Category Archives: Wild herbs

365 Frankendael day 33

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I don’t think a real Herbology session would be complete without at least a mention of frogs or toads and today I had great fun listening to mating frogs in a pond within Park Frankendael. No uses for these as they look and sound so great where they are, alive, kicking and trying so hard to make tadpoles, in the water.

Endangered Hoary plantain (Plantago media) in flower. I am so pleased to see this plant in the same location, a year on from first noticing it in the park. This year there are two plants instead of just one. I really hope it will reproduce unhindered this summer. Seeing it up close and in the proximity of Plantago major and Plantago lanceolata makes it easy to see why it was named P. media. The leaves are really about midway between the widths of the other two species.

Bistort is a herb I dont use much but I found this plant which looks very similar in the park. There are several patches growing well, near Frankendael Huis and it is in the labelled herb garden. Will have to do some more investigation to check the identiy.

I also found a huge patch of well hidden nettles in a shady place which doesn’t get as many visitors as other quarters of the park. Probably a good spot for harvesting the tops.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) worth a mention today for its array of self help medicinal uses and high vitamin and mineral content. It is neglected by many (including myself) through the summer months as there is so much edible plant life to choose from. But come midwinter most foragers will be pleased to add this to a plate. At midsummer chickweed won’t be visible anymore. It will then return after the hight of summer, when this season’s seeds start to germinate. Chickweed is big and delicious at this time of year. I’ll try to take a better photo of it tomorrow.

Lovely Pelargonium foliage.

Walnut foliage. Perhaps there is a tree near you. Have a look at Boskoi or similar apps and maps perhaps.

Cats Tail (Typha spp.) Not Bull rushes but yes, edible. I mentioned these a while ago when I spotted them on another edge of the park on day 17. All parts can help make a feast but why bother when you don’t know the water quality and they do look so stunning for everyone in town to enjoy.

Lastly, a statue close to the old Frankendael house. Beautiful flowering carrot family flowers and stinging nettles at its feet.

I’m looking forward to Claud Biemans joining me in the park tomorrow. She’s going to help me identify a couple of herbs which I have no clue about, but which smell amazing and are surely worthy of some attention.

Wild Herb Pasta

Food, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , , ,


If you enjoy making fresh pasta and would like to inject some herbal magic into your creations, this recipe may interest you. Fresh herb leaves are blended through the pasta as it is repeatedly rolled in a pasta machine.

I heard about incorporating basil in this way from a colleague, who’d been to an Italian cooking workshop. I’ve made pasta with nettle juice before but find that quite a slow process so I thought I’d try it this way but incorporating some unusual foraged and pot grown herbs.

This method is very easy, it just takes a little more time than regular pasta making. I’ve no idea if this is how the Italian workshop prescribed it but this way certainly works and produces very herby pasta!

If you don’t know how to make pasta I recommend Jamie Oliver’s method. It’s very simple and works for me everytime:

A. Basically fork 4 eggs into 400g of tipo00 flour.
B. Do what you can with the fork then knead it thoroughly with your hands.
C. Wrap in clingfilm, or similar and refrigerate for 2 hours or so.

Whilst it settles in the fridge, get foraging! I used garlic mustard, basil, ground elder and parsley when I took these photos. Use what you have available. Curley Parsley was a challenge to incorporate but it eventually broke down well and tasted great. The other herbs broke down very quickly. Obviously, use herbs which are safe for you and your guests. Basil for instance is often avoided by pregnant women. A small quantity is unlikely to harm but be aware that even seemingly innocuous culinary herbs, can be very potent.

Now, how to incorporate the herbs…

1. As you progressively roll your pasta dough in the usual way, through a pasta machine, or by hand with a rolling pin, simply lay a few herb leaves down the middle of the pasta sheet.

2. Fold over the two sides to cover the herbs.

3. Continue running the dough through the increasingly narrow pasta machine. Each run through, will break down the herbs. Eventually tiny fragments will be distributed throughout the entire pasta sheet – it’s quite extraordinary to watch it happen!

