nettle soup - entirely made from the land

[Douglas]

Hi

All the recipies for nettle soup I've come across suggest doing it it with an onion or a patato, or some sort of thing you've taken with you. Isn't it possible to replace that onion and the bouillon cube by food picked up in the forest or surroundings?

In spring it would be possible to add a bit of bear's garlic that's abundant round here (and accompany it with a dandelion salad), but that would still only be basically flavoured water, nothing that would really fill you up much.

So is there any plant or anything that could be added to the soup to make it a bit more filling, but that can be found where you are, with no need to take it from home? Well there's always bannocks but then you have to take the flower...

Cheers,
Douglas (already imagining eating nettle soup with dandelion salad and bannocks, drinking pine tee )

 

[bushwacker bob]

use the pith from rosebay willow herb (fireweed) as a thickener for soup,also wild marjoram grows in abundance around here as an additional flavouring.Ransoms I assume is our local variant of what you refer to as bear garlic.(I live on the edge of the south downs)You could also add some Mallow as a thickener.Thickening the soup doesent make it any more nutritious,just sticks to your ribs better.

 

[Justin Time]

Rabbit maybe?

 

[den]

Where I live (south wet) a lot of woods in the area have pendulous sedge .Large amounts of seed can easily be collected and it is possible to make flour, very much like corn flour. Added to stews and soups it thickens and adds flavour (slight roasted nut). I am unaware if this grows in Switzerland and you must remember to take all the necessary precaution you would with wild food Sedge flour tastes good which I find hard to say about a lot of wild food.
Hope this helps
Den

:-D

 

[Douglas]

Thanks for the help guys :-D

Rosebay willowherb: I'll see if I can find that. What part is the pith?

Wild Marjoram: again, I'll try to find some.

Mallow : I'll see if I can find some, but it doesn't seem all that easy to recognise (those leaves look like they could be anything). But I'll still try, anyway I suppose I'll take photos of them with me.

"bear garlic" : it seems it is also called ramson. I just took the first translation I found It covers the hole ground of the forest and you smell it before you see it! It's everywhere over here, but unfortunatly not for very long (only a month or so). (latin name : allium ursinum)

Rabbit : it's everywhere in scotland, but you don't get them here. All I've seen are a few hares but they're so rare I wouldn't want to touch them :-(

Pendulous sedge: I'll look out for those too. For the flower, do you also have to brake them open by making them jump about in some sort of container like wheat and that sort of stuff? (that's what they explain in a book of mine)

Thanks for the help!