daily walk for exercise

Most days I get out for my allotted 'walk for exercise' during the Covid-19 lockdown. I feel very fortunate to live in Derbyshire, with its footpaths, fields, woods and hills on the doorstep. Before setting out I consider where the widest paths are with the best chance of remaining 2 meters away from other walkers. 

It's good to get out and breathe fresh air, most people nod, smile or say hello. We need to be responsive and aware of each others bodies, how to negotiate a crossing space, a narrowing of the path. I've become focused on edges as I walk upon fresh growth at the paths fuzzy boundary.

Watching spring bloom I spend much of my walk with eyes pointed at the ground. Spotting plants that sprout from pavement and wall, plants stunted and flattened amongst the grass in the park or growing verdant along pathways. Millefleur is brought to mind as it's still possible to study the variety of young plants, within weeks the hedgerow will be high and plants entwined. 

I'm always delighted by plants that grow in unpromising locations, from pavement crack and stone wall, as well as in the hedgerows - little warriors working with what's available and thriving. This week I photographed, then painted in watercolour Dandelion, Cleavers, Wild garlic, Nettle and Plantain - edible wild plants with medicinal qualities. 

 Dandelion

 Cleavers

 Cleavers

 Wild garlic

 Nettle

Nettle

 Plantain

Dandelion

nettle & potato soup

A couple of weeks ago I made the Friday Soup at Haarlem Artspace where I have a studio. We take turns providing a nourishing lunch for one another in our communal kitchen. I've long held the ambition to cook with the seasons, or at least understand what food the hedgerow can provide throughout the year. So in early March, with the nettles beginning to show their faces I made this soup.

Today, I gathered nettles in an altogether different world. I walked past a couple wearing face masks and felt wary, a heightened need for distance and also to smile, to reassure. It felt good to stride out above the town and quietly sing to the nettles, wild garlic and cleavers as I picked them. The wind cold, the sun warm, an abundance of young plants doing their thing, COVID-19 forgotten for a moment.

Nettle and Potato Soup

Two handfuls of nettle tops, rinsed

One large onion, chopped

Two medium potatoes, peeled and diced

One garlic clove, crushed. I also added wild garlic.

1.5 pints veg stock

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fry onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add nettles, potato and stock, simmer until potatoes are cooked, blend and season.

Cleaver Tea

Pick a generous handful of cleavers, rinse, place in a teapot, pour over boiling water and allow to infuse for five minutes. A friend who drank this said it reminded her of childhood.

Cleavers

Wild garlic

Nettle tops

  Nettles, cleavers & wild garlic

memorial of hedge and stone

One of the many joys of living in Derbyshire is the constant companionship of the dry stone walls and hedgerow boundaries that hug the landscape. Recently, during the centenary events to mark the end of WW1 I couldn't help but reflect upon the boys and men who never returned to this land, the boys and men who pieced the puzzle of dry stone walls together and skilfully laid the hedgerows. Their signature covers the land, an echo of their presence and physical labour and deep understanding of the natural world.

We remember you. 

rose hip syrup

Last month I made my first ever rose hip syrup using hips gathered on Wanstead Flats in September, which I washed and put in the freezer. Hips are a winter food for birds, so I only took what I needed. Here are foraging guidelines from the Woodland Trust.

The syrup is sweet, high in vitamin C, good drizzled on cakes & pancakes, in porridge and lovely with a shot of gin or vodka with ice.

You will need: measuring scale, pan with lid, wooden spoon, ladle, sieve, muslin cloth, bowl, measuring jug, funnel, Kilner bottle(s). 

Weigh your hips. The following recipe used 350g of hips, so alter amounts depending on the weight of your rose hips. 

1. Rinse & cut hips in half, put them in a pan & add half a litre of water.

2. Bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Ladle/pour liquid & hips into a muslin covered sieve over a bowl. Wrap muslin around the pulp and place something heavy on top. Leave to stand for 1 hour.

4. Return pulp to plan, add another half litre of water & repeat process 2 & 3.

5. Give muslin with pulp inside a good squeeze. Measure rose hip liquid, for each litre add 650g of sugar. I had 600ml of liquid, so used 325g of sugar.

6. Return liquid to a clean pan, add sugar & heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil & spoon off any scum. Boil for 3 minutes then bottle. 

I gave my bottle a rinse in boiling water before adding syrup. As you can see from my final image I filled 1 bottle plus extra in a jam jar. I didn't rinse the jam jar in boiling water and the syrup developed mould - so do rinse!

 Rose hips & water

 First boil

 Liquid after adding sugar

Finished syrup

sloe

My heart was full of joy as I strained the sloes after three months of melding with alcohol and brown sugar and bottled my first ever sloe whisky and sloe gin. I LOVE making things. These bottles are now in the cupboard to mature until christmas 2016. The sloes are in the freezer as apparently they can be made into a boozy crumble. Thank you hedgerow.