because what you are eating has come from right here. By finding and eating it, you are sort of joining in!
SAFE FORAGING
Don’t eat any wild plant or mushroom unless you are absolutely sure what it is and that it’s safe to eat. Some are only edible when cooked, and some have both edible and poisonous parts. Be aware of poisonous lookalikes for edible species. Don't forage by busy roads where soil will be contaminated with heavy metals, and avoid places where weedkiller may have been used. A forager near you can help you learn – check the Association of Foragers’ website. As with all foods, some wild plants can trigger allergies.
FORAGING AND THE LAW
Mugwort flowers
Himalayan balsam seeds
arranged in soft but tight bunches at the top of bushy plants. They taste like rosemary and sage. where In dry, sunny places next to paths, on waste ground or field edges. how to use Use fresh or dried as a tea. It is said that drinking this will help you to remember your dreams better. As a herb, use in place of sage and rosemary, e.g. in soups, tomato sauce or a herb omelette.
from the Himalayas with bonnet-shaped, purplepink or white flowers, and green, oblong, dangling seedpods. where Most often found along waterways, ditches and damp places, sometimes in woods. how to use White seeds ripen to brown and have a nutty flavour - you can eat them at any stage. Mature seed pods burst open when touched! Use seeds in crumbles or curries, sprinkle on salad, or just eat as a snack.
what Flowers are green,
what A fast-growing plant
Common mallow
what Pale pink-mauve flowers with five petals and darker purple veins from the centre. The leaves are hand-shaped with five lobes and soft hairs. where Dry, sunny places like path edges, hedge banks, verges and waste ground. how to use Bland in flavour, the flowers look pretty in salads, drinks, and sweet or savoury dishes.
Green walnuts
what Green, unripe fruit looking a bit like a lime with a pale, soft walnut kernel inside. Fruits and leaves smell of citrus and spices. where Parks and roadsides, or naturalised in woods and hedges. how to use Pick when about apricot-sized and still easy to cut through, before the nutshell forms and harden s inside. Pickle whole in vinegar, or make a spicy ketchup or sweet preserve. Wear gloves when cutting – the juice stains hands.
The right to forage has been enshrined in British law since at least the 13th century. Unlike land, wild plants are common goods, not ‘property’. To avoid annoying people, it’s best to forage where there are clear rights of access and with the landowner’s blessing. Some people worry that foraging could be harmful: just reassure them that foraging plants is mostly like mowing grass – you cut them and they grow back!
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EDIBLE FLOWER POWER
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Flowers beautify our homes and surroundings. Dandelions and daisies brighten lawns. Marigolds enliven flower beds, and primroses and violets grace the hedgerows. These floral treasures aren’t just a feast for the eyes, they can all be eaten. Edible flowers have long been used for culinary purposes; the Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Romans and Persians all added them to food and drink. Many blossoms in our gardens, urban places and countryside can be used in everyday dishes - for free! Edible blooms add colour and charm, to our food, and can also add crispness. Their taste ranges from sweet and floral to savoury and spicy. And flowers really do have power! They’re sources of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, and rich in antioxidants that help protect our bodies from disease. The age-old practice of using flowers as medicine is much in use by herbalists today. Modern research suggests some flowers may be useful to treat physical or mental illnesses. Even looking at them helps us feel better: A study showed that patients in hospital rooms with flowers needed less pain medication and felt more positive than patients in rooms without. So feed yourself with nutritious flowers! 1 Lawn daisies are perfect for decorating dishes, cakes and desserts. Use wild 2 mallow's mild-flavoured
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pink-purple flowers to pretty up salads and sweet or savoury dishes. The tightly-packed herby-smelling flower heads of 3 yarrow taste quite like rosemary. Use them to make a syrup or dry them and crumble into dishes such as soups, stews and stuffings; flavour roast meats with them; or grind them into salt or sugar. 4 Pineapple weed flowers have a sweet, fruity smell. Try making a relaxing tea or a syrup or using them to flavour custard, desserts, biscuits or cake. 5 Red clover’s pom-pom flowers taste like sweet, fresh peas. Scatter them on salads or simmer in water to make tea or pink lemonade. Fragrant 6 honeysuckle trumpets make floral syrup, cordial, jelly and sorbet. All 7 roses are edible. Look out for the bright pink, highly-scented Japanese rose. Use the petals as a garnish, mince into whipped cream, dry them for tea, or make jam or syrup. Use wild 8 rosebay willowherb’s purplepink flowers in salads, or make a fruity/ floral-tasting syrup with them. Sarah Watson, discover more edible gems at: wildfeast.co.uk/tag/edible-flower-list
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3 5 Flower foraging tips:
Not all flowers are edible; some, like foxgloves and lily of the valley, are seriously poisonous. Flowers are essential food for bees, butterflies and other insects, so leave plenty behind.