4. Keep going until the pasta dough is as thin a you like and cut or process it as you wish.

I always make heaps of pasta (6 eggs, 600g flour), we then eat a hearty pasta meal and freeze the rest in portion sized containers, when still fresh and just dry enough to handle.

Herb by Herb – Part 2 – Ribwort

Alchemy, Wild herbs, , , , , , ,

Once a month a chance to learn in detail about a different common urban herb from either Jennie (who I run the meetup group with) or me, Lynn.

Part two is about Ribwort (Plantago lanceolata). An amazingly simple looking plant, found right under your feet, with a multitude of uses. It’s a great herb to cut your teeth on, regarding how to make an infusion, poultice, infused oil and ointment. I will take this session in Park Frankendael near the New Moon in July 2012. 12.00 – 13.30.

In this short and sweet field workshop, you will make all of those things and learn about the properties, habitat, folk and medicinal history and up to date uses of the plant. You will take home a bag full of little herbal preparations and knowledge of how to do it time and time again with everyday materials.

We will try to run each monthly Herb by Herb workshop near the New Moon and the days of the week will vary. You are welcome to attend all, some or none of the series! Most materials will be provided. You’ll need to bring along a small pair of scissors, perhaps a flask of hot water and 2 small and clean glass jars (such as 90ml pesto jars).
Cost of the workshop is €10.

Please contact me by email (lynn.shore@gmail.com) or through the meetup group if you are interested in joining this workshop.

365 Frankendael day 32

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Shrubs, Wild herbs, , , , , ,


Today a lovely elderflower on the Hugo de Vrieslaan edge of the park. There are Elder shrubs all over the city and now is the time to covet those in the cleanest spots. Each day for the next couple of weeks elder blossoms will burst open, inviting local insects to do their thing and foragers and herbalists to get harvesting! You only need a flower head or two to make a great addition to a meal. As I have mentioned recently, only seven flower heads are required for a hearty quantity of Elderflower Champagne. So if you want to pick elder flower, be nice, thi about how many you really need and spread your harvest between healthy well flowered shrubs. In years gone by, Elderflower lovers would know which local Elders yielded the sweetest flowers. These days I think it’s more a matter of where there are healthy shrubs in the least polluted areas. I’ll certainly be out and about in clean spots, with my paper bag and scissors, over the next few weeks.

It is possible to confuse Elderblossom with other flowers (such as distastful and smelly Ash blossom). Look closely at the photo here (which is deliberately large) and others in good guide books. Notice the way the inner male parts (stamens loaded with pollen) of the tiny flowers protrude between the petals. Notice the colors of the parts of the flowers. Elder blossom is a creamy white, not a stark white. The flower heads are flat, aligning themselves to attract insects the best they can. Learn the shape of the shrub. It is often a messy shape, with areas where quite brittle branches have stapped off. Elder can be enormous, like those against buildings and at other times can hug the ground where they constantly fight their way back from repeated attempts to prune them to death. Be nice to Your local Elders this foraging season. Get to know This herbal medicine chest and in time, it may become a good friend. See the comment about Elder on 365 day 20 for several useful Elder links.

Here’s my favourite Frankendael bus stop clump of mugwort again; still growing, still no flowers, still dreaming.

And finally today, a pretty Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) plant. Also from the edge of the park. Green Alkanet is a lovely plant with many uses. It is edible and medicinal.

365 Frankendael day 31

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Trees, Wild herbs, , , , , , , , , ,

What lovely people I met today, on my first guided herb walk of this year. We looked at lots of lovely and useful herbs. I’ll post a few photos taken by the others when they reach me.

In the meantime here’s a Frankendael Lime leaf photo which I took yesterday, for those who didn’t get to pick one to keep with their handouts. This is a perfect time to harvest a few healthy, non sticky leaves and enjoy them between slices of bread.

