The short wild-garlic season is underway. From salads to sauces and soups, here’s how to get the best from the bulb’s less pungent cousin
Wild garlic usually begins proliferating, in veg boxes, at farmers’ markets and on the forest floor, from now until the start of June – not so much a season as a brief window of opportunity. This year, it is reported to have come earlier than usual – which means it will be gone again before you know it.
Wild garlic – AKA ramsons, or ramps, or bear’s garlic – is expensive to buy but free to forage. It grows in dense green carpets, if you know where to look. But you also want to make sure you’re picking the right thing: the leaves of wild garlic are easily mistaken for lily of the valley, which is more poisonous than it sounds, and also dog’s mercury, which is about as poisonous. Neither of these smell or taste like garlic (dog’s mercury apparently smells foul) so it should be easy to distinguish, but they tend to grow in the same shady spots. If you’re not careful, you may gather up a few stray leaves of the wrong sort.