Cherry Tree of the month
The price of soft fruit is rising, yet every year thousands of pounds worth of cherries remain unpicked across the country. Not in orchards or on fruit farms, but in our towns and cities, growing on urban trees. Armed with a bit of knowledge and a basket, they are yours for the taking. hurdle, and one of the most delightful things I’ve witnessed is a middle-aged man who’d brought his own step ladder to a busy city centre park and was happily filling a basket with ripe and delicious cherries! I find wild cherry fruits can vary in taste from sweet to bitter, and the latter are best reserved for jams or pies. The black, pea-sized bird cherry, Prunus padus, tends to be found near water or within a thinly wooded area. These little fellas can be bitter, and so when I pick them they make their way into the brandy bottle where they are infused for a fortnight with some sugar to make cherry brandy. The most prized fruit is the black, cultivated cherry, found in parks and abandoned gardens, but these are rare. I’ve found fruiting cherries planted in
the middle of underpasses and on housing estates built between 1950 and 1980; since that time, ornamental, blossom-only trees have been favoured for planting. What are you waiting for? Get picking and save yourself a fortune!
Andy Hamilton, Theotherandyhamilton.com, @andyrhamilton @theotherandyhamilton PHOTOS: NEIL HEPWORTH, ILLUSTRATION: ALI IRVING
In order to identify a cherry tree, home in on the bark first, checking for horizontal bands across the trunk. More mature cherry trees will also have vertical splits in the bark. Check the fruits, splitting them open and looking for the all-important single cherry pips. The fruits will vary in size depending on the type of cherry, from fat morello cherries the size of an adult big toe, to tiny wild cherries the size of the big toe of my four-year-old daughter! Planted urban cherries of many varieties are to be found as well as our native wild cherry, Prunus avium, and bird cherry, Prunus padus. Wild cherry is often found close to allotments or on the edge of woodland. It grows up to 30m tall, and so picking the fruit from a mature tree can be a challenge. Ingenuity can overcome this
Think you might have found one of the plants featured here? See if your plant has all the characteristics on the score card. If you can cross them all off then BINGO: you have the right plant! Rosebay Willow herb
Both this month’s wild plant bingo stars have benefitted from having people around. Cars helped pineapple weed spread to everywhere there are roads. Similarly rosebay willow herb became much more common after the railways were built; previously it was found mostly in woods and in the highlands, whereas it is now found near railways and roads and on waste ground in cities. When it’s flowering, you can spot the tall purple-flowered tops of the plants a mile off. A great thing to do with this plant is strip off some of the leaves and flowers and make Ivans tea out of them. You get a better tea if you put them in a bag in the freezer overnight before drying them. The tea is really tasty – a bit like normal tea but with its own subtle flavours as well. It’s high in vitamin C and tannins. It's a really good thing for men to drink as it can help prevent as well as treat prostate cancer. Once you know where some rosebay grows, you can check your local patch in late April when it’s starting to grow – the young stems are like leafy asparagus and can be used in the same way.
Pineapple weed
This plant is really common in both city and countryside. It’s a close relative of wild chamomile (also known as scented mayweed); used as a herb or a tea, it has similar effects. It can help you relax and can also improves your digestion. It was brought into the UK in the late 19th century and is now found in every county. It probably started spreading on cartwheels then as more cars took to the road, the seeds were spread by car tyres. This happened because pineapple weed likes to grow on gravelly roadsides, car parks and paths. It also grows in fields where cattle or other farm animals walk a lot. It has found a home in these sorts of places, and doesn’t seem to be in competition with other plants which were there before. Because it likes places where people or animals walk or where cars drive, it can be hard to find ‘clean’ plants. Try checking waste ground (which can be great for foraging), gardens and field entrances. Pineapple weed has a wonderful, fruity scent that’s a cross between pineapple and chamomile. The flowers are the most aromatic and flavourful part; they look like yellowish-green daisy centres, without the white ‘petals’. The leaves are very fine and feathery, and they are also tasty. It's best to use them before the plants flower – they are more lush and bushy then. You can use them leaves in salads or as a herb. Nicola Burgess, David Winnard, Miles Irving, discoverthewild.co.uk
Wild plant
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BINGO
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Senses Come to your
The senses provide a valuable doorway into foraging, and foraging provides many wonderful ways to experience our senses. When we step out and explore the world in the context of discovering wild food, nature invites our body and our senses to wake up. We might engage with a small patch of turf, a single tree, park, riverbank, or a whole field. It is worth taking the time to touch, smell, listen, really look, and - when we are sure taste. It can feel weird, and a little alien. It can also take time. But using our senses helps us to identify plants correctly and find new ways to connect to the environment around us. The senses of smell, touch, sight, sound, and taste are all brilliant tools for foraging. Most people have a predominant sense, and it is always good to work to your strengths, while perhaps also working to develop other areas. Our foraging ancestors naturally dwelt in their sensing bodies; for many of us, this is a skill we need to relearn. Out in nature, we can allow our senses to develop, thrive and enrich our lives. A multi-sensory, real-life experience feels good! Rachel Lambert, wildwalks-southwest.co.uk
Look
What height, colour and shape is the plant? If it is green, is it dark, light, yellow-green, blue-green? What else do you notice? Does it prefer a wet, dry, windy, or sheltered habitat, or is it happy anywhere? 8 eat wild!
