Wild food: beware of hemlock, nettle wine making

We camped out on an island on Lough Corrib the other day. There is a myth that Lough Corrib has 365 islands - one for each day of the year, but in reality there are probably over 1000 islands. Some are homes to huge heronries in spring and if you are lucky you might see something like this peaking at you from a nest:

This is a young black-crowned night heron from the BBC Wildlife magazine spring issue. Ireland has grey herons but they look just as scary as babies.

Islands are magical places especially on a rain-free spring evening.

While on this island I quickly tried to identify plants around me. I found nettles and water mint and then another plant that looked and smelled like celery or parsley. I had my Food for Free guide and I identified it as Alexanders - an edible herb similar to parsley. I was very close to tasting it, but then decided to research more. When we got home the following day I did a quick search and discovered that in fact I was close to eating the deadliest plant in Ireland -Hemlock Water Dropwort. A tiny amount can kill you in a few hours.

Apparently this plant was used in the ritual killings of elderly in the Phoenician Sardinia. People who were too old and could no longer take care of themselves "were intoxicated with the sardonic herb and then killed by dropping from a high rock or by beating to death". Fun fun fun. The plant is called "sardonic" because one of its side effect is so-called "sardonic grin" as it paralises face muscles. Oh dear...

And this case study describes how eight young adults on holiday in Scotland cooked a curry that included water dropwort roots. Of course it was all party time after a few hours when one in the group experienced a "grand mal seizure", whatever that felt like. Pure evil. 

So for now, I will stick to wild garlic and water mint because they are easy to identify.

Wild Garlic in the woods

Water mint growing on the shores of Lough Corrib

I've also gathered a lot of nettles to make nettle wine.

I used store-bought yeast this time, but wild fermentation works really well too if you want things to progress more naturally. One of my favourite books Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz is fantastic if you feel creative and would like to experiment a bit, make unusual but tasty food and rewild your gut.

At the moment I have mead, blackberry/apple, and banana/coffee wines during various stages of fermentation.

Safe foraging to you!

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