I’m on the lookout for ripe rosehips down in bountiful Devonshire to stock up on some cordials, syrups and jellies. 

Roses of all varieties are one of my all time favourites, the flavor can be so delicate and fragrant and add so much to dishes both savoury and sweet. 

I’m not interested in an artificial or heavily perfumed taste in my food, so making it at home really means I can control this incredible flavour.  

 I also have a dish in mind, made from fresh cheese, rhubarb vinegar, rosehip oil and syrup...

On the subject of roses more generally, there was a very interesting dish developed at noma made from an egg yolk cured with beef garum, small discs of potato, rose pulp and elderflower.  Eggs, potato and flowers?  Not a combination expected to be quite as pleasing as it was.

Another very simple but very incredible combination I have swiped from Denmark is charred rose petals on a rye crisp with brown butter emulsion.  All you have to do is roll out very thin rye dough; I like mine to be seeded, and bake it on a mid-temperature until crisp.  Then, make a brown butter emulsion which is incredibly simple to do in that you brown some good quality butter, I prefer to make my own, and emulsify it with oil and seasoning, then place the freshly charred rose petals on top.  Simple.

There are two types of rosehip syrup I am interested in making.  The first is the more standard version of a syrup that you cook to reduce.  Some people say that you need to top and tail the rosehips but there really is no need to do so since for this recipe you are going to pass the mixture through muslin or some kind of tammy cloth.  You will just want to either chop the rosehips into smaller pieces or briefly blitz in a food processor.  Use approximately 1kg rosehips to 1kg sugar and 2L of water. 

Rosehip Syrup – Cooked.

1.     Place the rosehips in a saucepan with approximately half of the water and bring the water to the boil.  Once the water is boiling fully, cook for 15-20 minutes, look to see that the rosehips have started to really soften and break down slightly.

2.     Next, strain the liquid through muslin into a clean bowl or container and leave the liquid to sit until cool, approx. 45 mins to 1 hour.

3.     Return the pulp to the pan and add the remaining water, again bringing to the boil and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, the point being to extract as much flavour as possible.

4.     Strain the second batch and add to the first batch.

5.     Place the combined liquids back in a clean pan and boil to reduce the liquid by half.  If you are looking for a more intense syrup, then you can continue to reduce this liquid even further.  At this stage, and also depending on the use of your syrup, you can make a decision.  If the liquid you have obtained is cloudy, then that is ok if clarity is not an issue. However, if you do want or need a perfectly clear rosehip syrup, then you can at this stage freeze the mixture. Then turn it out as a solid block of ice so that it thaws and passes through a couple of layers of muslin into a container below.  This will clarify your liquid and leave you with a perfectly clear mixture that you can then heat back up to the boil and pick up the following stages.  I would suggest that depending on the colour of your syrup, you may want to leave it cloudy as it is part of the charm, but this process is good for reference.

6.     Once the liquid has reduced sufficiently, add your sugar.  Again, note that the sweetness of the syrup that you want will be determined by how much you put in but also that the greater the quantity of sugar in the syrup, the longer it will preserve for.  I suggest that 1kg is right for 1kg fruit.  Once the sugar has all dissolved, let the syrup boil for a further 5 minutes, allow it to cool and then place in sterilized jars or containers.

The alternative Rosehip syrup method is very simple, the wait is much longer, but the end product has not been subject to any heat and so therefore it is ‘raw’ and perfect for advocates of the raw food diet.  You retain all it’s nutrients and goodness, and believe me, there is a lot to retain.  Sixty times more vitamin C than in orange; there is a reason why, in times past, many families made their own rosehip syrup and give their children a daily spoonful as it was known this provided a base This method was described to me by Chris from Ipso-Phyto, an incredible London based forager– check out his website here.

Rosehip Syrup - Raw
Take equal quantities of Rosehips and Sugar and layer these in a container, and leave for approximately 6 months.  If the Rosehips are not as ripe as you would like, then score them to help the extraction process.  The sugar will work to slowly extract all the flavour and the result will be a beautiful pink syrup that you shouldn’t even need to pass as the hips have been left whole.  §I’m pretty certain that you could then use the rosehips themselves and dehydrate them to make some further goodies, but we shall see how I get on with that one in 6 or 7 months time….

Now onto the good stuff…. Rosehip Brandy…

Rosehip Brandy
approx 1kg rosehips (depending on ripeness and also your preference) to 1.5L Brandy and 300g sugar. Sugar can be white or brown – take your pick depending on the richness you want in your brandy. If you go for brown, expect a slightly more caramelised flavour.  

