Make pickled wild garlic buds
Wild garlic season only lasts for a few months, but this pickled wild garlic bud recipe allows you to preserve the incredible flavour for a little bit longer. The pickled wild garlic buds make a great addition to salads, pasta dishes and pizza. It’s a really easy recipe and a great way for children to get involved in foraging for food.
What you will need:
1 cup of wild garlic flower buds
Jam jar
150ml vinegar - I used apple cider vinegar but you can choose your own favourite or whatever you have to hand (though malt vinegar and balsamic vinegar would be too strongly flavoured for this recipe).
100ml water
50g sugar
1 tsp pink peppercorns (If you don't have pink peppercorns you could try other spices or herbs such as black or white peppercorns, mustard seeds, fennel, chilli, ginger, coriander seeds, cloves, juniper, bay leaf or lemon zest.)
1 tsp salt
What you need to do:
First you’ll need to collect your wild garlic buds. I’ve written about how to identify and pick wild garlic in this wild garlic butter blog post. You might find some patches of wild garlic are already in full flower but you should still find lots in bud in shadier places or if you look nestled between the leaves.
Remember to forage responsibly by taking only as much as you need and leave some of the garlic buds from each plant to flower.
You may find that the buds start to open even after picking but they can still be used and look really pretty amongst salad leaves.
Before pickling the wild garlic buds, you’ll need to sterilise the jar in which you will be storing the pickled buds. This can be done on a hot cycle in a dishwasher or by placing it in an oven at 100ºC for thirty minutes.
Wash your wild garlic buds in a bowl of cold water and then gently pat dry with a clean tea towel.
Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
Add your pink peppercorns (or other spices) and then leave to cool.
Pack the wild garlic buds tightly into your jar leaving 1cm or so at the top and then pour the cooled pickling liquid over the buds.
Press the pods down with a spoon and top up with some more pickling liquid if needed.
Put the lid on and place the jar in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks to let the flower buds pickle.
Open and enjoy the pickled wild garlic buds in salads, on pizzas or pasta, or straight out of the jar! I love to eat them with fresh baked bread and houmous.
Once you open them, your pickled wild garlic buds will last for quite a few months in the fridge but they are best eaten within a couple of weeks.
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys