Pendulous Rush......loads of seeds, masses of flour....what to make with it ?

[Toddy]

HWMBLT has been foraging, and brought me back a bag load of the heads from pendulous rush. I dried them off a bit, threshed them and winnowed them and now have nearly a kg of the seeds. I've ground some up into flour (tastes kind of nutty, looks like wholemeal without the white) and last year I just mixed the flour with oatflour and made oatcakes; Scottish style ones, and they were very good with jam or cheese.

Has anyone else cooked with the flour ? and what did you make ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Goatboy]

Sounds good Toddy, never had a go at using rush for flour, sounds tasty though as I've eaten the seeds raw and slightly toasted. And Oatcakes are food of the Gods really.

I way have to take a wander and give it a go.

Cheers for putting the thought in my head.

GB.

 

[shaggystu]

Do you mean pendulous sedge?

 

[Toddy]

mebbe..... I know of it as pendulous rush, but that could just be what it's called round here....like bullrushes are really cattails, kind of thing.

HWMBLT has photos, when he gets back from his walk I'll ask him to put them into the thread.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Toddy]

A quick google.....

"Sedge club and spike-rush family (Cyperaceae) "

http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/S/Sedge(Pendulous)/Sedge(Pendulous).htm

cheers,
Toddy

 

[shaggystu]

Cheers for that Mary. I think that anything green and leafy that grows by water gets called rush somewhere by someone.

The flour makes really crumble topping

 

[cranmere]

Ooh, I have a big clump of those in my garden but it never occurred to me to try eating the seeds! Doh! Off to see how they are doing.

 

[John Fenna]

I have just harvested mine... a fist sized corner of a poly bag is all...
I usually add the seeds to bannock without grinding to flour. It adds texture and saves work!

 

[Toddy]

It's a bumper crop up here this year. Himself brought me back half a carrier bag full of heads, that's given me half a baking bowl full of seeds, and he says there's an awful lot more of it ripening

Crumble sounds good and so does seedy bannock

cheers,
M

 

[Tracker NTS-054]

We demand pictures!!! (Especially of the threshing and winnowing process, I'd love to give it a go!)

 

[Toddy]

Ehm, basically the seeds strip off like grass. I tried just winnowing them by tieing the bag and hitting it agin the door frame, but in the end I just sat with a wee trug and a tray and stripped them off by hand.
Then, with the trug near half full of seeds, I waited until there was a breeze and went out the back door and just kept tossing the trug a bit until the seed 'bounced' up... the wind kindly blew off the chaff
Covered me in wee bits of brown chaff right enough but it works
I still have several inches of seed in the trug and I have some flour, I'll pester HWMBLT to take some photos.

Honestly, it's the easiest seed (wood millet apart) to deal with

Now the typhus minima in the pond is ripening and the heads are covered in golden pollen....so that's tomorrow's foraging
It's protein rich and a good addition to flour.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Man of Tanith]

I'll have to try and remember which woods I saw the sedge in and have a go at this

 

[Clouston98]

Great stuff- I'd like to try this too, would be really nice to make a bannock using bushy flower .

 

[Toddy]

It's that time of year again
I've been out wandering this morning and I have a bowlful of the seedy heads. They're just dropping off now. It's been so hot and dry here that their ripening just as fast as they can.
Seems to be a theme though, at least here, that mid July think about the pendulous rushes

M

 

[Janne]

The nutty flavour - some kind of honey sweetened traditional cake/bisquit?

Flavour of seeds/flour sounds to delicious to use in a bread.

 

[Billy-o]

Tahini .... I’d imagine that packaged right and boutiqued that could be gold, especiallly if you could get Ferny Wicketpole to add it to a dessert