What a pleasure it has been to watch the emerging of the Hawthorn leaves this month. The trees I am observing for the Tree of the Year project were a little behind their more sheltered relatives but now they too have begun to burst into life.
Over the past couple of weeks they have been slowly opening out of their protective buds and are now adorning the escarpment and hedgerows with the fresh green vibrancy of spring.
At this time they are just perfect for adding to spring salads as they are still very tender and delicious, as spring wears on the leaves become too tough to be enjoyable. In olden days they were referred to as ‘bread and cheese’ because they were such a staple of country diets and were often added to a cheese sandwich!
In this salad I combined them with finely sliced wild garlic-mustard, sorrel leaves, dandelion leaves and handful of chickweed. Adding chopped almonds and seeds with a dressing of cleavers infused vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil made this a lovely side dish.
Sounds wonderful Lucinda. I use virgin hawthorn leaves in salad. I believe they are good for the heart.
I will try your mix as I have all the leaves you mention in the garden.
Tku for feeding my imagination…….
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Thanks Cheryl,
Yes the leaves, blossoms and berries are all good for the heart, a wonderful tree indeed.
Hope you enjoy the salad x
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I will be checking me if I get a chance this Friday! Thank you for the inspiring idea for the buds, Lucinda:) I will let you know!! xx
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Dylan and I had a chance to go check our hawthorns yesterday. Still nary a sign of a bud yet:( But it is still super early in our spring, and I have faith I will see them soon:) xx
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I’m sure they’ll be ready to harvest soon. I’ll be excited to hear about it when you do! x
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Your pictures are so fantastic! I especially love the one showing all the leaflets coming out with the maze of branches weaving behind. So lovely! I think you should open a gallery as I would gladly fill my house with your prints 🙂
Your salad sounds so nourishing and revitalizing – full of all that spring goodness. I wonder if the first leaves of other rose family trees are edible? I don’t have any hawthorns around me if you can believe it (so sad) so I might try some apple buds when they start to unfold and see what I think 🙂
Glad to see that spring is blooming so beautifully there!
D
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Oo thank you, I’d like to put together a little gallery of drawings and photos… one day it shall come to pass. 🙂
I’m not sure about other rose family species, the ones we have in proliferation around here are bramble, blackthorn and wild rose… none of which I imagine would be very palatable and are probably pretty astringent though I will have to try a little nibble now to see. Apple sounds like a good bet, I’ll dig through my wild food books and see if I come across any info.
xxx
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Where to buy hawthorn tree .please.
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