I really need to catch up on the beautiful photos which the challengers have sent me this week! Tomorrow, I’ll work through them all and add more to a post. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster week but now I’m back in Amsterdam and can happily reflect on good times spent with my family.

Chepstow has a VERY old castle (1067, so my Dad tells me) and around it grow a lot of beautiful plants. Stinging nettles and wild garlic are the two edible show stoppers around the castle and dell, but there are dozens of other tasty plants. Alkanet and Veronica are growing amongst the cow parsley here.

Walking through the town, I found Lime trees with leaves almost begging to be nibbled, brambles offering fresh new growth and this perky patch of Pellitory of the wall. I’m always very pleased to find this herb. It does like the protection of walls and it can offer a lot of benefits as well as taste. Best known to me is its talent for nourishing the urinary system. I stumble into Pellitory in the older parts of Amsterdam but Park Frankendael is home to a massive colonie of its cousin,  Pensylvania pellitory. I’ve found it to be very useful too but it has an infortunate reputation in some areas due to its synchronised emissions of pollen. Pensylvania pellitory looks very similar to its cousin but lacks any redness and had an air of glassiness (and it’s conveniently called Glaskruid in Dutch).

I’ve been in the UK with my family hence no day 19. Here are a few green momentos from the trip…

Above,  a handsome Yew tree.

What things this beautiful tree must have witnessed over the years and what quiet comfort it offers to those who gaze upon it. May it continue to do so for millennia to come.

Next, Stinging nettles with tasty nutty seeds hanging – already. Offerer of protection, strength and vigor.

And lastly,  a small symbol which happily catapults me back in time:

Formed from the red clay of north Bristol; so thick, staining and pure that it can be scooped out of the ground with bare hands, then moulded and baked. Real sticky clay. This brick is from the house where I grew up in Nowhere (a tiny in between place, now part of Stoke Gifford).  I’ve always found it wonderful for houses to be made from the land on which they stand.

My first foraging experiences were around that house and oh how I enjoyed them! Plums, gooseberries, blackberries, lupins, marrows, willows and lilac. Their scent and flavour come back in a flash and yes, lupins are poisonous.  Faithful dogs, hungry goats, rabbits and grazing cows… Lying in sunny fields of moon daisies and poppies, reading poetry, biology and Laurie Lee. Snow drifts, baths by the fire and a cold leaking roof. Buried conch shells, old farm machinery, half dry brooks, skeletons,  deep wells, roman treasure and music…

Oh how fortunate a childhood I had!

Today had been a travelling day for me but I have seen some tasty plants on my route.

At Station Zuid in Amsterdam some thoughtful edible Lady’s mantle in a council flower bed.

And near Beethovenstraat, one of my favourites – Alkanet with those pretty blue flowers alongside Greater celandine.

Another lovely day and lots of gardening so plenty of finds. My favourite being a patch of wild garlic,  only just showing flower buds.

This morning I was gardening at my volkstuin and there lots of delicious edible plants there. Here are a few…

Russian comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum).

Herb Robert (Geranium robertum)

Yellow deadnettle (Lamium galeobdolon)

More lovely photos today…

From Ann in Spain, beautiful flowers which look rather like a type of lily or Allium. Not seeing the whole plant, the flower could belong to a sort of Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum angustifolium). It also looks almost like Allium molly but white rather than yellow…

And here a beautiful plant which could be a type of chives or a small scabious (Scabiosa columbaria). Those leaves look too slender for scabious.. Very pretty, whatever it is.

And from Hannah, at the Dutch dunes, a Celery family plant and a mallow. Alexanders are my favourite from the celery family.

And I found lots of Dutch spring snow as I walked to work today – the seeds of Elm trees (Ulmus), on Beethovenstraat. Not a place to forage from but I’ll find this falling in clean places over the next few weeks.

Carlijn in Amsterdam has been busy. She is posting her 30 day challenge finds on Instagram – have a look here if you have time – some gorgeous photos.

More tomorrow, when we will be half way through the challenge…

Today I took a stroll in the Vondelpark and found lots of beautiful plants. Here is a little cluster of comfrey (white and purple flowers), stinging nettle,  purple deadnettle and at the back, ground elder. Each one a useful plant but in a place where thousands of people should have the chance to see them and wildlife needs those plants far more than us.

Hannah has been sketching stinging nettle and comfrey whilst on holiday:

Peter has been finding Coltsfoot going to seed,

Guelder rose and some interesting litter which I’ll show another time.

Walking home from swimming on this day 12, I found a pavement garden containing some rather well cared for stinging nettles. No picking from that spot but I did weed some out from the beautiful Tuin van Darwin this morning whilst being shown around the gardens. Those beauties are heading for a nettle omelet and smoothie tomorrow.

I can’t eat enough nettles in April – they are on the menu in myhome 3 times a day! By early May, my appetite is waning for them but I still feel the need once or twice a week. Stinging nettle contains a high proportion of protein, compared with other plants. And an impressive assortment of minerals (iron being the most associated with nettle). I greatly enjoy eating them wilted in a splash of olive oil and water, in omelets,  in drinks,  in anything really – so long as the stings are wilted. The ways to eat this plant are endless and it is possible to harvest without being stung. Nettle also plays host to many insects,  notably butterflies.  So although I could eat them all,  I eat only the succulent tops of a scarce few plants from each swathe that is found.

Now some photos from the most active challenger:

Peter in Belfast had been finding Herb Robert, a very special geranium species.

It has really seeded all over the place from hillside to valley,  countryside to city.

A stunning and strongly scented plant which usually goes unnoticed but has a lot to teach us.

A pleasant walk into work this morning, yeidled a few nice edible finds in Oud Zuid. Here are my two favourites:

Wormwood (Artemisia absinthum) gracing a lamppost near Apollo house. A classy spot for a classy herb and a nationally endangered one at that!  I had to supress the urge to pull this up and replant it safely at school. It’s sure to be obliterated by the council strimmers within weeks and yet the size shows that it is a couple of years old. Perhaps the strimmer guys like it too or perhaps it’s just a strong perennial which bounces back after twice yearly strimming?

I’ll watch it with interest over the coming weeks.

Then a sturdy hollyhock, building strength against a rubbish bin. Hollyhock should be the municipal plant of Amsterdam – it is really part of the landscape on every street.

And on my walk home through Jeruzalem, a variegated ground elder (zevenblad)! Very pretty and very invasive. This fills a few of the gardens along one street.

Thanks for the challenger photos which have arrived this evening. I’ll add more tomorrow.