A walk in Cranham woods turned into a happy stumble* across patches of wild garlic when we went to explore this strange looking tree. 
What fun we had collecting sticks (no surprises there), nibbling on wild garlic leaves and eating our snacks to free up our Tupperware box for foraging. 
Turns out a small snack box doesn’t hold much and it’s pretty slow going when you’re a forager clutching a stick collection! 
To make our pesto style sauce I whizzed up our garlic leaves (17g), with 10g walnuts, 10g hard cheese, seasoning and 25ml rapeseed oil (different choice of ingredients but quantities based on those in Hedgerow (River Cottage Handbook, No.7)
It tastes so fresh and vibrant and it’s surprising how such a small amount goes a long way. The equivalent of 5 teaspoons of pesto has stretched to jazzing up pasta, potato salad and adding some zing to soup. 
No prizes for guessing where we’ll be returning to soon!
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*Literally a stumble when only a minute or two before E had learned that getting out of a tree is not always as easy as climbing in. No harm done and all in the name of independence! 
Nip it in the bud 
[…] using wild garlic pesto was about as wild as it got! My friend Sonia made the pesto after reading our blog post about foraging wild garlic in Cranham Woods. Luca and I went to the woods a few weeks later but the wild garlic was past it’s best and […]
[…] Euan was 3 years old we went for a bimble in Cranham Woods and stumbled upon a fabulous patch of wild garlic surrounding an ancient gnarly tree. I vowed to […]