Amalie, my main character in the children’s books I write, would have known how to forage, as finding, cooking, growing food were the primary tasks for everyone before supermarkets. She would have known from an early age which plants tasted good and which were poisonous. Perhaps she even cooked food using verbally handed-down recipes from her elders.
As part of my research and to get a flavour of her ancient life, I went foraging with an expert. We walked along an ancient lane which cars rarely use and where owners don’t take their dogs. It was a gorgeous day, the birds sang, the bees buzzed, and the sun shone.
Within a few metres, we found lots of different varieties of fresh spring greens. For our salad, we picked dandelion leaves, sow thistle, cleavers, plantain, dead nettle, wild marjoram, wild fennel and chickweed. To decorate, we picked violets, dead nettle flowers and daisies. So you can eat the daisies, the flowers at least.
After picking, we washed the leaves, took the stalks from the larger leaves and tossed the lot into a bowl, and sprinkled the flowers on top. We crunched our way through the salad and decided that it needed a dressing and thought a mix of honey, vinegar and oil would work.
Amalie and her family would have had access to the dressing ingredients, but we do not know whether Amalie or her family mixed a dressing as we did.
The mix of leaves tasted stronger than commercial greens and took longer to chew, but a dressing helped smooth the taste.
However, before you pick anything make sure you know what you’re doing or, like me, ask an expert.
Do you forage? Tell me about your favourite foraged food, as I’d love to hear from you.
Jacqueline P Vincent 
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