A whiff of wild delight
THIS is my favourite time of the year for wandering through the woods, while smelling the wonderful wild garlic all around me.
In fact, I paid a visit to St Luke’s Church, in
Orrell, last week and there were carpets of the stuff by the car park.
St Luke’s is a lovely church, close to its 150th anniversary and overlooking Greenslate Local Nature Reserve, where I spend a lot of my childhood.
There was a huge swathe of green and the flowers had started to bloom to the delight of local bees and hoverflies.
I also came across some wild garlic, also known as ransoms, when I visited Wigan Flashes recently and there is a patch close to my home in the woodland.
Throughout April and May, ancient woodlands are covered in its starry white flowers which offer wonderful early pollen for lots of insects.
You will see the flowers as a contrast to the dark green leaves, but underground there will be millions of bulbs in each wood.
There is something special about finding wild garlic, because the woodland where you see it is likely to be many thousands of years old.
Many of your ancestors may have walked the same path and picked the ransoms to flavour their food.
The reason why wild garlic and bluebells only flower in spring is because the tree canopy is not fully covered with leaves.
When the leaves thicken, they block out the sunlight and the plants go back underground and spend most of the time as bulbs.
The easiest way to identify wild garlic is to pick a leaf, crush it and take in that smell.
Wild garlic creates a pungent aroma in woodland which, to me, is absolute delight.
When I am walking I love the fact that all of my senses are being tickled by the smell of garlic, the sounds of birds and bees and the odd sight of a heron, kingfisher or roe deer.
I love to touch the bark of trees and smelly plants so I can get their whiff for some time later.
A lot of people still harvest small handfuls of wild garlic leaves or roots to use in cooking, but it is really strong so don’t take too much.
I actually saw a couple of recipes for wild garlic pesto and wild garlic and nettle soup, which sounded delicious.
You can even eat the young leaves raw, which I will try tomorrow morning.
Just a warning, picking the leaves is legal but digging up the roots is not, you will need a licence.
I have just been told an interesting fact that Ramsbottom was likely named after wild garlic, a place where you can find ramsons at the bottom of the valley.
That’s much nicer than thinking about rams’ bottoms.
So, if you are wandering through your local woods and get a whiff of wild garlic, just take in that smell and it should take you back to ancient times when the woods were wilder and wildlife more abundant.
It might just bring a tear to your eye.
But it might be that you aren’t keen on the smell of garlic.