Wild herb forage and outdoor cooking at Grove Adventure Playground October 27th

 

Yarrow herb hunt and vege burger making in Myatts Field

In half term, on Tuesday 27th October, as part of the launch of the Young Friends of Myatts Field Park, I did a yarrow herb hunt and vege burger cookup.  Yarrow is a herb we can get all year round, even in winter.  We picked it in the Nature Garden where there are no dogs and where it is safe to eat (with a good wash).

Finding the yarrow in the Nature Garden

Yarrow is a perennial herb with erect, furrowed, downy stems. It has small flowerheads, very pretty, which are white or sometimes pinkish. It has a strong peppery smell.

Discarding the grass of course!

The plant’s healing properties were known to the Ancient Greeks who named Yarrow Achillea after Achilles, the legendary warrior. The specific name millefolium (=a 1000 leaf) referring to the plant’s many feathery leaves.

It’s one of the best fever remedies. It makes you sweat, lowering the blood pressure. you have to drink it hourly until fever subsides (combine with elderflower and peppermint). 

Yarrow tones the blood vessels and aids digestion. It is specific for thrombosis associated with high blood pressure. It is a natural antiseptic (which will also ease cystitis). Use it also for diarrhoea (and it’s safe for children).

 It will speed up the clotting of blood and can be used for all wounds, old and new, rashes, haemorrhoids. Useful emergency treatment to stop haemorrhaging. Use the crushed leaves directly on cuts, for nose bleeds or earache. Chew them for toothache.

 The principal constituent is an essential oil with azulenes that turn blue after distillation. The plant also contains the alkaloids achilleine and stychidyrine, tannins and bitter compounds.

 In China, yarrow stalks are used with the I ching system, in Europe, the druids used yarrow to divine the weather. Yarrow strengthens and protects the etheric body (the aura)

Key words: Fevers, colds, flu; Digestive tonic; menstruation; urinary antiseptic; diarrhoea; all wounds; antiseptic, stomachic, antispasmodic, astringent, diaphoretic.

Enough Yarrow for the burgers and edible flowers for garnish

Other names for Yarrow are Milfoil (a 1000 leaves), nose bleed, old man’s pepper, soldier’s wound wort, knight’s milfoil, bloodwort, staunch weed, devil’s nettle and devil’s plaything.

Nettles behind the kiosk

We also picked some nettle to make tea with. Nettle is another excellent tonic, packed with vitamins and minerals. There are some nice ones right behind the kiosk, part of the nature garden.

Smelling lemon balm

And there is some lovely lemon balm to the right of the path behind the kiosk. Lemon balm makes a great tea. One of my favourites.

Yarrow, Milfoil, Bloodwort, Staunchweed hand picked from the Nature Garden

 We washed and carefully selected the best herbs we’d picked and made tea for the thermic Invisible Food flasks.

Putting labels on the tea, all picked from the park

Then we started on the food preparation, all washing their hands first and if anyone dropped out to have a quick game of football, they had to wash their hands again!

Washing hands before the food preparation

We chopped up the yarrow with a mezza luna chopper, to get it nice and fine.

Cutting the herb with a mezza luna chopper

Making the vege burgers with the yarrow added in

We used a packet of burger mix and threw the chopped yarrow in. We carefully made little round burgers, pressing them many times so they didn’t crumble.

Cooking time: it's warmer around the stove

I used the woodgas camp stove to fry up the burgers. We used wood pellets and some sticks from the park as fuel.

Regulating the ferocity of the flame

Here I am regulating the flames. This stove has a battery assisted fan which saves you having to blow the flames to keep the fire going. It works really well.

Homemade tomato ketchup goes well

I used a lovely recipe for homemade ketchup from Hugh Fearnley-Whittenstall’s book. It’s delicious. Will post it here soon.  I also tried making some jerk sauce which is really tasty. 1 scotch bonnet pepper, some thyme, some spring onions and some allspice, olive oil and a dash of vinegar. It keeps well in the fridge.

and there was Levi Roots jerk sauce and a homemade one too!

It was great doing some outdoor cooking in Myatts Field. We had great weather – you can tell by the light in some of the photos – and I’m glad to be able to keep cooking and eating outdoors even as winter approaches.  Thanks to all participants.

Photos by Jorge Goia

 

 

Veteran Trees

To be posted soon.

 

October 17th Hawthorns and Sloes

Preparation for the walk started the night before, when Solomon and I made bread to accompany the jam.

