Rachel Lambert
Foraging expert Rachel has some great ideas to expand your free-food palate, including the surprising, versatile wild carrot seed.
“As summer begins to leave us, we are greeted by these dark, luscious fruits. Bulbous blackberries bursting with juicy vitamin C, seeds and fibre.”
I’M STARTING TO feel a bit on edge, as if I’m watching the tide go out and I’ve missed the last boat home. As the year turns to August and September, I know what’s coming. I know I have to say goodbye to summer for another year and embrace the joys of autumn.
Luckily nature is kind as well as ruthless. It takes its time and gives gifts to help us adjust to the change. Earlier in summer I watched bramble stems stretch across the footpaths, then their delicate flower petals dropped, and hard, unripe fruits started to appear. I’ve been waiting in anticipation as the green clusters of elderberries hang above my head… not ready, still not ready.
Yet now, as summer begins to leave us, we are greeted by these dark, luscious fruits. Bulbous blackberries bursting with juicy vitamin C, seeds and fibre. Elderberries sagging towards the ground, heavy with moist goodness, perfect if cooked in sauces for game, made into spiced drinks or drizzled over apple and blackberry crumble.
Down on the coast path I find my favourite
– wild carrot (Daucus carota). Its flowers are still blossoming in some places; in other spots they have long gone to seed. Their domed blooms can be white, pink, a speckled mixture of the two, or white with a dark red, petaled centre. As summer dives towards autumn, the wild carrot blooms literally turn inward, and the concave shape holds surprisingly spicy seeds.
Spiders love to hide amongst the spokes of this plant’s umbrella-like seedheads. Wild carrot is also commonly known as ‘bird’s nest’, and you can see why. No longer fresh-looking, it is easy to walk past its dried heads scattered down the cliffs to the sea, or inland on lightly grazed pastures, wasteland and roadsides.
Carrot seeds give a great aniseed-like kick to biscuits or bread or toasted on winter salads. Unfortunately, they are an elusive flavour when processed. The powdered spice smells delicious but doesn’t translate when cooked, so it’s best to use the seeds whole.
I recommend taking a moment to brush a few from a ‘bird’s nest’ and stand and chew a single seed. It’s most intense if you bite and then move it to the tip of your tongue, allowing your taste buds at least 30 seconds to register the tingling of flavours that are only available from late summer onwards.
(A word of warning: the wild carrot plant is a member of the Apiaceae family which also includes the fatally poisonous hemlock. Correct identification is essential. If you’re not 100% sure, leave it. Carrot seeds are a good digestive aid though not recommended if pregnant.)
I sometimes ponder what it means to be human, and what it means to return to my human nature when I feel disconnected through too much time indoors or in front of a screen. I’ve found that stepping outside, experiencing the weather, noticing the plants and having a nibble of wild foods around me is a simple way for me to start to feel more human again, and to come to terms with the turning season.