Touch
What is the texture of the plant? Is it smooth or furry? Is it soft or rigid? Does it feel old or new, crisp or pliable?
The human body was built for the outdoors; as we have stepped more and more into the safety and comfort of indoor environments, many of our senses have become dulled.
Smell
Does it have a scent when you rub it or break a piece off? Is there a scent in the air when the plant flowers? How does weather and time change the scent?
Taste
How does it taste? Does it have an initial flavour that changes as you chew? Do some parts taste better than others? Does the same plant in a different area taste different?
Hear
Is there a particular sound when the plant is moved, either by the air or your hand? What can this tell you?
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MEET THE FORAGERS Get connected with nature
I wasn’t raised close to nature and had no deep appreciation of it instilled in me in childhood. All was a sea of green to me, apart from the odd dandelion. Over the last six years I have nourished a passion to learn more, and one by one, plant by plant, different colours and patterns have revealed themselves. I learnt from books and scoured the hedgerows, looking for medicinal and edible plants growing near me. I studied, read, recognised, tasted. I have spent whole seasons focused on and deeply connecting with a single plant, experiencing its many joys, flavours and health properties. From dandelions, I made wine, vinegar, pickles, coffee, pancakes (using the flowers), salads and syrup, as well as a soothing balm. I love it when foraging comes together with herbal medicine, food fermentation or food preservation. I am slightly obsessed by fungi; mushrooms have a whole host of medicinal qualities. I offer half-day events in the woodlands around me, where we find and identify wild food, and often cook up our finds, wildcraft them into medicine, or preserve them for enjoyment throughout the seasons. I’m most at home in the forest, hedgerows and fields, and on the coast. I breathe deep of the fresh air outdoors and am grateful every time people come to an event I am running, and I can share my enthusiasm as we learn from each other. Of all the jobs I’ve done and places I’ve travelled to, nothing has made me feel more connected to the earth, seasons, plants, fungi and beauty of nature, or to the people in my community.
PHOTOS: NEIL HEPWORTH, AZCHAEL
Courtney Tyler hipsandhaws wildcrafts Hips and Haws Wildcrafts
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Forage & Feast - Wild Food Cooking & Preserving
Ask your mum …
My partner's Mum is French, and we call her Mana. She comes from the east of France. She lived a nomadic life until she was 10 years old, then went to live on the tiny Breton island of Brehat with her black aunt, seizing the chance to avoid being stigmatised because of her fairground family. I learn about plants and wildlife from Mana, which she learnt about from her mother on her nomadic journeys as a child. Living close to the earth, with animals that were transported as part of the fair caravan, they visited places not only for the people but also for the great free food, like the best tasting chestnuts and hazelnuts. Her aunt's folkloric understanding played its part too. Mana wastes nothing, using very few ingredients to make something utterly delicious, which I believe comes from her aunt (who she says was very severe) having had so little but also needing to keep her social standing on the island, which she did through her cooking and her manners. Mana teaches me about the wild, free delicacies growing in her garden hedges and along the local shoreline of her adoptive Brittany. I barely speak French and Mana speaks little English, although she understands a lot. Each spring we're served Mana's nettle soup, followed by a warm salad using the newest and freshest sorrel and dandelion greens, with buttered boiled potato. This meal heralds spring as much as the violets she grows, and the May cuckoo call. She collects shellfish at the neap tides - enough to feed gatherings of ten or more hungry family members. I am honoured to have a shared history with her, with her lineage of strong, self-sufficient matriarchs who knew how to nourish and heal using plants. Gin Farrow-Jones
Mana wastes nothing, using very few ingredients to make something utterly delicious. urban forage of the month
Fat hen
A common plant of waste ground, compost heaps and fields. Leaves are diamond shape and often have a 'white, frosty' residue. Packed with nutrition, it is a great alternative to spinach. Delicious raw in salads or lightly steamed. Craig Worrall, edible-leeds. blogspot.com
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Wild mix
Use this as your base for the 'salad of many things’ and the ‘wild mix pizza’. Take some of the following, give them a wash and chop them up.