1)   Wash Rosehips

2)   Dry

3)   Place rosehips in a sterilised container or jar, the one you wish to keep your brandy in, then cover with sugar and place in a cool place overnight.

4)   Pour your brandy over the mixture the following day and add your flavourings of choice. Common      flavourings are cinnamon and cloves and a touch of lemon peel. I would suggest that infusing your brandy with some Wood Avens, if you can find some, would add that extra medicinal quality to your brandy, but if not, then straight up cloves will be just perfect. I like the idea of adding a touch of cinnamon, perhaps a 3 inch piece of stick, a few cloves, maybe 1 or 2 as I am not such a clove fan, and a small amount of lemon , orange or grapefruit peel, perhaps half a fruits worth, or less. I would also, if you have some, add some rosehip syrup for extra intensity.

5)   Seal the container and let it stand for a minimum of 2 weeks in a light place.

6)   Once you are happy your liquor is sufficiently infused, strain and pass into the bottle(s) or container(s) of your choice, and allow to stand for a least a further month prior to serving.

So there we have it, some rosehip goodness for the month of October and some festive brandy merriment for when the cold, harsh winter months hit…. 

Or really, just an excuse to share this bad boy round and eat it with some cheese….

What might you expect to find when foraging in London? Some half eaten pizzas, chicken bones, rotten veg perhaps. Not if you know what you're looking for. And really, we ought to know a little more of the world around us. After all, we are a small country, in the grand global scheme of things, and we are facing essentially quite chronic annual growth in population and problems of thus feeding the world. Basic sustenance starts at home, if we understand what we can eat; we can source basic sustenance and locate those all important anti-carcinogenics and super foods we so persistently hear all about. This is not  to say we can rely on looking at the world around us and finding foods to complete our diet, it's that we shouldn't be ignoring a world of produce that is wild, natural and with potentially incredible health benefits. Why not know more about the incredible produce of our home land? If something is grown in the land around you, then it's provenance is known, we can better control it's background and we can hope it's going to taste a whole lot better too. How exciting to know something you can't buy in the supermarket is going to help your next meal taste fabulous, if you know what you're looking for. Wild herbs and plants have incredible new flavours, or rather perhaps they aren't even new, they just haven't been used in common place food before or for a very long time. Since the advent of supermarkets, lets face it, we were bound to become lazy....

We hear all about the incredible health benefits of goji berries and acai, but we don't always consider what is lost when these products are shipped from across the ocean, in terms of nutrients and also more generally in terms of sustainability and the many modern day considerations we should be taking into account when it comes to food and, well, just about everything really. If we can get the same nutrients and amazing health benefits from British grown produce, then surely we really should educate ourself and start looking at our own front doorstep. It's all perfectly fresh and untravelled, healthy and has all the medicinal benefits that botanical advocates have known about for years. 

Above, we found Shepherd's Purse, a member of the cabbage or umbellifer family, recognisable by it's heart shaped pods. It's worth noting though that all pods can be different, as they are the seeds, which can change. They will always though spiral round the stem in a distinct manner. The flowers are yellow or white. With every wild plant, as Chris, the expert forager informed us, smell the plant first. Every time. It's this that you will help you best identify and verify a plant. You will recognise the sulphurous cabbage smell in this case. Shepherd's purse has been historically used for staunching wounds and for lady time. In the instance of the women's monthly blight, take the root and leaves and steep in hot water to serve as tea. 

The next edible we came across was the great Ash Tree. Interestingly, a relative of the Olive. What the Ash Tree delivers is sets of edible fruits called 'keys'. In Spring these are green and soft and we can brine or pickle them to preserve them for the winter or use them as a very British component of an antipasti style smorgasbord. Chris our lead forager pickled some in a blackberry vinegar which were terrific. Out at Noma, we would collect young beech leaves and treat these in the same way, and later dehydrate them and sometimes cover with Cep or other flavoursome powders to garnish a plate. There was a Duck dish in partiular where these featured heavily. I would like to experiment with Ash Keys and perhaps use them in a similar fashion. 

Onto Jack By The Hedge.

Another member of the Brassica family. Otherwise known as Hedge Garlic. Isn't it such a shame that more people don't use these flavoursome alternatives in every day food? Use the stem of the leaf in the Spring, it can be a lot less bitter. The leaf is garlicky in flavour but it does leave you with a slightly bitter after taste, however, what always springs to mind for me when you have food like this one, is use it in cooking, and mask the bitterness with flavours that will balance it out. Go Asian and play around with Ginger, Chilli and Lemongrass. For sweetness there are all sorts of sweetening agents you could add to level things out, depending on the dish and your mood. I'm going to devise a recipe for this one and post it when tested, as I think it's such a fantastic herb, it needs to be elevated. 

