GARDENING and food have always been inextricably entwined. At one point nature provided mankind with his entire nutritional supplies, so man moved and made his home near the most productive sources.

In certain parts of the world, whole communities still remain nomadically dependent on plant produce. In other places though, we learned how to tame and manipulate nature, and became farmers. We didn't have to go foraging and waste time and energy searching for the edible bits amongst the weeds and scrub. It was all grown en masse, making it easy to cultivate and harvest.

So, I guess this is where we narrowed down the number of different plant stuffs that we used to eat and concentrated on certain popular and easy-to-farm foods. Over the years, though, we have lost our foraging instincts and forgotten much of what we can and can't eat in its wild form.

The combination of trend-setting gardening and modern cookery programmes may be starting to re-educate our commercialised tastebuds. The supermarket shelves are beginning to stock packets of different types of salads, some of which include "weeds and wild leaves". Most of us now know about rocket, lollo rosso and watercress. Some of us have even tried dandelion and chicory, but there is an even bigger range of less well-known leaves (for culinary purposes anyway) that we have growing in our gardens that could liven up the dinner plate, if not the conversation around the table.

One of these is just budding up in the hedgerows, ready to clothe the roadside in the happy green of spring. Hawthorn used to be known as "bread-and-cheese". This was not for the way it tasted - it tastes nothing like bread and cheese - but more a metaphor for its basic food value. In fact, the young leaves have a rather nutty taste and make a pleasant addition to any salad. In days gone by, the leaves were pushed into suet pastry, along with strips of bacon, and made into a savoury pudding.

Beech leaves, as well as adorning the woodlands with translucent, pea-green jewels, have a mild sweet cabbage taste. They are soft and silky in the mouth and altogether much wasted in not being used more frequently in cooking.

The most common, and probably the most useful of the wild edible plants, has to be the stinging nettle. They were actually cultivated in the 18th century for use as food, as well as for making fibre and cloth from the stalk pulp. In the Second World War hundreds of tons were gathered for the extraction of dyes for camouflage netting and they have long been known as a cure for, or reliever of the worst symptoms of, arthritis.

Nettles should not be picked for eating after the beginning of June as the leaves become coarse, bitter and can act as a strong laxative.

The best time to pick them is when the shoots are no more than a few inches high, when they can be used as a substitute for any green vegetable. They also make a good wine, beer and cleansing tea.

So, next time someone frowns at the small patch of nettles by your back fence, moans about an over-abundance of chickweed in the borders, or complains that the dandelions are taking over your garden, just tell them that you are actually cultivating them for the pot.

JOBS THIS WEEK

WHEN the new buds are becoming evident on the roses, it is a good time to start pruning them.

Leave it any longer and the spring growth will be well underway. Start by removing dead or diseased branches. Take out any that are rubbing and finally shape it up.

CLIMBERS will be putting on a lot of growth in the next few months.

Mend or replace any supports that will be needed in order to keep them contained or looking good.

REDUCE the size of any overgrown rubber plants.

Simply cut off the top and insert them in some fresh compost. They will soon take off as new plants. You can also cut down the stem, and lay this in two inch sections in a fibrous compost.

New growth will come from nodal joints.

POSTSCRIPT

Brigid presents 'Ask about Gardening' every Sunday from 12-2pm on BBC Radio Cleveland 95FM.

Published:06/03/2004