iii: Of Weeds & Weans
Spring buds, summer flowers Joseph Nolan It’s flower season in Scotland, and really, who doesn’t love flowers? On a recent sunny day, sitting outside munching flowers with my little Garden Spright took me back some decades, to sunny days munching flowers in the school’s playing fields with my friends. It was an experience that needed sharing. So, this month we are talking flowers and how to enjoy them with your own garden sprights. Many of the flowers out just now are edible. They are tasty, and can be eaten as is, or easily made into some kind of food. These are all very wellknown plants, and exceptionally easy to identify— but please make absolutely sure that you have identified your flower correctly before continuing. My personal test is: given the stakes, am I confident enough in my own judgment to feed this to my child? And pause a moment to consider, because ‘I’m sure it will be fine’ doesn’t cut it here. Look it up if you have the merest hint of doubt. Honeysuckle In the school’s playing fields where we had recess when I was a boy, there was a section of fence covered by a twining, winding, unkempt clump of Lonicera ssp. (Honeysuckle), which sported white and orange flowers. Several of us would stand together, carefully picking the flowers and tasting the nectar, like something borrowed from the bees, or fairyland. Honeysuckle wine is traditional but, really, the best way to enjoy the flavour must be straight off the plant. Stick to the flowers though, because the rest of it— leaves, stems, berries
—contains detergent-like saponins that will cause mouth irritation, vomiting, and diarrhoea. Don’t let that put you off, though: The Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a relative of the lethal Atropa belladonna (Deadly Nightshade); Apple pips (Malus domestica) contain a surprising quantity of cyanide, and Mango trees (Mangifera indica) share the potential irritant qualities of their close relative Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy). Every Rose must have its thorns. For Honeysuckle, this is the way I know to do it: Carefully pick a wholesome looking flower (best if you can get the little nub of green still attached to the bottom of the long corolla). Very carefully—and little fingers are better for this —nip the bottom of the corolla with your fingernail, so the green nub comes away but remains attached to pistil. (If you happen to nip the bottom completely off the corolla, you can try to nip it again with some possibility of success, or just suck the nectar through anyway. Not totally satisfactory, but it will do.) The pistil is the long, thin, white string running through the corolla, from the green nub up through the tube, terminating in a tiny bulbous end about the size of a poppyseed. Next, gently pull the green nub, drawing the pistil through the corolla so it collects the nectar inside the narrow tube. When the pistil pulls through, there should be a small drop of nectar clinging to the end. This is the object of the exercise. Put the string carefully in your mouth to get the liquid. Savour. Then, gently suck
