Why Spring Greens Are Worth the Walk

Every April and May, the hedgerows and woodland edges of Britain fill up with two of the most generous wild foods going: the stinging nettle and wild garlic. Neither needs sowing, watering or weeding. Both arrive just as the garden is still sulking after winter, and both taste far better than their reputation suggests.

Nettles are at their finest before they flower, when the young tops are tender and faintly sweet rather than tough and gritty. Wild garlic carpets damp woodland floors with broad green leaves and white starry flowers, and its scent will usually find you before your eyes do. Pick a basketful on a walk, carry it home, and you have the makings of a soup, a jar of pesto and a batch of scones — all for the price of a bit of careful looking.

There is a low-impact pleasure in this, too. Gathering a little from many plants, leaving the roots undisturbed and taking nothing from a place that cannot spare it is a skill worth practising. It makes you read the landscape more closely, and it makes supper taste better.

Picking Well: Clean Ground and Steady Hands

Location matters more than technique. Nettles and wild garlic both take up what is in the soil around them, so choose your ground with care.

• Avoid roadside verges, where exhaust fumes and road spray settle on the leaves.
• Stay away from field edges that may have been sprayed, and from any ground near railway lines, industrial land or recently treated paths.
• Avoid spots popular with dog walkers, and never pick leaves growing low enough to have been splashed.
• Take only the top four to six leaves of each nettle, pinching above a pair of leaves so the plant bushes out again.
• For wild garlic, take one leaf from each plant and cut rather than pull, so the bulb stays safely in the ground.

Wear thin gardening gloves for the nettles, and long sleeves if the patch is dense. The sting vanishes the moment the leaves meet heat, so there is nothing to fear once you are back in the kitchen.

Preparing Your Harvest

Fill a sink or a large bowl with cold water and swish the greens through it, then lift them out rather than tipping the bowl — that way the grit stays behind at the bottom. Repeat if the water runs dirty.

For nettles, drop them into boiling water for one minute, drain, then squeeze out the excess liquid in a clean tea towel. You will end up with dark green balls of blanched nettle that freeze beautifully. Wild garlic needs only a rinse and a pat dry.

Always cook nettles and wild garlic thoroughly. Raw wild garlic can be harsh on the stomach, and thorough cooking also sees off any bacteria picked up from soil or animals. Simmer, bake or fry for at least several minutes until piping hot right through.

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

This is the recipe to make first, because it uses a good quantity of greens and freezes well in portions.

Soften one chopped onion in a tablespoon of butter or rapeseed oil, then add one diced potato and one litre of vegetable stock. Simmer for twelve minutes until the potato is tender. Add 200g of prepared nettles and a generous handful of chopped wild garlic, and simmer for a further five minutes. Blend until smooth, then season with salt, black pepper, a grating of nutmeg and a squeeze of lemon. Serves four, and improves overnight.

Wild Garlic Pesto

Blitz 100g of wild garlic leaves with 50g of toasted hazelnuts, 50g of grated hard cheese or a vegetarian alternative, and 150ml of rapeseed oil, then loosen with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. A food processor makes short work of it, but chopping by hand gives a rougher, livelier texture.

Keep it in a jar with a thin layer of oil on top, in the fridge, for up to a week, or freeze it in an ice cube tray and drop a cube into soups and stews. Stir it through pasta, fold it into mashed potato, or spoon it over roasted carrots and beetroot.

Savoury Nettle and Wild Garlic Scones

Heat the oven to 200°C, 180°C fan, gas mark 6, and line a baking tray. Rub 50g of cold butter into 250g of self-raising flour with a teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt, until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in 100g of grated cheese, 60g of chopped blanched nettles and 30g of chopped wild garlic. Bind with about 150ml of milk or buttermilk until it just comes together — handle it lightly. Pat or roll to 2cm thick, cut six rounds, brush the tops with milk and bake for fifteen to eighteen minutes until risen and golden. Eat them warm, split and buttered, ideally outdoors.

Pick from abundant patches, never strip a site bare, and leave the roots to do their work again next spring.