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A Green Awakening in the Hedgerow

By mid-March the bare bones of the British hedgerow begin to fill out again. Blackthorn flowers along the lane, and in the damper corners of the wood, whole floors turn green with the broad, glossy leaves of wild garlic. Alongside it, on waste ground and field edges, the nettle rises with a vigour the Victorians admired so much they once grew it deliberately in a corner of the garden.

Both plants carry a long folk memory. Wild garlic, or ramsons, was taken as a sign that a wood was ancient, and its leaves were laid in the house to keep illness away. Nettles were the spring tonic — cooked into soup or brewed into tea after a winter of salted meat and stored roots. A bunch hung by the door was said to guard the household. You needn't believe any of it to enjoy the cooking, but it is a pleasant thing to remember while the pan is on the hob.

Foraging with Care and Good Manners

Nettles want nitrogen, so look along hedgerow edges, footpaths and the corners of fields where animals have been. Pick the top four to six leaves, pinching just below a pair, wearing gloves and long sleeves. Choose plants before they flower — from late March to the end of May in most of Britain — and don't strip the same patch twice in a week.

Wild garlic grows in damp, shady woodland, often in carpets near a stream. Take one leaf from each plant rather than clearing a clump, and pick the flowers sparingly. The test is simple: crush a leaf. If it smells of garlic, it is wild garlic. If it doesn't, leave it alone — lily of the valley and cuckoo pint carry similar leaves and both are poisonous.

Stick to land where you have permission, avoid roadside verges and busy dog-walking routes, and never pull up a root. A little taken well is a great deal more than a lot taken badly.

Wild Garlic: Pesto, Butter and Pastries

The simplest way to use a bagful is pesto. Blitz 100g wild garlic leaves with 50g toasted hazelnuts, 50g Parmesan (or a firm vegetarian hard cheese), 150ml mild olive oil, the zest and juice of half a lemon, and a good pinch of sea salt. The lemon keeps it bright green rather than khaki. It fills a 300ml jar, keeps a fortnight in the fridge under a layer of oil, and freezes beautifully in an ice-cube tray.

For wild garlic butter, mash 100g softened butter with 30g finely chopped leaves, a little lemon zest and black pepper. Roll it in greaseproof paper and chill. It is superb on new potatoes, or melted over grilled trout.

For quick pastries, cut ready-made puff pastry into rectangles, spread with pesto, dot with soft goat's cheese, grate over a whisper of nutmeg and brush the edges with beaten egg. Bake at 200°C (gas mark 6) for 15–18 minutes. Heat softens the garlic's punch, so stir a spoonful of shredded raw leaf into the cheese first to keep the flavour lifted.

Nettles: Soup and Simple Suppers

Nettle soup is the dish that converts the sceptics. Sweat a chopped onion, a sliced leek and two diced potatoes in a knob of butter for ten minutes without colouring. Add a litre of vegetable or chicken stock and simmer for 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Now add 200g nettle tops and cook for just three minutes — any longer and you lose the colour and the fresh, cucumber-spinach flavour. Blitz, then finish with grated nutmeg, a squeeze of lemon and a swirl of cream.

Cooking kills the sting instantly, so there is nothing to fear once the leaves hit hot water. Beyond soup, try:

• A fresh nettle tea: a handful of tops in a mug, boiling water, five minutes, honey to taste.
• Wilted nettles in butter with nutmeg, piled on toast under a poached egg.
• Nettle pesto with sunflower seeds, lemon and hard cheese — earthier than the wild garlic version, and excellent with pasta.

Balancing the Flavour

Raw wild garlic is fierce; it wants fat, salt and acidity to sit alongside it. Olive oil, butter, cream, hard cheese and lemon are its natural allies, as are potatoes, eggs, pasta, mushrooms and white fish. Treat it more like a herb than a vegetable.

Nettles are gentler, with an iron-like earthiness. They need seasoning, dairy and a grate of nutmeg, plus a little acid to stop them tasting flat. Both greens are happy together: a handful of each in a spring soup, or blitzed into a single "hedgerow pesto", gives you the best of the season in one jar.

Storing the Glut — and Leaving Some Behind

Blanch nettles for 30 seconds, plunge into iced water, squeeze dry and freeze in portions; they will keep for six months and drop straight into soups. Wild garlic dries poorly, so freeze the leaves chopped into butter or oil instead — or simply make more pesto.

One last piece of country wisdom: stop picking nettles once they flower, as the leaves turn gritty and bitter, and always leave a good stand untouched. The small tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral butterflies lay their eggs on nettles, and the spring harvest is sweeter when there is something left for summer.