Feb foraging

[Karpatsky Forest]

Hi all,
I'm looking for 10 interesting foods to be found in the month of February in Europe/UK. Wild garlic, hawthorn leaves....

Please add to the list

 

[Wander]

Nettles are available 12 months of the year.
Jelly ear fungus is another one.

 

[Broch]

There's quite a lot beginning to show really: reedmace (Typha latifolia) is showing some new shoots with me but the tubers can be harvested all year anyway; common sorrel (Rumex acetosa); ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), cleavers (Galium aparine), cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris - but only if you are 100% sure) ...

 

[Toddy]

This week I have found,
Bittercress
Sycamore keys
Nettles
Sorrel
Dandelions
Jelly ears
Wild onions
Bistort

 

[Suffolkrafter]

We have a lot of young Alexander growth in our area, smyrnium olustratum. Silver birch buds can make a pleasant nibble.

 

[nigelp]

We have a lot of young Alexander growth in our area, smyrnium olustratum. Silver birch buds can make a pleasant nibble.

I was going to say Alexander’s. Lots along the coast here.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Here's another. I noticed wood avens poking up through cracks in an alley. I've never tried the leaves, but I did once make a syrup out of the roots.

 

[Woody girl]

Penny wort, or navel wort, those thick round fleshy leaves in stone walls and banks are at their best right now.
I pop them in a mixed salad, or cheese sandwich.. they have a nice peppery taste. The smaller leaves are nicer.
Celandine are up, and apparently the tubers were once eaten. I haven't tried them myself. So can't comment on the taste of them.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Celandine are up, and apparently the tubers were once eaten.

I'm nurturing a small patch of these in my garden. You've reminded me to go check on them. My understanding is that, being in the buttercup/ ranunculacae family, the tubers contain the toxin ranunculin which is removed during cooking.
Edit: yep, they've appeared.

 

[Broch]

Careful, Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) is related to the buttercup; Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus) is considered too toxic to eat by most people.

From my Native Plants database:

Sc. Name	Common Name	Edibility	Medical	Constituents	Notes
Ranunculus ficaria	Lesser Celandine	root can be eaten, leaves as salad or cooked as spinach	ointment for the treatment of haemorrhoids and piles; juice applied to warts; emollient	saponins, protoanemonin, anemonin, tannins, vitamin C
Chelidonium majus	Greater Celandine		purgative, mild sedative, used to treat bronchitis, whooping cough and asthma, diuretic for treating the gall bladder and gall stones; latex used for warts, ringworm and skin tumours	isoquinoline alkaloids (allocryptopine, berberine, chelidonine, spareine)	toxic, antimitotic and dangerous, latex produces blisters on healthy skin; possibly introduced, not closely related to lesser celandine

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Thanks Broch that's very informative. I'm not overly familiar with greater celandine, though it seems easily distinguishable from lesser celandine.