Elder flower season has arrived. They are everywhere, and if you are trying to increase your foraging skills, now is the time. There is no excuse for not trying them.
So go out and get some flowers. You won't regret.  If food can be poetry, elder flower definitely is.

Here are 5 inspiring elder flower recipes.

Elder flower vinegar

Well, of course you could just infuse apple cider vinegar or wine vinegar with elder flowers, and that would be great. But here's a more sophisticated way, based on a recipe from France that we make every year again and again. It makes a wonderful gift as well.

• 2 cups elder flowers
  
• 1 liter/ 4 cups white wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
  
• 1 spring onion, chopped
  
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• a few black peppercorns (to taste)
  
• 20 sprigs of flowering thyme
  
• 15 sprigs of savory
  
  

Place all ingredients in a glass jar and cover with the vinegar. Let infuse for 6 weeks. Strain if desired and transfer to bottles with cork. Don't forget to label.

This vinegar has a long shelf life; when kept in a dark and cool place it will keep for at least a whole year, until there are new elder flowers for making another batch.

Elder flower champagne

• 4 liters elder flowers (that's 16 cups)
• 4,5 liter cold water (18 cups)
• 1 lemon
• 650 g sugar - (I use coconut nectar)
  
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Dissolve the sugar in a small amount of warm water and let stand to cool. Juice the lemons, chop the zest and place in a large jar with the elder flowers. Add the vinegar and the rest of the cold water. Let stand for 4 days.

Strain and pour in corked bottles. After 6 to 10 days, the champagne should have fermented naturally and is drinkable. Do test after 6 days to see that it does not get too fizzy. If it doesn't, let stand for another week: sometimes the natural yeast of the flowers is very slow to get going.

This elder flower champagne is a recipe from Roger Phillips' classic Wild Food. I can hardly wait for a sunny day to make this again this year.

Elder flower infused almond milk

• 2 cups  elder flowers
• 1 liter/4 cups water, plus extra for soaking the almonds
  
• a handful of almonds
• 2 medjool dates, pit removed
  

Soak the almonds in cold water.
Boil the 4 cups of water and pour over the elder flowers. Let both stand overnight, at room temperature.

Strain the almonds the day after.
Strain the elder flower infusion as well and combine with the almonds and dates in a blender. Blend thoroughly, strain again.

When drinking, close your eyes and feel in paradise.

Elder flower sorbet

• 2 cups ripe gooseberries, topped and tailed (you can use strawberries instead)
  
• 1 cup elder flowers
• zest of 1 lemon (or 1 orange) - organic of course
  
• 1 cup water
  
• some honey
• one ripe banana
  

Bring the water to a boil. Place the elder flowers and lemon zest in a jar and cover with the water. Let stand overnight, then strain. Add honey to taste. Put the liquid in a blender, combined with the fruit. After blending, pour in a freezer safe container and place in your freezer. When the sorbet starts to freeze around the edges, take it out of the freezer and stir with a fork to break up any frozen sections. Return to the freezer and repeat the process until the sorbet is completely frozen.

Elder flower pancakes

• 8 elder flower umbels
• 1 cup of almond milk (or use the elder flower infused almond milk from the recipe above)
  
• 1/2 mashed banana
  
• 1 cup rice flour
• a pinch of vanilla
  
• coconut oil

Remove the tiny flowers from the stem. Mix all ingredients, except the elder flowers and the coconut oil. When mixed well, add the flowers to the batter and stir well. Bake in coconut oil.

Want it sweeter? Drizzle some honey on top!

Dear Monsanto,

I consider myself a pacifist so I will not declare war to you. However,  I feel the need to warn you.

I know you want to make us feel powerless, and I must admit, you are quite good at it. But here is some news for you: we are not. We are armed with powerful guerilla weapons like the one above. And if I were you, I wouldn't underestimate them, because they are accessible to virtually anyone in the world. Despite all your dire efforts.

You want to make us believe you rule the world. I laugh at that. Nature rules the world, and it has done since before we as a species existed and it will continue to do so long after we are gone. And nature speaks to us in many ways, weeds being its most clear language.

These ads of yours...  You say you offer solutions. That's quite an unique definition you have of solutions. And people as the ruler of nature? That is so last century, come on. Don't you read newspapers? Haven't you heard about people wanting to reconnect to nature? About real foods and natural medicine making being the hot new trend? About empowerment and self sufficiency? About dandelions being the new roses? What ivory tower is it that you live in? I almost feel bad for you, you are obviously very disconnected. When did you stop feeling part of nature?

