Thank you all so much for reading my last post and leaving such lovely and kind comments 🙂 You made my heart warm and fuzzy with all of your supportive and encouraging words. You have all boosted my dwindling confidence and I am starting to believe that I can and will make my dream a reality. I am so grateful for each and everyone of you darling friends who read my blog and support me, from the bottom of my heart, I love you all ♥
For years I have been reading about wild garlic and its many culinary uses with wide eyed glee, wishing and hoping to one day happen upon some and fill my tummy with the fragrant leaves and flowers. A month or so ago I found a cluster of three cornered leeks which have a strong onion flavour and were very delicious eaten straight from the tundra or chopped into salads, but alas it wasn’t wild garlic. Well thanks to Nathan my dream of foraging wild garlic has now come true!
A little while ago a show aired on BBC2 called One Man And His Campervan about a chap named Martin Dorey, who is a campervan lover and a passionate foodie, who journeyed around Britain in his 1970s classic campervan meeting local foraging experts along the way. In one of the episodes Martin visited Hampshire and in particular the New Forest where he met a local forager Gary Eveleigh who took him on a foraging adventure. I actually missed the entire series, but Nathan saw it and he told me all about as he knows Gary.
A few weeks later Gary popped into the pub for a drink and Nathan got chatting with him about how I am obsessed with food, especially free food from the wonderful shop that never closes; nature! Nathan asked if he knew of any good spots for foraging wild garlic and Gary discreetly advised a location a few miles away that is always teeming with it.
Last weekend Nathan, Brooke, Poppy, Monty and I embarked on a wild garlic adventure. If only I didn’t have a stuffy hayfever nose I would have joined Nathan and Brooke in being able to smell it before we saw it.
As we approached the masses of white flowers we were in shock and awe that as far as our eyes could see the ground was scattered with the delicate pure white flowers and the deep green broad leaves that are so delicious. I have an itsy bitsy little trug (with the intention of filling only half of the trug so as not to be greedy) that I meant to take with us. However in my excitement I forgot the tiny trug and the only receptacle other than the camera bag that we had were unused and very clean poopy bags! It seemed terribly wrong to use the bags for foraging, but I could not entertain the thought of going home empty handed so they had to do.
Brooke captured me having a moment with my beloved! I didn’t know that she was pointing the camera at me so there I was inhaling the intoxicating scent whilst looking ridiculously in love with the plant! It is too amusing to keep to myself, you all need to see what a food and nature geek I truly am!
Poppy sampling the wild garlic
Two of the happiest dogs alive
A New Forest Pony grazing
A beautiful and very well camouflaged frog which Nathan cleverly spotted
A wild garlic leaf sprouting through a remnant of autumn
This is a still from a video so it is not the best quality, but Poppy’s face and little paws are lovely, so I just couldn’t resist
Speaking of the video, I was trying to capture stills from it, but it was taking forever and a thought crossed my mind. Perhaps I could play it here, but I was hesitant about it as it seems far more embarrassing than photographs for some reason, but at the same time, I would love to hear all of your voices, so I thought I should just give it a go.
We (read Nathan!) had to cut it into two and rotate it as it the filming switched between portrait and landscape. Therefore the quality has diminished, but at least you won’t have to tilt your head side to side to watch it!
As we walked back to the main road, Brooke and I hopped into the river as we were in flip flops and we encouraged the pooches to follow. Monty with his teeny little Shih Tzu legs an in with sheer abandon and was having an incredible time. Poppy however was not enjoying the water at all, she immediately ran out of the river and looked horrified that we would suggest such a ghastly thing for her to do!
This is now one of our favourite places to walk and we will be going back this week, I cannot wait!
Happy Monday
xo
Oh, what an absolutely gorgeous place! And such lovely pictures! Your puppies certainly do look like two of the happiest pets around! 🙂 ♥
Hi, sweet Morwenna!! Oh, how lovely to hear your charming voice in the video!! What a beauriful forest you live near!! So cool, so green and lush! The puppies look adorable and are having so much fun, too! Ah, thank you for posting about your adventure and how I would love to visit such a pretty place one day! Hugs, Sherry xx
Hello sweetie,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post! I must say, my favourite thing about it, was watching the videos of you and hearing your sweet voice. I just love your English accent. It put such a big smile on my face. Loved it sooo much! Poppy is adorable too. I am so glad you finally found the wild garlic you've been searching for. It looks like you had a wonderful wild garlic adventure. Your pictures are gorgeous! xoxo
I've had a cranky day with my mattress issues but you filled it with sunshine just now and made my evening bright. What a pleasure to see your woods–I'm beginning to think all of England is Ye Merry Forrest and at any moment Robin Hood will dart out since both you and Rachel live near such amazing nature places. They do have nature here in CA,just not at the malls I frequent. The garlic was really beautiful with flowers resembling Narcissus. So much fun to see the dogs romp and play. And best of all was seeing and hearing you guys! Oh golly! Well done! I want to be British too and sound just like you! Adorable start to finish.
It's an enchanted forest and you are the fairy princess. What a absolutely wonderful place you have found; I expected to see a fairy among the bluebells. Have loved looking for wild plants and have found wild mustard (I think) but too scary to try unless I'm sure. How nice Nathan knows a real forager. Know you will enjoy cooking with your wild garlic. Loved seeing Poppy and friend romp and hearing your charming accent and voice. I'm with Nancy on wanting a British accent. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure. xoxo
HAHAHahahahah! I had to laugh out loud at Poppy rolling in the horse poo!!! Boston and Kiki are doing that any chance they get. Cavaliers are such adorable, mischievous little creatures!
These are such wonderful pictures, you all look so happy, and I absolutely love the new banner photo!
I'm thinking of you and sending my love….so glad you finally found some wild garlic near you, now you can go back every year!
XOXO, Dawn
I can see why you'd be returning for such a lovely walk!
Victoria xx
What a beautiful adventure. Your photos are absolutely stunning. Very jealous here! What a gorgeous place.
I can hardly believe my eyes. Such a gorgeous sight, a culinary nirvana! Is the garlic strong or mild? What a perfect outing.
xx
julie
You appear to have a bit of heaven here! So beautiful. I think your right, your dogs are so happy running through the woods – loved the video!
Hi Morwenna! I found you too 🙂 I hope I'm not leaving anybody out 🙂 I didn't realize you all blogged too 🙂 I love the wild garlic. haven't ever seen it before so this is wonderful 🙂 You seem like such a kindred spirit. I loved hearing your voice 🙂
Love,
Denise of Ingleside, PEI
Sweet Morwenna! Only just found this post as I'm trying to catch up with all my blogfriends after being cut off by bad signals in the Lakes last week! How much did I LOVE this??? We don't have wild garlic (we call it 'ramps') in this area…but found LOTS around Lake Windermere. Smells so wonderful & I picked a lot to have with roast chicken in our little rented cottage – bliss. Poppy is such a darling, as is Monty!! And so heavenly to hear you and bring that gorgeous face to life. Hope we will meet for real before too long. thanks for making me smile today, happy happy weekend xoxo R
One of the reasons I love your blog is the photos of Poppy. My little Blenheim, Rosie, is her spitting image. They seem to love rolling round in stuff this time of year. A friend told me it is fox scent they are particularly attracted to! It smells atrocious 🙁