…or spinach, or chard, after you’ve read this. I’ve been on a guided foraging walk in north London (Highgate to be precise, on The Parkland Walk – a disused railway line, now very green, which runs from Highgate towards Finsbury Park). A group of us were led by Gemma from Urban Harvest UK and Josef from Transition Highgate who advised us on what to pick, how to cook it, and what to avoid. I took extensive photographs, which I’ll now try to decipher.

First up, NETTLES. At this time of year most have flowered (see pic) although if they’re in a shady place they may not have. I don’t mean ‘dead nettles’ which have large white flowers on – more of these later. Nettle flowers are tiny, near the top and are an indication that the plant is no longer young. Apparently older leaves can be harmful to the kidneys (see the PfaF website  and the edible wild plants website for more info). If they’ve got to this stage, then take only the top few leaves, which are tender. Or hack the whole plant back to within a few cm of the ground, and this’ll encourage new growth. Just pick off the top 5cm (with gloves!) and wash, steam or boil briefly to eat like spinach. Cooking kills the sting.

You may notice DOCK LEAVES growing near nettles. This is handy because if you get stung, rub a dock leaf over it until the juice comes out. This neutralises the pain. These can be used to wrap food that you’re steaming (fish for example) or like a plate if you’re having a picnic. They’re edible but are an acquired taste – Josef thought “they just taste like leaf”.

We also noticed Japanese knotweed, which spreads like wildfire. You’re not even allowed to put cuttings in your compost because it seeds and takes over so quickly – it’s classed as controlled waste and as such must be disposed of safely at a licensed landfill site. The very young shoots can be picked and used like rhubarb, stewed with sugar or jam and eaten as a compote or filling for tarts.

We all know DANDELIONS and can identify them at 20 paces. The leaves are good in a salad, if you like a slightly bitter, peppery taste (they’re no worse than chicory, radicchio or rocket though). The young leaves are best and wash them well in case any dogs have been passing. The yellow flowers are edible too - in fact I understand the whole of the dandelion plant is edible, but the petals are tastier. Pull them off in one clump and discard the stem with any green bits. Scatter over salads for a pretty effect or add to a batter to make dandelion fritters (a lovely sweetish taste and a deep yellow colour).

Incidentally BUTTERCUPS are NOT edible, neither the leaves nor the flowers.

GOOSE GRASS, with its distinctive long, thin leaves (a bit like rosemary leaves in appearance)  tastes like young peas or pea pods raw, but Gemma said some people are put off by its slightly hairy texture (it’s the little hooks that make the plant stick like glue to your clothing). Brief cooking will destroy this odd mouthfeel and you can use it, again, like spinach. A honey dressing would bring out the sweetness.

We spotted WOODAVENS (also called Herb Bennet) which, again, can be eaten raw in a salad or  fried in butter (for a crispy seaweed-type dish).

Next up GARLIC MUSTARD, which has a two year cycle and looks totally different between the two years, just to fox you. In the first year the leaves are roundish (see picture right) and can be used in salads although they veer towards the bitter. In the second year the leaves are more pointed but there are also delicate white flowers which can be used to pretty-up salads.

The photo on the left is of Garlic Mustard in the second year of its cycle. See how different the leaves are? I’m told there’s a massive patch just on the Well Walk entrance to Hampstead Heath. Not for much longer! Incidentally, I didn’t take a photo but we also spotted HOPS (which is unusual to find growing wild, especially in London). The shoots – just the very tips of the tendrils – can be eaten raw in, you’ve guessed it, salads or lightly cooked as a green vegetable.

ELDERFLOWERS are around at the moment and are good picked off the stems (a bit fiddly) and scattered over salads or used to garnish homemade dips/hummous, or even a fruit fool or mousse. For an elderflower vinegar, steep in cider vinegar or white wine vinegar, leave for a few weeks and then strain.

BLACKBERRIES or BRAMBLES are also pretty recognisable by most of us, even the most confirmed townies. But did you know the leaves can be used to make blackberry tea (which doesn’t taste like blackberries). Dry the leaves or use fresh (although fresh can be “a bit spinachey”, according to Gemma). hang a bunch of the leaves upside down to dry, then crumble or leave whole, and store in a jar.

