I am so excited, March - September is known for sightings of common hogweed (or Heracleum sphondylium to give it it's horticultural name) and that means one thing - veg foraging🌱!
We have been out enjoying the mixed weather that we are famous for and this stuff is peeking again and it's a regular staple vegetable in our home each year.
Is common hogweed a vegetable and why should I add it to my foraging checklist?
Yes it's a free VEGETABLE! You just got to learn about it!
A vegetable is defined as 'a plant used as food', and we are waltzing past it on the regular at the moment, which to my mind is like walking past a top end chocolate fruiting tree but it's packaged, or not packaged (however you want to look at it!), slightly different to veg in a shop so folks leave it be!
What's not to love about it?
☆ Common hogweed has a delicate but unique flavour!
☆ It's free!
☆ It is healthy, full of goodness and incorporates exercise to get it!
☆ Common hogweed has a decent long season from the infantile shoots through to the buds then flowers, then seeds, all of which are delicious...(go steady on the seeds they are sooo much more pungent than the greens!)
You can even eat the roots too but remember to get the landowners permission to dig it up.
The kids and I enjoy this plant every year and are lucky that it grows so readily here in the Northamptonshire countryside.
I'm so glad you helped me discover Hogweed. It is now a regular treat to see on walks and to get home and into the pan.