In America, they often use the root of jack by the hedge - as it has a pungency similar to horseradish, it also notably has large white flowers, white like many of the other brassicas. The seeds have a mustardy type heat, and it's worth noting that all parts of this plant are edible. Wonderful. 

As a word of reassurance to those out there thinking, what if a dog has relieved itself on this plant I just found? Well, if a dog has done it's business on a plant, it's going to be pretty darned obvious. The leaves will have discoloured or they may be mottled or brown. Like any food, look at it first, if it looks healthy, then the odds are in your favour. Don't pick something if it looks brown or soiled...

Hawthorn Berries. 

As I write this in September, Hawthorn berries are absolutely abundant. You will see them everywhere you go, all around London. Completely edible and completely useful in the same way as other common berries. They are apple-ey in texture and can sometimes be a little bland. Go for the darker ones if you can, for flavour. They are completely full of anti-oxidants and goodness. Hawthorn berries have long been used as a medicinal treatment for ailments of the heart. See this link for plenty of useful information. They really are quite incredible in terms of their uses, as a berry goes, and it's on our own doorstep; it's free and it hasn't travelled halfway across the world. I can't emphasis this point enough! It's just so important and exciting to get involved with what we already have available to us, rather than jumping on board the overseas and imported superfood trend, we've got them all right here! Just don't eat the seed... it's full of cyanide and we don't want that.

Hawthorn berries are always smaller on wild plants, like in the picture above, but domestically they can get to the size of a cherry and become much more peachy in texture and taste. 

Next on the foraging agenda, is Roses. Classic roses. All are identified by their oval shaped leaves which will have the distinct serrations running along the edges. They also always have five petals. So at this time of year, we see an absolute abundance of Rosehips. They're not typically 'ready' until October and generally are always better after a frost. There is an exception though, as there really always is, there will always be variation. Hedgerow roses have larger rose hips which can be ready sometimes in August. And guess what, onto the health benefits, they contain on average sixty times more vitamin C than oranges! Bonkers! So go grab a load of rose hips I say and crack onto a batch of rose hip brandy. If the hips aren't ripe, you can score them to allow the extraction for the brandy or oil production process, just make sure to separate these from the ripe ones so you can differentiate between what kind of intensity of flavour you are getting. I'm going to post a bundle of recipes for everything I've mentioned in this blog over the course of the next week, as I simply don't have the time right now to get everything on here. In short however, you can make a rose hip syrup by layering the hips with sugar and allowing to sit for 6 months and you will end up with an amazing rose scented and flavoured pink syrup. Done now, this will be absolutely perfect for cocktails come next spring and summer.

Alexanders. 

This plant which flowers in the Spring with clusters of yellow green flowers is a Mediterranean plant brought here by the Romans. They referred to it as the pot of alexandria as every part of it was edible. It has a celery, fennel like plavour, which sometimes can be bitter and more in the aniseed range. A little bit lovage-esq. It's stems can be lightly steamed and eaten like asparagus, the leaves can be treated like any other leaf and ether eaten raw as part of a salad or cooked as part of a full range of dishes. When the Alexanders are a new growth, they are tender and tasty, so this is worth being aware of. You could take the flowers and infuse these in olive oil. The seeds are very much like pepper in texture, but more aromatic, and you could treat these in the same way as pepper or any other spice. If you roast them then the  flavour mellows and you get rid of the more volatile parts. 

We next came across the Evergreen Tree whose seeds are much like mini acorns, and these when they are a good size are tender and edible straight off the tree. Imagine treating these like a nut and with the correct amount of roasting, oil and salt, what an interesting snack. 

Greater Plantain is something I very much always considered a weed, it's just so common. The greater plantain likes compact ground; think parks and commons. When all the flowers are out on the stems that pop out of the middle of the plants, then take the top of this stem, usually in April to July, which is the flowering season, and you get a really strong mushroom taste coming through. Chris the forager explained to us how he makes a really fantastic dip made by beating the stem with egg yolks, then beating egg whites, adding lemon juice, S & P and other seasonings and it tastes like a cracking and very conversation worthy mushroom dip. 

Salad Burnet, to the right, is a leaf, that can be eaten raw, and can be harvested throughout the winter, which is good to know. The stem can get a little tough, so the tip of the plant is generally best. The leaves have a slight cucumbery taste. This is a herb that we used a lot out at noma, more often as decoration, as it is a very attractive leaf with it's reddish stem. 

Now, onto some exciting stuff. 

