01.02.23

All about the plants

Welcome back

Fellow earth-enthusiasts, I am glad to present to you the last post in this series about mindful-gathering! Read the blog to get a few specific plants that you can go hunt for yourselves. this week's newsletter also contain ideas to how you can use the plants gathered in your kitchen.

Enjoy reading and please contact us on email or through social media to share your experiences and stories.

Today it’s all about the plants! or rather the content of the blog today will give you some examples on plants that you can try out your gathering skills with. Being a good gatherer can take a lot of time, it is definitely a skill that needs to be honed through vigorous and consistent training. However, being a great mindful-gatherer, you can become one from day one. Remember that gathering mindfully is all about the spirit in which you pick the produce from nature. If you do it in consideration to the environment and other people, then you are already on the right path.

Enough beating around the bush, no pun intended. Below, I will list a number of plants that will be a good way to start venturing out to pick, I will describe them and what to look out for, as well as provide pictures of the plants in question. With some plants there is the possibility of confusing it with similar looking ones, sometimes It is a harmless mistake and no big problem will arise. However, sometimes it can be deadly to confuse one plant with another, for that reason I have chosen plants that cannot really be confused or mistaken from any other, the few plants they can be mistaken for are all equally harmless to us, and therefore these few plants are beginner-friendly.

I will list the Danish names of the plants as well as their scientific name and one English common-name in parenthesis

Without further ado, here they are:

Sweet woodruff Galium odoratum (‘Skovmærke’ in danish)

The sweet woodruff is a small herb. It grows to about 15-25cm and is easily recognizable by the ring of leaves around its stem, there should be 8 leaves in each ring. It sprouts during May and blooms in April, but it can be found blooming all until oktober, though I have only seen them carry flowers in late spring to early summer.

The only plant the sweet woodruff can be confused with is “catchweed” (burresnerre, Gallium aparine) but the catchweed grows in thickets and can become very tall. It has few flowers located together, whereas the sweet woodruffs flowers sit in a nice bundle at the top of the plant. The sweet woodruff is also smooth and has a sweet smell of almonds.

In the kitchen:

Because of its sented oils that taste and smell of sweet almonds, this plant is great as a seasoning to maybe a salat or in/on an ice-cream dessert. At Yggdrasil Sanctuary we also use it to give taste to our mead.

Ramsons Allium ursinum (‘Ramsløg’ in Danish)

Ramsons is a herb with relatively large elliptical leaves. It can be gathered from late winter all the way to early summer where the leaves of the plant cover most of the forest bed, where it occurs. The plant has a rich smell of garlic, the strong smell of garlic makes this plant very hard to confuse with anything else.

In the kitchen:

Ramsons is a fantastic plant in the kitchen because of its many appliances, the plant adds both a taste and smell of garlic, a nice feature to this herb is, its taste is not very powerful compared to actual garlic, and can therefor easily be applied to dishes as a flavor-giver both when cooking dishes. When served raw the taste is more potent and therefor you should add it more sparsely in salads for instance.

Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica (‘Brændenælde’ in Danish)

Stinging nettle is probably most known as an unwanted weed growing in our flower-gardens, the roadside or other inconvenient places. Perhaps after reading this you will have changed your view of this delicious herb. The reason it is such a plague in our well-trimmed gardens is because of its resilience. But the fact that this plant is resilient is exactly what makes it such a great source of food for gatherers. It grows almost everywhere, and they are plentiful where they are found. The herb can grow tall 80cm or more if there is nutrients not and they are not cut down. It has heart-shaped saw-toothed leaves which are filled with tiny barb-like hairs.

The stinging nettle grows from early spring to late fall, it can be gathered throughout all its growth season, but it is the new sprouts that you want to use in your cooking. Because of this, when you are gathering the stinging nettle, cut the tiny sprouts that are no more than 20cm tall. However, you can also cut off the top 15-20cm of the tall old stalks. When you trim the taller stalks like this, new sprouts will emerge from the top. This way you can come back the next week and gather from the same place, as the tip you trimmed off last week will have grown back.

When you prepare the stinging nettle it will lose its stinging ability because the tiny barbed hairs will break and dissolve. You only really want to be using the leaves from the nettle, though you can use the stalk as well. It Is best prepared either cooked or fried, you almost cannot overcook or over-fry. Simply pluck the leaves off the stalk and chop them as fine as you like, then add them to your dish or fry them separately. The taste is nutty and earth-like but is really appreciative of spices or even just salt and/or pepper.

Elderflower Sambucus nigra (‘Hyldeblomst’ in Danish)

The Elderflower is an amazing flower, they are plentiful, very characteristic and unlike the above-mentioned plants, this is a tree, not a herb. The eatable elderflower cannot really be confused with the other plants in this species complex. Just for safety messieurs I will list a few things to be aware of with this plant. The eatable Elder has a large umbrella-like cluster of flowers, in contrast to other types of elderflower that has clusters in more oval or egg shapes. The eatable Elder carries deep dark-red/blue berries, they are almost completely black, the other elderflower tree have red berries. They is also a type of elderflower perennial plant. This plant is toxic and should not be gathered.

If you have found a proper tree with crème-white flowers in a circular cluster, or later in summer a tree with deep dark almost black berries also sitting in a circular cluster then you cannot mistake this plant as long as you know what the leaves look like.

The leaves of the eatable elderflower are elongated, saw-toothed and folded in the middle, on the outermost branches the leaves grow in groups of five, two pairs and a lone leaf on the end.

Elderflower and the elderberry tastes and smell amazing. As berries they can be used for anything you can think of, in desserts, as jam, in salads or in your breakfast cereal to name a few. Both the berries and the flowers are excellent in making lemonade or syrup-juice.

There is just one last thing to be aware of before diving in to a feast of elder-inspired dishes. All elderflowers contain a tiny bit of toxins, therefor you can get nausea and even get vomit or diarrhea if you stuff yourself with elderflower or berry-food.

Now you have been provided with as much knowledge as you could need to begin gathering herbs, berries and other resources from nature. I hope you will try it out, and maybe even dare to use some of your finds in your cooking.

You can read my other blog about bonfire food for a recipe you can pair with your gathering ventures. We at Yggdrasil Sanctuary hope you will share in your experiences and journey into mindful-gathering. You are very welcome to right to us on our email or reach out to us through social media.

Until next time, enjoy and be mindful,

Mads

Plants You Can Gather

Jñaña Yoga

The Gjorslev Estate