Where to find Wild Garlic
From about March time onwards foragers up and down the UK are busy collecting Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum) AKA Ramsons, Bear Garlic, Wood Garlic or that really strong garlicky smell that you get when your dog wanders off the beaten track in your local woodland. These foraged leaves and flowers will go on to become the main ingredient or part of a concoction to harness and preserve the flavour for the coming months.
What is Wild Garlic?
In brief, because we have a dedicated page all about Wild Garlic, this is a native and wild growing plant which is a member of the onion family. All parts of Wild Garlic are edible, from the fairly small white bulb which grows and splits into more plants over the years, to the seed heads which develop at the end of the season in May/June time. This plant is extremely popular due to it’s versatility and fantastic flavour which lies somewhere between garlic and spring onion.
A plant of damp woodlands
Wild Garlic grows predominantly in damp woodland and shaded hedgerows, however I have also seen it spreading several metres out from a hedgerow base to colonise a sunny grass verge. Although it is found throughout most of the UK it is more common in the South of the country where they have given it some especially good names such as Onion Stinkers and Devil’s Posy.
If you are trying to find a local patch of Ramsons, start with any woodlands that have rivers running through them and have a look at the riverbanks from February onwards when the plants are big enough to really start to notice.
How to forage for Wild Garlic
My favourite tools for foraging Wild Garlic are a basket or mesh bag and a pair of scissors. When Wild Garlic has reached is peak for leave size it can look like a carpet has generated all from one plant, however when you look closely it is many separate plants which each have 5 or so leaves. In order to give every bulb the best chance of growing and splitting to create more Wild Garlic plants, it is best to only take one or two leaves from each clump. This method of foraging Wild Garlic (rather than ripping out handfuls at a time) also means that you are less likely to unintentionally uproot any bulbs or accidentally pick unwanted species, such as Arum Lily.
Cooking with Wild Garlic
This is an extremely versatile plant, on our Spring foraging courses we encourage everybody to sample leaves at different stages of growth, the flowers and the seed pods as each of these parts has a different taste and so can be used in different dishes. We have a whole host of recipes for Wild Garlic along with other wild edibles.
Amy is a UK wild food instructor and naturalist with over a decade of experience working and volunteering with ecological consultants, local wildlife charities and nationwide surveys. She is constantly developing her knowledge about wild edibles and studying how we can contribute to the natural environments which mean so much to us.