Wild Creations

The last week has seen a wild theme to my creative projects. The first was a result of a mammoth gardening session last Sunday when we tackled a very large cherry tree in the garden which, by the look of it, hadn't been pruned in at least ten, perhaps twenty years. It had a number of large, crossing branches which were rubbing against each other leaving wounds which could easily let infection in. These we removed, along with other low hanging branches. The result was a more healthy looking tree and an enormous space in the corner of the garden. The latter, we quickly realised, was the part of the garden that gets the afternoon and evening sun - perfect for the table and chairs. However, before we could enjoy our new sunny spot, we had rather a lot of tree to dispose of.

The smaller branches went into the garden waste bin and the two largest branches have been saved for a couple of future creative projects (watch this space!). Everything that was too large to be chopped up with secateurs was chopped into 30-40cm lengths and stacked in a gap in the hedge. A simple task that has left me very happy since I now have a wildlife wood pile.

A few days after its creation we spotted the first hedgehog in the garden so I'm hopeful there will be a lot of wildlife that will soon make the most of this new habitat.

Meanwhile, wild garlic is in season and I've been lucky enough to have received deliveries of it in my veg box for the past couple of weeks. My favourite two recipes are very simple. The first is to ferment it as you perhaps would to turn cabbage into sauerkraut. I chopped 100g of wild garlic and 'massaged' in 1g of sea salt (table salt should be avoided as it contains iodine and will kill of any of the good bacteria you need to ferment the leaves). This began the process of drawing water out of the leaves but not to a large extent. I therefore transferred the chopped leaves and salt into a jar and then topped up with bottled spring water (tap water contains chlorine which also kills off the good bacteria and so this too should be avoided). After a week, the smell of garlic had begun to mellow as the leaves gradually fermented. I use a spoonful here and there to add a kick of flavour towards the end of cooking or mixing into mashed potatoes. This will keep for weeks, if not months.

The second recipe is for wild garlic pesto. For this place 100g wild garlic, 50g grated Parmesan or similar salty, hard cheese and 50g pecans, hazelnuts or other nuts of your choice. Blitz in a food processor and then add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and enough olive oil until you have your desired consistency.

This makes a fairly large quantity, especially since it is potent stuff! I therefore opted to freeze it in small quantities. I normally use an ice cube tray for this sort of thing (grated ginger, curry paste etc.) but we still haven't managed to locate them following the house move. However, I did find a stack of disposable shot glasses.

Once frozen the blocks of pesto are popped out of the glasses and into a zip-lock bag to be dipped into whenever desired. Both recipes are a great way to extend the rather short period of time when wild garlic can be used in the kitchen. All in all, a few little jobs that will bring pleasure for months to come (hopefully longer for the log pile!)