Now on to DEAD NETTLES which are actually NOT nettles! They have a stem which is square in cross-section. Put the flowers in a salad and cook the rest like spinach. The flowers grow off the stem, not just the top, so you must pick about the top 15cm of the plant, but leave the woody part. Gemma says, “The great thing about foraging is, unlike a supermarket or a greengrocers, you can take only the food you’re planning to eat, the very tips of the nettle or hawthorn for instance. Leave the rest! You can’t cut off the outer leaves of, say, a cauliflower in a shop and just pay just for what you’ll eat.”

HOGWEED (the photo on the left shows the leaves and on the right the spears or shoots we picked) is considered by some to be the Number 1, fantastic  foraged veg that we have in the UK. Gemma wouldn’t go quite that far, but we picked, lightly boiled and ate the inner shoots, which are rather like asparagus, although with a more delicate flavour. The shoots are found right in the middle of the plant and look a bit like furled bracken. A lemony hollandaise or olive oil, salt and pepper will bring out the best in it. Gemma said, “The name isn’t doing it any favours – it could do with rebranding.”

CHICKWEED is a good salad plant, but because it grows close to the ground, some people worry about dogs, again. It coats the forest floor in shady areas. Wash it well and you’ll be fine. Sorry the photo’s a bit blurry but we were rushing to get onto the next find, which was…

WILD GARLIC – the leaves, white flowers and even the young seeds are edible and can be used in salads. The seeds don’t need to be dried but just scatter over fresh veg or use like onion seeds when making your own bread or bagels.  Remember it’s illegal to dig up any plants in the wild but you can pick the leaves and flowers , unless otherwise stated.

Speaking of bread, in the olden days (no, not my childhood, as my kids think) people used to place bread rolls on an upside-down SYCAMORE  leaf, so the imprint would be baked into the base of the dough. A nice idea, and a good way to ensure it didn’t stick, pre greaseproof paper.

I know GROUND ELDER (right) from my own childhood, when mum sent us out to pick it in time for Sunday lunch. The leaves look like those of the elder tree (which isn’t edible) and it grows like a carpet close to the ground, hence the name. It cooks like spinach, tastes a bit lemony, and is also fine raw in salads.

We were looking for wild onions, the THREE CORNERED LEEK (see photo, left) to be precise, and we found it on the way back to base (where were were going to descend on one of Gemma’s friends to cook our haul). The stem of this plant is triangular in cross-section, hence the name, and, from a distance,  it looks quite like a white bluebell. It’s quite invasive and you can eat both the long, green leaves and flowers, which we munched on the spot. They tasted very delicate, like spring onion or chives, and not too overpowering at all.

LIME LEAVES formed the base of our salad (from the Linden tree – Tilleul in French). It’s not the tree that produces lime fruits, but a very common ‘street tree’ in Britain. Gemma called it “the iceberg lettuce of the foraging world”. The photo shows us picking off the leaves, once we were back in the kitchen. The flowers are also dried for Lime Flower Tea. Josef added that Linden wood is often used to make guitars, plus it’s also very good for carving and was used by the famous wood sculptor Grinling Gibbons (who I had actually heard of – see, I can be erudite). Who knew?

Back at Gemma’s friend’s house, we raided the garden for purple HONESTY flowers (left), which went into the salad. It’s more commonly used in flower arranging where the flat, transparent, papery seed pods are distinctive.

Gemma produced a few delicious extras from her bag of tricks. There was hemp oil and apple balsamic vinegar to dress the leaves (both made in Britain), plus some flatbreads and lemon balm. Nasturtium buds she’d pickled with a bay leaf in vinegar, very like capers, plus black olives she’d picked (in London!) and preserved in salt – which tasted more olivey and less briney than the ones I usually buy. She’d made yellow split pea hummous with tahini and wild garlic – better than using chick peas because they’re grown in the UK, and therefore reduce food miles (split peas are sold by www.ecogreenstore.co.uk £1.70/kg).   She’d also sprouted dried marrowfat peas (the mushy peas type ) because they’re also grown here (£1.40/kg), unlike some other sprouting pulses.