After the walk today, I also spotted Salad Burnet (Sanguisorba minor NL: Kleine pimpernel), poking it’s flower stalk up in a grassland area of the park. In my photograph there is also a ribwort to the left, with a completely different flower stalk. Salad burnet is a useful but endangered plant in the Netherlands so completely out of bounds to foragers and herbalists alike. I feel very priveledged to have seen it today. I hope to be able to take a better photograph of this plant soon. I mentioned to some people to day, the useful website called Bioimages.Org.uk where you can search for images of plants and animals to help with identification. Here’s a link to their photos of Salad Burnet. It seems like a good resource but of course never forget your field guide!

Also plenty of healing Ribwort, in the same area, with it’s long slender leaves and unusual dull coloured flower at the end of a long stalk.

Here’s a pretty tree pit from the same patch, full of a tiny flowered Cranesbill, Ribwort, Horsetail and a non edible Chrysanthemum, all mixed together by fortunate chance.

365 Frankendael day 30

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In just a 1 meter square patch of land, on the outer edge of park Frankendael, I found all these useful herbs today…

Medicinal Comfrey (Symphytum uplandica):

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and Ground Elder (Aegopodium podograria) growing amongst each other:

Also, Burdock (Arctium lappa)

Poisonous member of the Carrot family, Hemlock (Conium maculatum):

Notice how similar it looks to Chervil. It has a smooth stem and leaves. It smells a little unpleasant and has notable purple staining on the stem. This is not a plant to be handled or foraged at all! This plant was used in ancient Geek executions, including that of Socrates. The Latin name means to whirl, pertaining to one of the symptoms of hemlock poisoning, vertigo. This plant is deadly poisonous and I show it here as so many foragers are keen to find plants such as wild carrot. It is very easy to confuse members of the family, especially those with finely divided leaves such a hemlock, carrot and sweet cicely
.
Lastly another beauty which is not helpful to foragers. A Labrador delivering a little fertilizer to that interesting 1m square patch of park edge!

365 Frankendael day 29

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Perennial herbs, Shrubs, Wild herbs, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hop (Humulus lupulus – what a latin name!) is entwined about a meter up last year’s dead stems today and looks far healthier and more vigorous than any cultivated Hop plant I have seen. I am really looking forward to seeing whether or not its flowers are as impressive.

Mugwort is growing beautifully on wasteland near a Frankendael bus stop. It is helpfully showing the silver underside of a few leaves in the breeze.

This member of the Hawthorn species reminds us clearly that Hawthorns are members of the Rose family.

Valerian officinale is almost ready to flower in wetter areas of the park.


And Agrimony plants are making themselves more obvious is some drier sunny areas.

Also today, towering Pink Purslane (Montia sibirica) is in flower. It looks similar in structure to Winter purslane (Montia perfoliata, which is low growing and currently growing like crazy along the Centuurbaan fence of Sarphatipark. Often called Miner’s Lettuce it tastes great!) However, Pink Purslane is said to have a nasty acrid aftertaste and should be avoided by foragers. It’s such a beautiful flower at this time of year that it’s good to know it tastes bad!

365 Frankendael day 28

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , ,

Today, two new arrivals for 365 Frankendael…

Red clover is starting to bloom in the park. At least today is the first day I have noticed it. Unfortunately the huge clover area next to Restaurant de Kas was cleared for some purpose, this spring so that won’t be available for harvesting but it is present in many other places and is very easy to identify. The blossoms are harvested for most remedies and a red clover infusion is easy to make. The blossoms also dry well.

Koninginnenkruid in Dutch, Hemp Agrimony, in English, (Euphatorium cannabium) is an interesting herb which I have only really noticed here in the Amsterdam canals but it is also prolific elsewhere. It’s a very tall plant, up to about 1.5m at it’s peak in mid summer, bearing quite attractive fluffy looking pale pink flowers and leaves which are a little like those of hemp (hence the English name). It has numerous historic uses, ranging from preventing bread from going moldy, as an infusion to spring cleanse the body and prevent scurvy, to fight off colds and flu and my favourite… to help Dutch people who had jaundice accompanied by swollen feet.