leaves Dandelion, fat hen, ground elder, mallow ribwort plantain and greater plantain. flowers Ground elder flowers, yarrow flowers
(cut off stems with scissors), mugwort.
seeds Nettle seeds, Himalayan balsam seed pods and/or seeds.
Salad of many things
Chop some tomatoes and spring onion. You can add more ingredients to make it even more of a tummy treat e.g. beetroot, radish, carrot, toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds, but these are optional. Add some of your wild mix (see above). Stir in some salad cream, mayonnaise or your favourite home-made salad dressing. Miles Irving
Wild mix pizza
Either take a shop bought pizza (any type will do) or spread some passata sauce on a pitta and grate some cheese on top. Put your wild mix (see above) in a bowl, pour over enough oil to coat everything and give it a stir- this will stop it just drying out in the oven. Scatter plenty on top of your pizza base(s) then cook your pizza at 220˚C/430˚F for around 10 mins (or just follow the instructions on the box). Miles Irving
Greens on toast
Take a few good handfuls of fat hen tops (about 10cm) and put in a pan with about 1cm water. Bring to boil then cover with a lid and cook for another 4 mins. Drain, but not too thoroughly, then add as much butter or olive oil as you like, season with salt and pepper and serve on hot buttered toast. Fat hen cooked this way also makes a great side veg for most meals. Miles Irving
Happy tummy
Our digestive system is home to lots of friendly bacteria who help digest things. If they are happy they even help make us feel good. What makes them happy? Apparently, two things mostly:
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EATING LOTS OF DIFFERENT FOODS
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EATING PLENTY OF FIBRE
The good news is there are lots of different wild plants to eat and most of them are high in fibre. So eating our 'salad of many things' will make everyone’s gut happy on both counts. bitterness is good for you
It’s also tasty in small doses – coffee, beer, chocolate and marmalade are all delicious because they combine slight bitterness with other flavours. A bit of dandelion in a wild salad does the same job. The stuff that makes chocolate bitter has proven health benefits. Limonine, found in orange juice before juice companies found a way to take it out, is a known anti-cancer compound.
RECIPES
Pineapple weed flapjack 125g butter 90g golden syrup 90g light brown sugar 250g oats Handful Pineapple weed 100g raisins (optional)
Preheat an oven to 160˚C/345˚F. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a large saucepan on a low heat. Chop the pineapple weed very finely and add to the pan. Cook gently for one or two minutes until the caramel starts to brown, but be careful not to boil. Turn off the heat. Stir in the oats, making sure they are all coated in the caramel. Add the raisins and press into a lined oven tray, about 2cm deep. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 mins. Using a knife carefully score into squares and then let cool & set completely. Turn out from the tin and, using a large knife, cut through. Amy Rankine
Wild mushroom soup with no mushrooms 1 stock cube 30 ribwort plantain flowerheads 1 litre water 50g butter 2 tbsp cream
Crumble a stock cube (chicken or vegetable) into a litre of water, bring it to the boil then blitz in 30 ribwort plantain flowers using a blender. If you don't have a blender, just chop them finely and stir through. Return to the pan if necessary, then heat up and simmer for two minutes. Sieve, add cream and butter, and serve. Chef Paul Foster
Rose and blueberry Eton mess 4-6 meringues Handful of Japanese rose petals 300g blueberries or raspberries 300ml whipping or double cream ¼ cup rose syrup or 1 tbsp honey
Break up the meringues into bite sized pieces in a bowl. Add the berries and cream, and combine. Then add the rose petals, drizzle in the rose syrup if you have it (honey or any sweet syrup will do) and stir gently to incorporate. Serve immediately and enjoy! The dish is best eaten fairly quickly, as the berries, cream and syrup will dissolve the meringue. To prepare ahead, keep the meringues separate and combine at the last moment. Leanne Townsend
Preserving the wild
Gather flowering tops of rosebay willow herb or mugwort, including leaves and place in a freezer overnight to oxidise. Next day, spread them loosely and leave them to dry either in the sun or a warm dry place indoors. Yarrow and pineapple weed flowers can be dried without the freezer stage. Using gloves, strip nettle seeds from the stems and spread loosely somewhere outside for spiders and insects to escape. Then dry in sun or a warm dry place indoors.
