Wild foods

Quite simple really. Get a load of small leaves. I filled the cup half way. Wash the leaves, pour on boiling water and leave to stand for 5 minutes, remove the leaves and drink.

Elderflower Champagne

Similar to elderflower presse and another delicious summer drink

Ingredients

8 litres (2 gallons) water

1.25 kg (2.5 lbs/5 cups) sugar

8 large elderflower heads

4 Lemons

4 tablespoons mild white wine vinegar

Method

Boil the water and pour of the sugar to dissolve it.

Cool and add the elderflowers, juice of the two lemons, slices of the other two and the vinegar.

Cover with a cloth and leave for a day.

Strain with a fine sieve or muslin cloth, squeezing the flowers as you do to release more flavour.

Store in screw top bottles.

It will be ready in about 10 days to a fortnight and should be drunk within a month.

Elderflower wine

Ingredients

Grated rind of one lemon

500mls (1 pint) of elderflowers - to obtain this pick or shake of the elderflowers

and place into a measuring jug. Don't push them down but do shake them down. Be careful not to add any of the bitter green stems.

3.5 litres (8 pints) of boiling water

1.3kg (3 lbs) sugar Juice of one lemon

25g (Half an ounce) yeast

Method

Put lemon rind with the elderflowers and pour over boiling water

Allow to stand for 4 days, stirring occasionally.

Strain through a fine sieve or muslin cloth

Stir in sugar, lemon juice and yeast

Keep at room temperature to ferment, try not to let it go down to 18c (65f)

When you are sure all the bubbling has ceased, stir the wine and allow to settle for 3 days

Strain again carefully

Put in a demijohn (not bottles)

After 3 months maturing, put into bottles

Nettle Beer

This is an easy recipe to follow and creates a delightful, if not usual tasting beer. It is very cheap to make and follows a traditionally english recipe. Before hops were widely used in the 17th century all sorts of plant were used to flavor the ale including nettles.(Urtica dioica). It was also thought to help alleviate rheumatic pain, gout and asthma. Nettle beer can still be bought in the Czech republic and in the north of England where it is brewed with hops and is called internettle.

Ingredients

900grams (2lb) young nettle tops

3.8lts (1 gallon) of water

230 grams (8oz) of sugar, brown or demarrara sugar works best.

7.5 grams (0.25oz) of fresh yeast

small piece of toast

7.5 grams (0.25oz) of ground ginger

Method

Boil the nettle tops in the water for half an hour (you will need a very large pan for this or preferably a cauldron).

Keeping the mixture, strain and add sugar, stirring to dissolve. I mentioned keeping the mixture as the first time I did this I strained it and poured the liquid down the sink, so had to go out and pick more nettles. Also stir in the ginger. Pour mixture into a sterile container, ask at most home brew shops for details, if you don't have a home brew shop near you then a big branch of Boots should offer a Brewers bucket.

Spread the yeast onto the toast and float on the surface of the nettle liquid. Cover and leave for about 3 days at room temperature, do not allow the temperature to fluctuate too much as this will ruin the fermentation process.

Strain again and put into clean, strong screw top beer bottles, or sealable wine bottles (I used plastic bottles and it still worked). This can be drunk after about 2 days. Still not sure how alcoholic this beer is I have never drank more than one pint in a go, it does taste like it should be though.

Barley Bread with Beer

Ingredients:

500g barley flour

500g stone-ground wheat flour

1 tsp salt

250g butter

Beer to mix

Method:

Mix the flours and salt together and rub in the butter. Add enough beer to make a soft dough and shape into small cakes. Cook on a hot stone (or griddle) until firm. This is a very light bread because of the addition of the beer and is good with cheese.