However if you are suffering from such a complaint, think twice before racing off to a local patch of this herb. Hemp agrimony contains a highly volatile oil which has been found to stress the liver and even cause cancer so much caution is advised. Hemp Agrimony is considered toxic these days. The plant does smell quite pleasant when cut so this year I intend to try it in some home decorations. Here’s a patch growing beside still water in Park Frankendael. You can see the dried stems from last summer, towering above the new foliage and suggesting how tall this perennial will grow over the next few weeks.

Lastly, here’s Another pretty Wild Scented Geranium (Pelargonium sp.). This one is growing in a full sun position and looks quite different to the ones we looked at yesterday.

365 Fraendael day 27

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today, a lovely walk through the park with Lucile and the little ones. We each went home with a few leaves of Ground Elder and a little Ground Ivy. Plenty of other herbs in season though…

Here’s the foliage from a Wild Carrot! Not one to be dug up, though it would probably taste great. I hope to revisit it later in the year to double check it’s identity when it is in full bloom. Wild carrot has been used in folk medicine for centuries and has recently been researched by Robin Rose Bennett. It is often found to be quite a useful contraceptive. For more information on the research take a look at Robin’s website.

Here is Comfrey, still in full bloom and looking stately throughout the park and city.

Garlic Mustard leaves continue to grace many of my meals. The plants here are nearing the end of their flowering season but the foliage still tastes wonderful and only a leaf or two is needed to add a garlicky kick to regular meals.

Greater Celandine continues to flower. It’s stems remain loaded with bright orange sap which is freely released when a stem is broken. This sap, containing a substance which is acrid and highly irritant but has been used medicinally since at least the middle ages. Historically it was used, in preparations such as lard and milk, to cure piles, cataracts, severe scurvy and some forms of cancer. These days it is still a popular remedy, amongst those who know it, for warts, corns and ringworm. To use for these three ailments, simply break a stem and apply the fresh sap to only affected skin. It will irritate healthy skin. The Latin name of this plant means swallow (the bird) and this is said to be because the plant’s flowering season coincides with the arrival and departure of swallows. So hopefully there should be some time to go before the flowers of Greater Celandine disappear from Amsterdam again.

Cleavers are looking particularly lush and juicy at the moment, about 50 cm long on average. Perfect for harvesting a clean handful and juicing for a cleansing tonic.

Wild Geranium is also looking striking, producing a mass of small purple flowers in the woodland, at present.

365 Frankendael day 26

365 Frankendael, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , , ,

Ransoms and Garlic mustard are gradually fading and being replaced by other tasty plants. Here are a selection of today’s urban herbs in Amsterdam’s Frankendael Park.

Bugle (Ajuga reptans). Used to be known as the Carpenters herb because it is yet another plant with blood staunching abilities. It looks very similar to Sealheal but has small leaves throughout the flowers whereas Selfheal(which I am keen to find) has flowers all at the top of the stalk, without leaves between). It is a member of the mint family and has digestive uses and historic herbalists apparently used it for all manner of ailments.

Caution
I can’t find much about this from truly reliable sources but there are many Internet posts mentioning narcotic and hallucinogenic properties for pretty, evergreen Bugleweed. So perhaps you should do some research and make your own mind up on that one but it’s probably not a herb to experiment with in the family stew!

Willow. Here’s a lovely row of fast growing coppiced Salix, growing beside water at the Middenweg edge of the park.

Ground Elder (Aegopodium podograria) is growing bigger and bolder each day. I did notice a few flower heads developing on Groundelder today so now is the time to harvest if you are interested in foraging this plant. The leaves of this invasive, woodland loving perennial look quite similar to Elder and Ash tree foliage. It tastes really good and can be cooked as spinach. I noticed that my old copy of Food For Free only shows the flower of this foragers favorite. It is worth mentioning that foragers should only use such books as a source of inspiration. I use two detailed wild plant guides when identifying and getting know new plants. Foraging books are good for suggesting what to look for and how to use them.