Fresh teas
This month’s wild teas are the flowers of pineapple weed, yarrow, mugwort and red clover. Just put them fresh in a pot or a tea infuser and pour boiling water over them. Add a squeeze of lemon if you like and a little honey if you want it sweet.
Raw pineappleweed soda
For a 1 litre batch, you need a handful of pineapple weed (flowers and leaves), 2 tbsp sugar (or honey) and water. step one Simply mix it all together in a flip-top bottle or jar step two leave to ferment for 3 to 5 days, ‘burping’ twice a day to avoid explosions. You can also add fruit (in which case add less sugar) or use other edible wild plants. Amy Rankine
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WILD CHILD
Are you enjoying finding out about the plants that grow close to your home? Can you spot any to cook up in the kitchen? What's your favourite plant to find out about? Have you discovered any toxic ones? July is the height of summer. The bees and butterflies are in full flow and there is a joyous and free feeling in the air. Nature is at work; it’s as if everything is trying to get your attention! In this issue, I want to introduce you to another way of getting to know the plants that grow where you live; through our senses and our bodies. We spend a lot of time in our heads, thinking. When we begin to learn about plants, we engage our thinking brain to learn the number of leaves, the shape of the stem, the dangerous look-alike plants … But there is another way. Lucy O’Hagan, wildawake.ie
z f Search @Foraging for Kids! on Facebook
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Flavour
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makes 6
Ask an adult to help you. Put all the ingredients into a small saucepan. Warm on a low heat for approx 5 mins to allow the pineapple weed to infuse in the water. Let the liquid cool slightly and then strain and pour into ice lolly moulds. Depending on your ice lolly moulds, either put the lid on or add popsicle sticks to the centre and pop in the freezer overnight. Add a splash of fruit juice if you like.
FORAGE SAFELY
Golden guidelines for foragers, no matter what age!
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Make sure you are 100% sure of the identity of a plant before eating it.
across
3 I have a square stem and taste great in tea 6 My 'eye' opens in the sun 7 I can help with your insect bites or nettle stings 8 My blossoms are white and make a delicious cordial
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1 Crush me and smell a tropical fruit 2 I'm very sticky! 4 I have thorns and a large family 5 Blow my seeds to tell the time
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Make sure to wash any plant before you use it for food or medicine. Ask an adult for help to identify a plant. Bring a field guide with you and work together to meet a new plant.
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YOU'LL NEED A partner, a place with trees and something to use as a blindfold.
Pineapple weed (page 6) is a member of the daisy family and when you crush it it smells just like ... Can you guess? Yup – Pineapple! It’s not a ‘native’ plant, having apparently escaped from Kew Gardens in 1871. It loves to grow on compacted ground, so driveways and farms are great places to look.
BLINDFOLD ONE PERSON Guide them to a tree across different surfaces and in different directions, then spin them around. When you arrive at “their tree”, let them get to know it using touch, smell, taste (if safe). ASK THEM Is there a particular bird sound near that tree? What sound do they hear when they knock the trunk or when the leaves rustle? Where is the wind coming from?
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LEAD THEM AWAY remove their blindfold and see if they can find “their tree”.
at home Try playing this inside with plants you have gathered from near your home.
Remember all the other beings that depend on this plant and the wider ecosystem that this plant belongs to. Never take the first, never take the last. Take only what you need. Use your harvest respectfully.
Daisy Family: Asteraceae (ASS-TER-ACE-SEA-A)
meet the family
Over 32,000 family members. Daisy, dandelion, sunflower and chamomile are all members of the daisy family. What makes them special is that their ‘flowers’ are actually made up of lots of tiny flowers. The name ‘daisy’ actually means ‘day’s eye’ and refers to this plant's habit of opening in the sun and closing in the night.
ACROSS: 3 MINT, 6 DAISY, 7 PLANTAIN, 8 ELDERFLOWER. DOWN: 1 PINEAPPLEWEED, 2 CLEAVERS, 4 ROSE, 5 DANDELION
1½ tbsp honey Handful of pineapple weed 400ml water
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Meet a tree
of the month
Pineapple weed lollies
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PHOTO: DEREK RAMSEY