You do an excellent job however scaring people with brains. The more you are in the news (and let's face it: how many times has that been in a positive way?) the more people are looking into foraging and wildcrafting as a way to get rid of their weeds. And after a while, the inevitable happens: they grow so fond of their weeds that they invite them into their garden. They swap seeds. They help spreading them. Good tactics, I like that part of the story.

I need to tell you: there is a rapid growing movement of wild nature lovers. Don't underestimate us. We will continue to swap wild and heirloom seeds. We will not stop to tell people about the powers of weeds. We will always use them as food and medicine. We will never give up enhancing their growing conditions. We will not cease to do wild guerilla gardening.  We will never, ever give up.

And neither will Nature.

Wildly,
Leaf

I love to go out in the backyard and see what wild edibles I can get for lunch.The salad pictured above is one I recently made. Let's dissect it and see what wild greens are in there:

Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)
Folk names: Common sorrel, garden sorrel, spinach dock, narrow-leaved dock
Dutch: zuring /zurkel - French: Oseille - German: Wiesen-Sauerampfer Großer Sauerampfer

For a little lemon twist, you'll need sorrel. Excellent thirst quencher with a fresh flavour. It loves to grow in moist soil and can often be found near water streams.

Very first wild green I ate as a young child. Fell in love instantly.  The leaves have grown rather tall by now, so I take a few leaves, roll them up together and chop them that way.

Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus )
Folk names: European raspberry, red raspberry
Dutch: Framboos - French: Framboisier - German: Himbeere

This will be one of the last times to harvest leaves from raspberry, blackberry or strawberry plants, as the plants are coming into flower and the leaves are becoming increasingly tough. Last chance to enjoy their green sweetness, next time you'll harvest it'll be the glorious berries.

Raspberry leaves are very high in vitamin C and magnesium. Every year, I pick quite a huge amount of red raspberry leaves that I dry to use for my herbal infusions. Not only delicious, but also an excellent uterine tonic. Drinking it brings back sweet twin pregnancy memories :)

Common daisy (Bellis perennis)
Folk names: Lawn daisy, English daisy
Dutch: Madeliefje  - French: Pâquerette  - German: Gänseblümchen

Don't just eat the flowers, but try the leaves as well. They are rich in vitamin C and A, and a good source of iron.

Common daisy leaves have a rather neutral taste, more like store bought lettuce. Which makes them extremely versatile, but above all a good salad green.

Common scurvy-grass (Cochlearia officinalis)
Folk names: Scurvy grass, Scurvygrass, Spoonwort
Dutch: Echt lepelblad - French: Cochléaire officinale - German: Echte Löffelkraut

It has leaves that look like a spoon and has historically been used to prevent scurvy, because of the high vitamin C content.

Scurvy-grass has a rather sharp taste, much like water cress or horseradish (of which you can eat the leaves as well), so I only add it in small amounts. But for a salad with a little kick, toss it in and enjoy. The vitamin C will also help your body to absorb the iron that it provides. Nature's so smart.

Buck's horn plantain (Plantago coronopus)
Folk names: Minutina, Erba stella
Dutch: Hertshoornweegbree - French: Plantain corne de cerf, Pied de corbeau,  Plantain corne de bœuf - German: Krähenfuß-Wegerich, Hirschhorn-Wegerich, Schlitz-Wegerich, Schlitzblatt-Wegerich, Kapuzinerbart, Mönchsbart, Ziegenbart

Of all plantain species, this green has the most crispy texture, even when the plant matures. In Italy this variety is often found in vegetable gardens and markets. It's very likely that some other plantain species grow in your garden, so feel free to use them as long as the leaves are still young and tender.

Buck's horn plantain loves to grow in sandy dunes, but a pavement will work as well. Or my garden :)

Salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor)
Folk names: Salad burnet, Garden burnet, Small burnet, Burnet
Dutch: Kleine pimpernel - French: (Petite) pimprenelle - German: Kleine Wiesenknopf

Think nuts, with the freshness of cucumber. Okay, that may stretch the limits of your imagination a little. But that's exactly what salad burnet has to offer.

Growing in the wild, but it deserves a place in every herb garden as well. You can even keep harvesting in winter, but young leaves have the best flavour. At this stage, before flowering, the plant is still very tender and you can eat the whole leaves. When using older leaves, discard the tough stems. Always pick the outer leaves to encourage new growth.