Kneading the dough quite late at night

Hands hard at work

We had another massive turnout on Saturday 17th October.  We started off thinking about how we prepare for winter, from buying some thermals to doing preserves of jam and chutneys. We walked from Wyck Gardens over to Ruskin Park and stayed in the Northway Road entrance area. I’ve been scouring the park for Sloes but I haven’t found any. I’d brought some sloes with me that I’d picked near Lewes in Sussex and others on Romney Marsh in Kent. Various people tried them raw and I wish I’d taken a photo of their faces as they did. Sloes are safe to eat but they immediately dry the mouth as they are strongly astringent.  The flowers are laxative (also a diuretic, good for cystitis and rheumatism) and the fruits are ‘binding’ and full of Vitamin C.  The  small fruits are the ancestor of the plum, measure around 9 – 15mm and have an attractive blue-black tinge and greenish flesh inside.  The fruits are good for jellies and gin.

Gathering in Ruskin Park

Picking up horse chestnuts. Can't eat those though!

 Horse chestnuts are apparently a good remedy for varicose veins and there’s a recipe in the Grow your own drugs book for this.  Conkers are best known for their game playing potential but Conkers as a game hasn’t really made a come back. Not yet.

This lot might get into it. Conkers have such a nice, shiny, cool feel. Lovely for counting games with the under 5s.

One for you and one for you!

Looking at chickweed or yarrow

I haven’t got round to learning about mushrooms yet. In the meantime, here is one possible way of learning, workshops and forays around London.

 http://www.fungitobewith.org/

Funghi in Ruskin Park

Ancient Hawthorn trees were used as public meeting places

 We looked extensively as Hawthorn. The Bright scarlet one is Midland Hawthorn and the Duller Crimson is Hawthorn. You can eat the leaves in Spring and use the spring flowers in syrups and puddings and I’ve heard it makes an excellent wine. A delicious toast for an end of year celebration. A reminder of the spring that is round the corner.  An infusion of the flowers and leaves is a cardiac sedative, it dilates the blood vessels, lowers the blood pressure and I’ve even seen it in the Grow your own drugs as part of the ingredients for a cholesterol reducing tonic.   I’ve also read that it is not a plant to use for self-medication. If you’ve got a heart problem, get specialist help.  However, I really believe in the long term benefit from the careful and informed use of plants in your diet.

 The berries, ready from August to October are good for jellies and chutney.

Walkers taking over Northway Road!

A wild patch on the corner of Coldharbour and Loughborough. Too many cars to pick here though

Nice bouncy bush of mallow, loads of plantain too

Refreshments. The bottles of gin were to make sloe gin!

 We made ourselves at home in the Boardroom underneath Harper House and had refreshments including elderflower, mint and yarrow tea, lemon balm tea and dandelion root coffee.  We ate the bread Solomon and I made last night with apple jelly (from crab apples on the estate). Marion brought a spelt cake, delicious with a real almond kick.  We relaxed for a bit, and did some drawing.

Boys drawing plants

More drawing

Everyone destalking the sloes

 Then we started making the gin. All (washed) hands to the job! Some people brought their own sterilised bottles for decanting.

Double checking and Sorting through the sloes

Pricking the sloes so the juices run ...

Sterilised needles to do the job. This was a double prick technique someone devised on the day!

The Gin goes In

Give it a stir for good luck

Filling up the bottles again

This is Althea who was 40 weeks pregnant, a wild food enthusiast, and gave birth to a son 3 days after the walk.  Welcome to the World! We’ll toast you both with this gin, when it’s ready, at the Christmas feast

 

Healing properties of plants

These were the plants we looked at on the Mental Health day walk on 9th October.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk and Talk on World Mental Health day October 9th

Today we celebrated all mental health. Walking and talking and looking especially at the emotional healing properties of plants, wild plants and cultivated herbs in the herb garden between Angell Town and Loughborough Estates.

It seemed right to have a little worksheet with everyone completing all the properties of the plants. So people had something to take away with them, a reminder of the day, some information, some supportive words. Here is a taster of the workshop and click here for all of them.

 http://lambethbandofsolidarity.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/healing-properties-of-plants/

 

Cleansing Nettle

We spent ages in Wyck Gardens as usual, there are so many plants there. It’s wild and wonderful.

Setting off in Wyck Gardens

And we even found blackberries, plump and juicy, like the early summer ones. I couldn’t believe it. Just 3 or 4. But a nice find.

We even found blackberries that were still good for eating!

There’s a large pear tree near Edgehill house, I’ve collected windfall for here for a pie. the pears were very hard and needed a lot of stewing. But they’re large.

Trying to get pears down, near Edgehill House

 

Completing the herb sheet at the herb garden

 

We looked especially at Rosemary, Lavender, Mint, Thyme, Sage and Lemon balm.

 

Looking for the mint!

