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You know Springhas arrived in the UK when wild garlic is ready to be foraged all around the English countryside or purchased in farmers markets and selected specialist food shops.
Think of it as the gentler, lighter, greener, fresher, more delicate cousin of kitchen garlic bulbs. There is no harshness to wild garlic. It's flavour feels freshly woken, as if it’s just pushed through the forest floor and is still holding onto the cool shade of the trees. You immediately want another taste, it invites you back as a kind of edible springtime hush.
There are many delightful ways in which wild garlic can be used, but one of our favourites is to make it into a pesto and use it for everything from morning eggs to light burrata dishes, with fresh asparagus (also in season now), to liven up sandwiches, stirred into a simple pasta or risotto dish and much more.
To make this versatile chunky pesto you need the following ingredients:
100g wild garlic leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 a teaspoon unprocessed sea salt
50g lightly toasted pine nuts
50g grated parmesan
150ml of Opus Olea extra virgin olive oil, plus more for storing
juice of half a small lemon
Method:
Wash your wild garlic leaves and dry either in a salad spinner or pat dry using paper towels or a kitchen towel. Chop roughly and place the leaves, together with the sea salt, in a pestle and mortar.
Pound and grind a bit to release some of the aroma of the leaves, then start adding the other ingredients, working on the paste until all ingredients are well mixed through. Once it has reached your desired consistency, place your pesto in an airtight, sterilised jam jar or container and top up with some more Opus extra virgin olive oil to cover. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for a couple of months. Use it in everything for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
How to forage:
Wild garlic (Allium ursinum, aka ramsons) is super common across the UK and can be found from February to June, with the season peaking from mid-March to about mid-May. You’ll find it in damp deciduous woodland, along hedgerows and riverbanks, in shady, moist soil. It sometimes carpets the ground in huge patches - if you find one, you’ve struck gold. It’s considered an ancient woodland indicator, meaning you’re probably standing somewhere ecologically special. You can usually smell it before you see it!
How to identify wild garlic (safely):
This bit matters a lot - there are poisonous lookalikes.
What to look for:
Lookalikes to avoid:
If it doesn’t smell like garlic, don’t eat it.
A few rules about foraging responsibly are to pick leaves, not bulbs (bulbs kill the plant), take only a small portion (≈10%) from a patch, avoid protected areas / private land without permission, pick away from dog-walking paths.
Enjoy your Springtime countryside walks and finds!