Cat's ear (Hypochaeris radicata)
Folk names: Flatweed, False dandelion
Dutch: Gewoon biggenkruid - French: Hypochaeris radicata - German: Gewöhnliche Ferkelkraut

This dandelion lookalike is edible as well. You can use the leaves and flowers. Dandelion's peak moment for flowering is already over, but cat's ear's moment of glory is yet to come, so I harvested the hairy leaves. Slightly bitter, but not as much as dandelion.
For an excellent overview of dandelion and cat's ear and how you can identify the two and tell them apart, click here. But the two are interchangeable in salads.

I combined these greens with some chopped spring onions, one sliced red bell pepper and one grated carrot. Then I tossed in some daisy ans dandelion flowers.  It tasted great.

Maybe you only recognize a few of these plants, or only one or two of the mentioned species are growing in your yard. Here's the good news: salads are not exact science. Don't make that stop you from trying the ones you know. But tell me, which ones of these are growing in your garden?

Trees are large organisms, and they can usually handle grazing quite well.  At this time of the year, the buds have just opened and the leaves are still light green, smooth and tender.  But do you need to be a giraffe to eat leaves from trees? Which species are edible for humans?

Let's take a closer look at some of the trees of which you can eat the leaves in early spring. Always identify properly and pick when the leaves are young and soft - they can become quite tough when growing older.

Beech (Fagus sylvatica), European beech, Common beech
Dutch: Beuk - French: Hêtre commun - German: (Rot)Buche - Spanish: Haya común

These leaves have a very smooth and tender texture. At a very young stage they are so fragile you can even look through them. Hard to imagine these will one day be the autumn leaves that will fall off and lay on the forest ground for a long time - beech is well-known for fact that the leaves decompose very slowly.

Chewing the young leaves, a flavour develops that is somewhere between lemon and sorrel. Very refreshing on a long spring walk, and after tasting one single leaf, you'll probably want to have some more. Definitely suitable as a tasty salad green.

Linden (Tilia cordata), also known as Lime tree or Basswood
Dutch: Linde - French: Tilleul - German: Linde - Spanish: Tilo

Linden is most familiar to us as linden tea or infusion, which is made with the flowers and bract. The bract? That's the long, pale green part that's attached to the flowers and that helps the seeds to disperse. A lot of people think these are the actual leaves, but they're not. The real leaves of linden are heart-shaped and delicious when eaten young.

The texture is great. It has the same crunch that iceberg lettuce has, but with more nutrition.

What about making a heart-shaped salad for your loved ones? Or for yourself, as a special green treat? You can also dry the leaves and grind them into a flour for all your wild kitchen experiments. 

Birch (Betula pendula)
Dutch: Ruwe berk - French: Bouleau verruqueux - German: Hänge-Birke - Spanish: Abedul común, Abedul de Europa, Abedul verrugoso, Abedul péndulo

Birch leaves offer a hint of bitterness that will make your whole body fully awake. Don't let the bitterness hold you back from trying it though : it's not overwhelming, and such a boost for your health!

Dry the leaves for a herbal tea (you can combine it with more aromatic herbs from the mint family if you're not the biggest fan of bitter) or eat it in salads, in small amounts, mixed with other greens. It will probably remind you of radicchio.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna or Crataegus laevigata)
Dutch: Meidoorn, Haagdoorn - French: Aubépine - German: Weißdorn - Spanish: Espino albar, Espino blanco

Before the flowers or berries appear, the leaves are at their best, with a rich, nutty flavour. You can eat them as they are, in a salad, but I like to chop them and sprinkle them over my dishes as a parsley substitute as well.

In the UK, hawthorn is referred to as the "Bread and Cheese Tree"; as it was very common for people in the countryside to eat the leaves straight from the tree. As common as bread and cheese.

Spruce (Picea species)
Dutch: Spar - French: Epicéa - German: Fichte - Spanish: Pícea

Yes, needles (even those of cacti) are leaves too! Harvest the highly aromatic young tops of spruce - you'll notice them at the end part of the branches, lighter green than the rest of the tree.

You can turn them into a vitamin C rich herbal infusion or dip them in honey for an extra special treat. When you steep them in apple cider vinegar, the result will be surprisingly close to balsamico vinegar.

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Here's another green juice we made with wild edibles we foraged in our backyard.

I mixed the juice of 1 lemon and two oranges with a big bunch of wild greens. You can go wild here, there's so much variation at this time of the year! Even if you can only identify dandelion, lawn daisy and stinging nettle, that's fine to work with.