Wild Carrot

Wild Carrot is  part of the umbellifer family, which means it has distinct characteristics which can help us recognise it as being carrot and not anything more sinister. If you look under it's head it has little branched bracks exactly under the base of the flower. When the flower is done, it folds up into a 'birds nest' like in the picture below. It is also a hairy type of plant, so feel it's stem to make sure. These traits make it easy to identify.

The root is very carroty. The seeds are very aromatic - they are officially awesome. You just have to eat them raw to discern a totally unique and incredibly distinct flavour. You're not going to get this flavour elsewhere - it's totally one hundred precent unique. Again, treat this like any other spice and roast it to release the aromatics. It's a new spice for the larder. I'm so excited about this plant and it's amazing flavour and want to experiment with it a lot. The whole plant is edible, some people make a jelly from the flowers with lemon juice which turns pink, which again is exciting and another one to experiment with!

So, the words of caution when it comes to picking any umbellifers. Hemlock, the most deadly umbellifer,  is quite fatal. Hemlock doesn't have any hairs. There is often a red spot in the middle of the flower and 99% of the time there are red spots on the stem. Hemlock also smells a little like urine - fetid. Carrot on the other hand is nicely scented, and as we had heavily pointed out to us by Chris the lead forager, ALWAYS smell everything. It's going to confirm to you that what you have found, is what you think you have found, and could keep you very much alive. It's basics really, and the same principle applies to everything we put in our mouth. 

The Oxeye Daisy is essentially a large daisy. normal small daisy's are edible, as is the oxeye. It's stems are commonly used in asia as chop-suey greens. 

All Thistle's are edible. Obviously you just have to get rid of the spikes and spines, so a hardy pair of gloves are advised. The mid-rib in particular can be good - perhaps to use as a crudite, or as any other green stem. 

Another handy benefit is that they are pretty good for our livers too so may well make up for the excess rose hip brandy consumption. 

Wild Oats, commonly sold by Neils Yard and other health stores for it's health related benefits. The straw of these oats is considered to be a relaxant. Chop up the straw and brew it in hot water for tea and it's a great bevvy to have pre-bed to send you off into a deep slumber. What it essentially does is work on the central nervous system, as a whole, and it's benefits are considered high.

Sorrel, of course. Everyone loves sorrel. A restaurant staple. Serve it with lobster, in fact all seafood. It's citrusy notes cut through and complement a number of dishes just perfectly. Dinner by Heston serve it with their lobster dish, it featured heavily on Noma's menu and Simon Rogan is well renowned for using it in his restaurants. In fact, it's incredibly common place these days, and there are plenty of varieties to keep us occupied. Buckler Sorrel, Wood Sorrel, Wild Sorrel, Micro Sorrel... 
It is recognisable by it's arrow shaped leaves.

The Common Lime Tree whose buds have a great crunch, so toast or fry these off and go from there. 

The Blackthorn tree, whose berries look like blueberries. Word of warning - don't let the thorns puncture you though as you are  quite likely to get septicaemia. Stay safe. But once you've got hold of those little buggers, I mean berries, you can go make a great gin, or a jam. You do however need cold winters for this plant to thrive; luckily for us, we've had no shortage of these. The berries on their own are incredibly dry and astringent so you probably don't want to go snacking on these as you pick, but with a little work, it is certainly worth the effort for the much rewarded beverages and preserves you can inevitably go on to create. 

Ribwort plantain, above, is recognisable by the raised ribs on the back of its leaves. like greater plantain, it's flower heads have a mushroom taste. This is a useful plant as it's incredibly good too for wasp stings or for staunching blood. It acts as an antiseptic, astringent and demulcent agent. 

Wood Avens, Clove Root, or Herb Bennett, is a member of the rose family. Not only does it have a long list of medicinal qualities, including helping diarrhoea, but if you take it's roots, then these have a very clove like flavour and therefore are useful for infusing to extract this, and potentially help stop unwanted other things going on... 

There are  so many other things to find in England, and in London, these are just a few which go to show that maybe we should get to know the world around us just that bit better. So many plants are so common place, like dandelions, which we all know and recognise, that are fully edible, and good for us, and in fact are used in lots and lots of restaurants right now. The root roasted is good, boil it for about 4 minutes first, then peel the skin off and roast it, in butter of course. It becomes really sweet and good to eat. In Spring, the root is even sweeter as it converts its storage carbohydrates into a sweeter root. 

I'm going to post recipes for these plants, some I already know, and some to be the product of experimentation. It really is completely fascinating to think this is the world around us, and there's so much to learn. It is completely exciting.