Has anyone foraged this? Any recipe ideas usage?
I may plan some in a tub to see how it browns in the mean time if I can get seeds!
I may plan some in a tub to see how it browns in the mean time if I can get seeds!
Bistort
- Thread starter johnnytheboy
- Start date
-
BushMoot: Come along to the amazing Summer Moot 31st July - 5th August (extended Moot : 27th July - 8th August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
I don't have any recipes, but I'm aware it was used in Easter ledge pudding. I'm sure you can google that one.
My great gran called it Easter ledge pudding plant. I've never had it so can't comment on it, but she was real old school Norfolk, and with 8 kids and as a widow in the 30s and 40s, she had to stretch things a long way. She lived to 103.
Bistort is one of those early spring foraging plants that are supposed to be a spring tonic, along with cleavers and nettles.
It's quite a pretty as a garden plant too..
My great gran called it Easter ledge pudding plant. I've never had it so can't comment on it, but she was real old school Norfolk, and with 8 kids and as a widow in the 30s and 40s, she had to stretch things a long way. She lived to 103.
Bistort is one of those early spring foraging plants that are supposed to be a spring tonic, along with cleavers and nettles.
It's quite a pretty as a garden plant too..
It grows quite happily in a big pot in the garden....think of it like growing mint.
It's a very pretty plant in Spring, but the leaves are good food
See if you can get some roots rather than seeds, it takes off very well from roots.
Sorry, should have said.....basically the recipe is a kind of leafy polenta but made with oatmeal. It's left to set and then cut in slices (a bit like nut roast) and fried....usually with bacon or in bacon grease.
It's stick to your ribs good for you food. Very traditional, very easy to make with just what's available among the fresh greenery in Spring. Nettles, ransoms, early leaves on rasps, bittercress, and the bistort or other early dockens.
Gather the leaves, wash them, slice them up, fry them in a little fat (it really depended on what folks had to hand, my Mum used to use the fat from the roast to add more flavour, I find butter's good) with a chopped up onion. If you have salt and pepper, or something like sage to hand, it's very good. Stir in the oatmeal, roast it a bit, add water and stir until the oats thicken. Scrape out into a buttered ashet
(plate/dish/bowl) and set it to cool.
Modern palates would probably be happy with chilli added too.
Slice it up and fry it with bacon and eggs.
p.s. found a recipe on British Food History....they call it Dock pudding.
britishfoodhistory.com
It's stick to your ribs good for you food. Very traditional, very easy to make with just what's available among the fresh greenery in Spring. Nettles, ransoms, early leaves on rasps, bittercress, and the bistort or other early dockens.
Gather the leaves, wash them, slice them up, fry them in a little fat (it really depended on what folks had to hand, my Mum used to use the fat from the roast to add more flavour, I find butter's good) with a chopped up onion. If you have salt and pepper, or something like sage to hand, it's very good. Stir in the oatmeal, roast it a bit, add water and stir until the oats thicken. Scrape out into a buttered ashet
(plate/dish/bowl) and set it to cool.
Modern palates would probably be happy with chilli added too.
Slice it up and fry it with bacon and eggs.
p.s. found a recipe on British Food History....they call it Dock pudding.
Dock Pudding
The good thing about being a lover of British puddings is that there is an almost infinite number to cook and try. All of the pudding recipes I have posted on the blog thus far have all been of the…
britishfoodhistory.com
look up dock pudding. Calder valley. they have a day dedicated to it and a competition. x
To be honest it's a very versatile green veg. Young leaves can be used as salad or lightly cooked, older leaves use as spinach. The rhizome can be steeped in water and roasted; they're high in starch.
The plant has a variety of medicinal uses.
The plant has a variety of medicinal uses.
I guess it’s just a hands on operation now and giving it a bash. Sounds like quite a useable plant!
