Wild Garlic is one of our most popular foraged ingredients, probably beacuase it is generally recognised and therefore considered "safe"

Personally I have a particular affection for Wild Garlic (or Ransomes) 1. Because it tastes amazing and 2. Because its the first foraged ingredient of the new season.

Wild Garlic is usually identified by that heady early summer smell which wafts through woodland on the light breeze, but by then the flowers are out and the best of the season is long gone. For our purposes we want the leaves when the are young and tender, just poking out of the ground.

We tend to do our picking in late Feb or Early March is areas of damp woodland, just before the leaf canopy develops and blocks out the sunlight. Picking is a bit of a back breaking task with each leaf being plucked individually and then carefull washed. At the time the smell isnt too strong, but try carrying a few carrier bags full in the back of the car and the odour will still be there two weeks later.

We do use Wild Garlic in Wild Garlic and Carrot Chutney but this year we decided to focus on the ever popular Wild Garlic Vinegar, a simple infusion of Wild garlic in Cider Vinegar which offers an amazing tang to and meats or salads.

More than anything, Wild Garlic Vinegar calls for patience. You take a half empty container of cider vinegar and then stuff as much Wild Garlic in as it will contain - then leave it. Within a week the leaves will have dropped into the vinegar and then over the next six to eight weeks the succulent fronds will be infusing the flavour into the vinegar.

Then its time for bottling. Drain off the vinegar and seive through two layers of muslin to catch the worst of the leaf residue. Then filter through coffee percolator paper filters to leave the infused vineger a lovely clear yellow. There is a surprising quantity of brown sediment so you will have to change your filter paper quite regularly, and even then the trickle often becomes a drip and then stops altogether.

Finally bottle the end result in sterilised glass jars and seal, the heady first taste of spring captured for your use all year long.