 

And then we stoked up the storm kettle and had a welcome cup of tea. It was a little bit chilly.

Boiling water for tea with the storm kettle

We finished with butter bean and nettle pie, with turmeric.

Eating butter bean and nettle pies

It was great to have such lovely people around, and I hope to do more midweek walks in the future.

Now go here for the plants

http://lambethbandofsolidarity.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/healing-properties-of-plants/

 

Urban Green Fair September 20th – Jam splattering on stage

On Sunday September 20th, I teamed up with people from Transition town food group who want to kick start a project called Cookers and Eaters, learning traditional food cooking skills. And well, I can make jam but in fact, jam making is very easy but this was the first time I’d done it in the open air. 

Programme of events for the day

 We were in the Food area at the top of the park with 4 tables surrounding a raised stage.

Four tables and a stage in the middle

 The idea was to use the sound system to give a commentary on the jam which would have been hilarious but the sound system stopped working so I didn’t have the opportunity to interview passersby about their jam making experience and top tips.

Herbs and flowers we found in Brockwell Park

 We started the day with a walk round the park to collect some herbs for tea. We found nettle, yarrow, plantain and of course, lots of herbs in the walled garden. My favourite is hops which grow on the west wall by the lavender beds. I first tried hop tea a few weeks ago and I haven’t slept so soundly ever since I’ve had Zeca. Then I read that it was part of the cannabis family.

The Outdoor kitchen we called it and that stage deserves a second mention

 We had a table for book browsing, a table for the stove and food preparation, a table for the teas and a table for drawing plants and making triangles for bunting.

Chopping apples

 We started chopping the apples and asking people if they had any jam making experience they could lend us.

Getting the storm kettle going

 We used the storm kettles to boil water for the tea. It was hard work sometimes because some of the sticks we picked up from the park were a bit green. I like getting a feel for which sticks burn well, which ones are more brittle, which ones are more bendy. We did a lot of blowing to keep the flames going.

Stirring on stage

 I love this photo and that red in the pot and that white dress.  We boiled the jam for over 20 minutes but it wasn’t always boiling furiously. When the wind picked up the flame decreased.

Jam splattering bubbling cauldron deep red

 Here, it’s boiling quite well and frothing up.

Decanting jam into jars

 We filled about 6 jars.

Finger that's just been licked

 And the pot was there for anyone to dip their fingers in.

Bread made in the Park to eat with our jam

 So, when the bread was ready, we brought the jam over.

Raw food salad, the flasks, apples, fresh ginger beer & some children

 Other people had brought produce from their allotments and homemade ginger beer. Lots of apples too.

There was a lot of hungry people digging in

 

The Jam was a bit runny but it tasted good on the bread. A pregnant woman asked me about three times to buy a pot of jam and I kept saying no so we had enough for the picnic and to try again after if we had some left over. We did and she bought a jar but the jar I took home with me had gone off a few days later and I realised that the jars hadn’t been sterilised. Ooops and apologies to that lady! (the jam would have been fine on the day, don’t worry about that all of you who ate it, it just won’t keep if the jars aren’t sterilised).

But it was a great day and it was so nice having a big saucepan on the boil full with a bright, sumptous red liquid. It really drew people in and if we had had the microphone, we could have sung some incantations  – bubble bubble boil and set please.

As the autumn sets in, I want to find increasing opportunities for eating and cooking outside.

Thanks to Sarah for all the connections, Jasmin, Clara, Michelle and Adam for all their support on the day.

 

Invisible Food monthly walk 19th September – rocket seeds

On Saturday September 19th, there were 15 of us, including 3 under 10s. A lovely mixture of residents from the Loughborough estate and people from around the surrounding area and from even farther afield. I love this mixture.  It’s so rare this meeting up and opportunity to talk with people from different cultures, even though we pride ourselves on London being multicultural and diverse etc etc etc the opportunities for dialogue are often few and far between.

This is one thing that the Invisible food project is trying to tackle in its own little way. Food and plants resonate deeply with people and we all know they are important. Those who are willing to experiment with new tastes are sharing something important from their store of life skills … an openness to the new, a skill which eases the passage of a life transported to London, a skill which rejuvenates a life rooted in one area.

I began the walk this month talking about how I’m noticing that everyone who participates brings something different to the walk (a memory, a skill, knowledge, surprise about a plant, wonder, curiosity, the ability to strike up a conversation, a question, a half-remembered recipe) and everyone takes away something different (any of the above, a feeling you get after speaking to someone new, the feeling in the body you get after walking). I’m interested in these elements as things that could be mapped into an intricate map of human relationships to the plant world.

