Wild garlic

I wasn't even looking for anything edible, but wild garlic en masse is hard to miss. It's the broad leaves, the pungent whiff, and depending when you catch it, the starry white flowers. I haven't done any foraging since last autumn's blackberries, so my excitement was considerable.

Wild garlic is one of those plants that is locally abundant but you may not be able to find it for miles around. It likes damp and wooded conditions, often near a stream. I spotted it near Box Hill in Surrey and then, even more copiously, near Arundel in Sussex the very next day.

Like nettles, it seems to be fashionable at the moment. I use the leaves like a garlicky spinach (the bulb root is not worth bothering with, and anyway, you shouldn't uproot a wild plant) and the flowers as a garnish. Tonight's dinner was pizza with ricotta, portobello mushrooms and wilted garlic leaves: delicious. But I also love a few wilted leaves in a cheese omelette, or in a risotto (perhaps with mushrooms again).  I have used it instead of basil in a pesto, but that's definitely one for garlic-lovers only.

Warning: it is exceedingly pungent raw, although little finely chopped into a salad may be no bad thing.