In preparation for an Art of the Playful Forager talk I am doing for the Devon Wildlife Trust in Barnstaple tomorrow I thought I better make something to nibble during the break.
Hogweed (Heraculum sphondylium) seems to flower almost all year down here in the south west of England, and like many of it’s family has aromatic seeds perfect for flavouring our cooking. My son Maali and I gathered some seeds from just along the footpath outside our home. On the green flowering stems we noticed there were many small flies on the flowers and each ‘landing pad umberella’ had a larger hoverfly on it, guarding it’s feeding station from other hoverflies.
There was still some corn in the field so Maali wanted to grind up some of that for the biscuits too! We tried, but were not able to get the fine powder they do at the mill. The hogweed seeds we bashed in the pestle and mortar, then sieved the resulting powder from the husks.
I decided to try making the biscuits with very finely chopped dates instead of sugar, rubbing the dates, flour and butter altogether by hand before rolling the dough out into a sausage to chill overnight in the fridge.
This morning we sliced up the biscuit sausage and baked the biscuits at 170 degrees c for about 15 mins. After cooling I enjoyed mine with a cup of earl grey. I better save some for tomorrow!
