Heracleum Sphondylium

Heracleum sphondylium, common hogweed/ Wiesen-Bärenklau, is my new favourite weed. They are growing near hedges and on grassy places.
The edible parts at this time of the year are those tiny shoots you see in the middle of the first picture. I cut them with a knife as close to the ground as possible. The shoots which are to become the flower stems are especially fleshy and big.
Shoots can be found from  March on until June. Later you can eat the unopened flower buds.

Edible Weeds - Spring

I went to Syke for a short stop because of Heike König. We had made up the appointement that I help her with the preparations for Rohvolution. She instead would secure me in my knowledge about the edibles and show me more.
This post contain pictures of some of the plants I more or less am eating regularly since.

Pulmonaria officinalis - leaves and flowers are edible.

Harvest

I never liked autumn because of the approaching times of darkness and cold. But this year is different, I am starting to like autumn, it´s the time to harvest the fruits of nature.  
On this picture are some Crabapples,  fruits from the Sloe, Sweet Chestnut, Beech Seeds, Rowan, Blackberries, and Hawthorn berries.

Cooking With Viti - Spring Salad

Cooking With Viti - Ramsons

Somebody suggested to use ramsons instead of garlic for my Spring Omelette. That is quite a good idea actually. After some researches on the net I stumbled upon the idea to make some kind of mash out of ramsons. Prepared in this way, ramsons as replacement for garlic can be stored up to one year - and used in small amounts when in need of some garlic similar taste :)

Cooking With Viti - Green Soup With Ginger And Pear

Today I collected some herbs for a soup. I really didn´t expect it, but this soup turned out to become delicious too :) Check out my recipe below the fold!

Cooking With Viti - Spring Omelette :)

Sunday´s cycling tour brought me along meadows and places where I was able to pick some edible plants for my first experiment. Together with 2 eggs, and some ingridients I would carry on my tours I cooked a delicious omelet. Recipe below the fold :)

Wild Edibles

To reduce the amount of food I am carrying when travelling with my bicycle and in order to eat healthy stuff I started to do researches on edible plants growing wild.
What I found was the very interesting videos from BoutenkoFilms. Here is one to start off with.