Wild garlic bud oxymel
Allium ursinum, also known as wild garlic, wild ramsons, bear garlic, onion stinkers or devil’s posy (depending on the extent of your fondness for allium family herbs) is an abundant and delicious herb, easily found in damp and shady places, such as woodland floors and under hedgerows. It is a much-loved harbinger of Spring for me.
All parts of this herb are edible, the narrow bulbs (I don’t harvest these because they are small and it kills the plant), the rich, green lanceolate leaves, the bulging nutritious flower buds, the exquisite clusters of white, star-shaped flowers and the pungent green seed pods. All parts are full of bioactive compounds, including various vitamins and minerals. The pungent compounds that we can smell and taste are the sulphur-containing ones. As well as being antioxidant and antimicrobial, garlic has been associated scientifically with supporting cardiovascular health by modulating high blood pressure, reducing cholesterol levels and reducing blood clotting. There is also some evidence that it can help in modulating blood sugar levels. Much more research has been done into the health benefits of cultivated garlic than wild garlic, but there is a significant overlap in terms of the bioactive compounds they contain.
The appeal of wild garlic for me is multifaceted. It is a beautiful herb, it tastes amazing, its arrival marks Spring for me and harvesting my own wild garlic is not only a joyful process, but enables us to be eating or otherwise processing our harvest within a few hours of gathering it, thereby ensuring minimal loss or deterioration of its constituents. There is something incredibly soothing about squatting on my haunches quietly in a wood, amongst a sea of wild garlic, metronomically popping wild garlic flower buds from plant to basket.
You need to know what you are picking, but this is easy if you use your sense of smell as well as sight; the distinct garlic smell will keep you from going wrong. If harvesting the leaves, do so leaf by leaf, rather than grabbing huge handfuls. That way, you will avoid including lords and ladies and/or lily of the valley in your basket, both of which could result in very much unwanted outcomes if you ate them.
There are so many delectable ways to enjoy wild garlic. You can slice the young leaves and add them to salads, you can wilt them in butter and eat them like spinach. You can add the leaves to stir fries and risottos. The leaves, flowers, buds and seed pods are also delicious mixed into cream cheese or labneh. The firm favourite here for the leaves, though, is to make a pesto with them. For the sheer entertainment of the name, we even go as far as making pesto with wild garlic and sticky willy (Galium aparine). Yes, we call the pesto Garlic Willy. The flowers are beautiful and work wonderfully on a salad or to decorate a soup. But my best loved way of consuming this delicious and health-supporting herb involves making an oxymel from the bulging, potent flower buds. Plants put a huge amount of energy (and therefore, nutrients) into producing their flowers.
The particularly special thing about making wild garlic bud oxymel, is that the fermentation process that occurs preserves the buds enabling utterly guilt-free consumption of garlic buds completely out of season. Fermentation is an excellent way of being able to NOT eat seasonally. I have been eating last year’s wild garlic bud oxymel with my salads throughout the Winter. As well as consuming the fermented buds, you can drink or otherwise consume the apple cider vinegar/honey fluid too. It will have extracted some of the active constituents from the buds and makes a fantastic ingredient in vinaigrette.
I always use 1/3 honey to 2/3 vinegar in my oxymels, because this ensures that the acidity levels are sufficient to make it an inhospitable environment for unwanted microbes. Exercise caution giving oxymels to babies or the immune suppressed due to the tiny risk of Clostridium botulinum spores being present in the honey.
Wild garlic bud oxymel
Ingredients
A 500ml kilner jar full of wild garlic buds
165ml runny honey
335ml apple cider vinegar
Equipment
500ml kilner jar
Washed in hot water or that has been through the dishwasherA measuring jug
A mixing spoon
Method
Simply put the apple cider vinegar and the honey in the measuring jug and mix together well. This avoids you finding a big conglomeration of honey sitting at the bottom of your measuring jug.
Fill the clean kilner jar with your freshly harvested wild garlic buds.
Pour the apple cider vinegar/honey mix over the buds until the kilner jar is full.
Close the lid (which should have a rubber seal) to exclude oxygen and leave for around 4 weeks. Or 4 months. Or probably even 4 years (but mine are eaten too fast to have ever tested this).
I always label my ferments – saying what it is and when it was made. I also write on the date I next need to do something with it, so that I don’t forget.
This oxymel tastes fantastic even after more than a year of fermenting. I fill a number of kilners in the Spring and then work my way through them during the year until the next harvest. I almost never refrigerate them. But if you like the taste of them when they are younger, then simply refrigerate them to slow microbial action significantly.
