A Wayside Feast

Everywhere we go at the moment there are good things to eat, and the promise of good things to come.

The hedgerows are bursting with the ingredients for summer salad - this one had the very last of the Primrose flowers and those are Jelly Ear mushrooms next to it, collected from a dead Elder branch.

Underneath the Primrose flowers are Jack-by-the-Hedge, Navelwort (also known as Wall Pennywort or Penny Pies),

Pink purslane, the leaves and the flowers,

And Wild Sorrel.

I used to consider green salad merely a vehicle for vinaigrette dressing, but salads like this one need nothing other than their own deliciousness to accompany them.  Having said that - we also had steamed wild hops

Not very many because the shoots were mostly high up in the hedge, out of reach,

and fritters with the last of the Dandelion flowers.  I have never managed to take a photo of the finished product because they're to delicious to do anything but eat straight away.  Here they are half made.

Then to finish... homegrown rhubarb crumble, sweetened with Sweet Cicely,

It's a feasting time for everyone,

Although some are clearly luckier than others.

And soon there will be Wild Strawberries.  Hurray!