We used the leaves of these wild plants:

• Common Cat's Ear (Hypochoeris radicata / Hypochaeris radicata)

            Folk names: Catsear, Flatweed, Cat's ear, False dandelion
            Dutch: Gewoon biggenkruid - French: Chicorée pays /Lastron sauvage - German: Gewöhnliche Ferkelkraut

• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

            Folk names: Blowball, Lion's Tooth, Piss-a-bed, Puffball
            Dutch: Paardenbloem - French: Pissenlit  - German: Löwenzahn

• Common daisy (Bellis perennis)

            Folk names: Lawn daisy, English daisy
            Dutch: Madeliefje  - French: Pâquerette  - German: Gänseblümchen

• Grass

            Yes, grass, those sprigs that grow in between your weeds :)

• Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)

            Folk names: Common nettle, burn nettle, burn weed, burn hazel
            Dutch: Grote Brandnetel - French: Ortie Grande - German: Große Brennessel

• White clover (Trifolium repens)

            Folk names: Dutch clover
            Dutch: Witte klaver - French: Le Trèfle blanc /Trèfle rampant - German: Weiß-Klee /Kriech-Klee

• Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

            Folk names: gordaldo, nosebleed plant, old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's                             woundwort, thousand-leaf, thousand-seal
            Dutch: duizendblad - French: Achillée millefeuille - German: Gemeine Schafgarbe
           

• Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)

            Folk names: Red Raspberry,  European Raspberry
            Dutch: Framboos - French: Framboisier - German: Himbeere

• Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

            Folk names: Common sorrel, garden sorrel, spinach dock, narrow-leaved dock
            Dutch: zuring /zurkel - French: Oseille - German: Wiesen-Sauerampfer /Großer Sauerampfer

• I also added some carrot tops.
  

Feel free to decorate with edible flowers, I used dandelion and Japanese cherry blossom.
Mmmm. And just take a look at how pretty that is.

Life is good.

This was the view when I looked up from my outdoors 'office'. It's Ribes sanguineum, flowering currant. I had never tasted the berries before, and was looking forward to getting to know them. I loved sitting there, looking up, my eyes indulged with a sea of pink flowers, hearing the bees and bumblebees buzz, the scent tickling my nose.

But then the unexpected happened: the new neighbours (it was growing on their ground) removed it.

It hurt. It makes me sad when people destroy things of beauty. Especially when these things are living beings, like plants are. Some people tend to forget that.

And what made me even more sad than the view or the flowers or the berries, were the couple of blackbirds who kept coming back for two days. They had a nest with eggs in there, just above my head when I was sitting on my favourite spot in the garden. This was their home.

Over the years, I have talked with many other wild plant lovers who went through a similar situation. They came back from travel, and a friendly neighbour wanted to be helpful and had cleaned up (read: removed all the weeds from their garden). Their landlord came by with herbicides. Their rooftop garden, with more than 40 medicinal plants was referred to as junk and had to be removed. The tree nearby they harvested from, was cut down. We've all been there, I guess.

So what do you do in a situation like that?

Let's take a look at the options:

• Revenge. Great tactic if you want to gain credibility as the bad witch of the village. Your landlord sprayed pesticides on your blackberries? Save those blackberries to make him some pie. In the same category: secretly introducing as much wild plant seeds as possible in their yard, using their garden as a compost heap, or worse (the human mind can become very creative when it comes to taking revenge). Though this may be tempting when you are in the middle of an emotional roller coaster because someone damaged your beloved plants, I do not think of this as a way to make things better on the long term. Or in the short term.
  
• Ignore. Just weep for three days and then go on with your live. But is this really what you want to do? Do you want to be ignorant? Especially in the case of pesticides, is closing your eyes an option you believe in?
  
• Investigate. Find out what is really going on before jumping to conclusions. That tree they cut, maybe it was ill and was threatening other trees' health. This herbicide they used, maybe it was just plain vinegar. Maybe that ribes bush, that was beautiful on your side, was ugly on their side because they broke down an old wall that prevented the lower leaves from getting enough sunlight. Maybe they are simply disinformed - you have no idea how many people actually believe it is illegal to have dandelions in the garden. Try to find out and understand what is going on.
  
• Inform. In my humble opinion, this may be the best option. Simply tell them that these plants are your food and medicine, and how they help you. Tell them that though they are only 'weeds' to some, they mean the world to you. Some people simply never thought of plants this way. And more than just telling them, make them a treat. Select your best wild food recipe, make it and give it to them as a gift. Make sure it's the best tasting, best looking and smelling wild dish you've made to far.  You never know what may happen.
  

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.
John Keats