It’s wild garlic picking time

IF you are out for a walk to get some exercise during this period of uncertainty you will notice, particularly in forests, verges and gardens, delicate, white flowers on long, grass-like stems, in bloom, writes Tom Gillespie.

Yes, it is wild garlic time.

Very much like a white bluebell, the true nature of this pretty flower is only revealed when you get closer and get a pungent, garlicky whiff.

In the past I have seen the plant growing in abundance in the Turlough area.

The grounds of the Museum of Country Life in Turlough are carpeted in wild garlic, and should be displaying the white flowers around now.

However, while the facility is closed due to the coronavirus, walking around the grounds, I’m sure, is permitted for locals. If not, try the path along the greenway, just before you come to the grounds of Turlough House.

My first encounter with wild garlic was about 30 years ago when I was asked to taste one of the green shoots with the white stem.

Of course, I had to try a few more. By the time I got back in to Castlebar, I stank of garlic.

I was told if you put a shoot in your shoe after a short period you will smell the garlic off your breath. I tried it out, and it’s true.

Cookery expert Georgina Campbell says both the long spear-shaped leaves and the white star-shaped flowers (April to May) are edible and feature on many a fashionable menu - fresh when in season, and preserved all year.

Thanks to its pungent smell and abundance, wild garlic is one of the easiest wild foods to harvest, and one of the simplest to use.

The flavour is less overpowering than the pungent aroma suggests, and it can be used in salads, notably the young leaves can be chopped and used as a substitute for chives.

Like other members of the onion and garlic family, wild garlic leaves have a useful affinity with tomatoes - perhaps better even than the ubiquitous and strongly flavoured basil.

While this free food is a wonderful countryside resource in spring, gardeners need to be wary of wild garlic - ‘prolific’ and ‘carpeting’ are the danger words, and it can become a serious weed in a small garden where it may arrive uninvited. Although you may at first be delighted to have it, the tiny bulbils spread like wildfire and it can very quickly become a problem.

The leaves can be used raw in salads, baked into scones and breads, sautéed in butter or whizzed into a pesto. The blossoms are a beautiful garnish for soups.

There are several ways to preserve a large harvest of leaves.

A pesto can be frozen for several months.

Fill an ice cube tray with chopped leaves and oil, freeze, pop out the cubes and store in plastic bags or other containers. The frozen oil cubes can be added directly to a saute pan or pot of soup.

Dry the leaves in a food dehydrator or very low oven (70 C) until brittle. Store in airtight containers.

I have garlic oil by adding the washed leaves to a good quality oil.

When picking your wild garlic, be sure to only pick healthy, undamaged specimens and give them a good wash before using.

A good pair of kitchen scissors used to snip the garlic off at the base are the best. Ideally you should harvest garlic away from traffic and pollution for cleaner plants.

Check that it is wild garlic by using the smell test: it is unmistakable.