In gaining or regaining skills in how to look at and use plants, we bring identity, our selves, a memory, a personal and collective history. I’m interested in this identity having a voice

 

Starting the hunt at Wyck Gardens

 

We met and started hunting for plants in Wyck Gardens, near the sad rowan tree, we found nettle, dandelion, mallow, tons of yarrow and mugwork. I mentioned how I love the curve of the bramble – like a fishing rod with a catch – and how this helps it spread as when the tip touches the ground it roots and moves on in this way. Another walker said how bramble stem can be made into rope – removing the thorns and whittling it down with friction.

Fig tree on Old Loughborough

 

The figs on this tree have been there since last year. I was saying how figs are harvested only every 2 years but I’ve just checked on wiki pedia and have just discovered that that’s rubbish. In hotter countries,

 ”Two crops of figs are potentially produced each year. The first or breba crop develops in the spring on last year’s shoot growth. In contrast, the main fig crop develops on the current year’s shoot growth and ripens in the late summer or fall. The main crop is generally superior in both quantity and quality than the breba crop”

I’d be interested in finding out more about fig growing in England. The fig tree on the Loughborough Estate has good looking figs but they’re rock hard and they have been there since last year. 

Apples on the herb garden

 

 One of the walkers, Darren, revealed what this next plant was – and I’ve been wondering for ages – first I thought it was Rosebay Willow herb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireweed which is often associated with London as it sprung up readily on all the bombsites after the war and Loughborough was heavily bombed during the war. But the pictures weren’t matching the real plant I was seeing around, then Darren said it was Buddleia and how it spreads rapidly, especially by the side of railway tracks, due to the seed head being whooshed along with the passing of a train. Don’t think it’s edible.

Bees and butterflies love buddleia

 

 We gathered in Mostyn Gardens for refreshments. This month we had the usual herb teas from the herb garden and as I’m going through a dandelion coffee phase due to giving up real coffee. I made some dandelion coffee. I love the thick syrupy consistency, especially from the Cotswold brand which is deeper roasted and roasting it yourself – even through I prefer learning how to do all these things myself – it’s difficult to get the same deep roast which makes it more of a coffee and less of a watery tea.

Mostyn Gardens is a large expanse of open green space, a little bit barren and devoid of care and attention but I wanted to go there to collect the now ready for collecting wild rocket seeds. It was great spending an hour or so there and having a different bodily experience of the space, relaxing, chatting, preparing a little picnic with a crowd of people. All these spaces can be reclaimed and the open, green ones are the easiest to reclaim!

Preparing the storm kettle in Mostyn Gardens

 

 In addition to the blackberry and apply jam and the scrapings of the mulberry jam from last year. I’d made a carob and rosehip cake, which even if I do say so myself, was very nice. My cakes are always hit and miss. I always make vegan cakes and normally always make cakes free from refined sugar. This one was sweetened with date syrup which went well with the carob.

Having tea, carob & rosehip cake and jam

 And this is one of the walkers posing for a photo in the style of collecting rocket seeds. Goia normally takes the photos but he got left behind a bit with Zeca and the rocket seed collecting hadn’t been documented so we had to set up this photo so the moment didn’t pass by undocumented. There are lots of wild rocket bushes on Mostyn Gardens. Keep the seeds wrapped in paper in the fridge until next spring.

 

Wild rocket seeds on Mostyn Gardens

 As we sat down to eat, I asked people to write down things that they brought with them to the walk and things that they’re taking away with them from the walk. This was Segen’s drawing of mallow and chestnut.

Mallow and chestnut by Segen

 

Promoting the walks 5th September

There’s something about setting up ’shop’ anywhere that I really like. The spontaneity or freedom of just putting up a table and getting the flasks out. Last time I did this, lots of people stopped and talked and it was a great way of getting people to come on the walks who might not otherwise have come. I did it again.

Broken apple tree, block and sky

This is a lovely photo of a rotten apple tree that two boys had climbed up and broken the day before. They owner of the newsagents told me as I hung outside his shop handed out leaflets. Everyone was shocked that 2 boys had done this, but a gentleman passed by and said he used to work with trees and that the trunk was rotten. It broke because it was dying.

Sunny day & broken tree

You can see the tree better here. And the table with the Invisible food flasks. Gorgeous blue sky, not that warm but bright. The teas went down quite well and enough people were willing to try to make it worthwhile.

Come on a wild food walk!

Flasks, part of the library and Leicester house

A fallen tree makes picking easier. These apples are rotten though.

 

Loughborough Green Day September 12th

A little bit of talking to people, sharing herb teas and browsing through the books in Woolley Gardens at the Loughborough Centre’s first green day. Friend and resident Segen volunteered to look after the stall for the day. Thank you Segen!