Harvest wild garlic properly for use in the kitchen

Content

• Harvest wild garlic properly for use in the kitchen
• Unequivocally recognize the wild garlic
• Protect the stocks in the garden
• The usable plant parts of wild garlic
• The right time to harvest wild garlic: when to pick?
• Keep wild garlic fresh after harvesting
• The different uses of wild garlic in the kitchen
• Tips & Tricks

Harvest wild garlic properly for use in the kitchen

Also known as "garlic of the forest", wild garlic (Allium ursinum) has enjoyed increasing popularity on the menus of Central European cuisines in recent years. When collecting the leaves and flowers during the short wild garlic season you should pay attention to a few things.

Early article Planting wild garlic in your own garden: the most important thing at a glance Next article The consumption of wild garlic: A confusion can be dangerous

Unequivocally recognize the wild garlic

Only with the dying of the plants in the summer the typical smell of the wild garlic spreads in the forest, before you must recognize it by its elliptisch-lanzett-shaped sheets or at the white inflorescences. In many places, wild garlic can be found in the shady hollows of deciduous forests. However, one danger is the fact that some poisonous plants occasionally resemble the wild garlic in a similar way. This applies primarily to the following plants, which also have similar site requirements as the wild garlic:

Even within wild garlic stands, these plants can be neighbors, creating a risk that should not be underestimated. Therefore, when collecting the leaves, you should regularly make an odor sample and grind pieces of leaves between the fins so that you can unambiguously identify the wild garlic with the intense, garlic-like odor.

Protect the stocks in the garden

The gathering of wild garlic in your own garden offers some protection against poisoning, as long as your garden is free from the poisonous double-pairs of wild garlic. In addition, wild garlic leaves from the garden with a sufficient fencing usually not burdened with the pathogens of the dangerous fox tapeworm. For the sake of safety, it does not hurt to rinse wild garlic leaves and flowers thoroughly with hot water before they are consumed raw. If you need dry wild garlic for further processing or for different storage methods, you can dab the harvested wild garlic leaves dry with a soft cloth or paper towel. It is important to conserve the stock of even young wild garlic stands in their own garden so that they can regenerate and spread further through independent propagation. Therefore always leave at least half of the leaves in one location, as these are essential for the energy balance of the plants and for the survival of the wild garlic bulbs for the next season. In addition, if you allow some plants to flower, you can sometimes benefit from self-seed sowing.

The usable plant parts of wild garlic

Basically, all parts of the plant are non-toxic in the wild garlic and therefore can also be used for raw or cooked food. Since the flowers often have a particularly intense taste, their consumption is a matter of taste.A delicacy can be made from the still unopened buds of wild garlic, if you harvest them in time in March or April. Pickle them like capers to enjoy a tasty garlic-flavored garnish after a few weeks of ripening.

The right time to harvest wild garlic: when to pick?

Basically, the taste of the leaves in March and April of a pleasant intensity, especially in the fresh green, young leaves. Although the later increasingly intense flavor migrates from the leaves of the leaves in the wild garlic flowers, but the leaves are then increasingly fibrous and thus less suitable for consumption. In addition, you should wait for a dry drying phase for the crop even with a planned drying of the leaves for storage. Sufficiently moisturized plants have a better and more intense wild garlic taste than nearly dried out specimens.

Keep wild garlic fresh after harvesting

Since the wild garlic starts to wilt very quickly after picking, it should be freshly processed within a few days. So that the leaves do not dry out during transport, they should be wrapped with a damp cloth and thus protected from drying out. The transport in an inflated freezer bag with a few drops of water not only keeps the bear's garlic leaves fresh, but also protects the sensitive leaves from injury through compression. Even when stored in the refrigerator, damp cloths or a moisture-wicking bag can extend shelf life by a day or two. In addition, the airtight storage of wild garlic in the refrigerator also prevents you from going over the intense smell of other foods. Since the wild garlic loses much of its fine aroma on drying, you should better freeze any left over from collecting.

The different uses of wild garlic in the kitchen

Immediately after picking the wild garlic can be processed into the following intermediates, to extend the shelf life at the same time:

Examples of dishes prepared directly from fresh wild garlic include:

Tips & Tricks

When harvesting wild garlic in the wild, you should choose locations where contamination with dog waste or similar contaminants can be ruled out. Nevertheless, due to the fox tapeworm a thorough cleaning of the picked leaves before raw consumption is strongly advised.